Evolving Practices Informal Presentation

Evolving Practices
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Evolving Practices
Informal Presentation
Nurses play a crucial role in delivering quality care to patients and thus influence patient outcomes. However, today, with the integration of technological innovations into the practice of nursing, there are expectations that the field of nursing will change and grow. Healthcare delivery continues to change as patients continue to demand better care. So, as these demands continue to increase so does the medical field, especially nursing. Some of the areas that are expected to happen are with regards to the accountable care organizations (ACO), the continuity or continuum of care, medical homes initiative, and nurse-managed health clinics.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services defines ACOs as “a group of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients.” The goal of this program or initiative is to ensure that patients get proper care at the right time while also seeking to avoid medical errors as well as the duplication of care and services offered. Well, the idea of ACOs has sparked debates over the years but with patients’ demands and expectations rising, ACOs are expected to become commonplace. Slowly, the focus is turning towards patients and hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare providers are expected to enhance their efforts of offering care to their patients. The role of nurses is thus expected to grow as they will be required to grow closer to patients and ensure that ACOs are running effectively.
Aside from ACOs, the other area that is expected to grow influence and change the field of nursing concerns the continuity or continuum of care. The Sentinel Watch defines it as “a patient-oriented system of care that spans an entire lifetime, is composed of both services and integrating mechanisms, and guides and tracks patients over time through a comprehensive array of health, mental health, and social services across all levels of intensity of care.” Like ACOs, this system of providing care to patients centers on patients alone and seeing that it requires or calls for tracking patients over time, the expectation is that nurses will be greatly involved. Initially, care was episodic meaning that it involved the treatment of patients with acute conditions without the necessity of following up. However, with the continuum of care system, care is offered during and after the treatment. The goal is to ensure that patients are taken care of and that any chances of a disease recurring are thwarted.
Aside from the two, medical homes are also another piece of development that will greatly shape the role of nursing in the coming years. Medical homes will change the provision of care towards a system that is patient-centered, team-based, focused on the safety of patients and appears to also emphasize the quality of care given. Medical homes continue to be accepted and are slowly becoming part of the conversation of what the future of the medical field holds for the nurses. As medical homes continue to become mainstream, the role of nurses will also change as more of them will be needed to ensure these homes are running as they should. The aim of medical homes is to achieve primary care excellence and to attain this, nurses will have to be involved. While explaining the idea of patient-centered medical homes, Tello (2017) notes that “the “home” does not refer to a place, but rather, to a model of care.” Nurses will be part of a team whose purpose will be to ensure that a patient is taken care of. Their role will not diminish but increase as they will have to become more involved in offering patient-centered care.
Finally, the nursing field is expected to grow and change because of the nurse-managed health clinics. Nurse-managed health clinics are health centers which aim to enhance care and health promotion to vulnerable patients. These include individuals who are under-insured, uninsured, as well as those who live in rural and urban communities. A majority of these individuals could be lacking proper care and it will be the job of the nurses to ensure that they are all taken care of and that they are educated on the proper ways of maintaining healthy lifestyles.
Summary of Feedbacks
Well, there were different responses to what I gave the nurses and the first one was an acknowledgement of the fact that change is indeed imminent. Heraclitus said that “change is the only constant in life” and to these nurses, it is the only constant that matters. The healthcare sector is changing with each passing day and it is the expectation of the nurses that their roles will indeed change as well. Their contribution ...