How Healthcare Policy Impact Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Profession

Week 7: APNs as Healthcare Policy Leaders
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Week 7: APNs as Healthcare Policy Leaders
How Healthcare Policy Impact APN Profession
The last couple of decades have seen the American healthcare system undergo significant policy changes to address challenges such as the prevalence of chronic diseases and rising costs. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 transformed the country’s healthcare system and, consequently, the APN profession, given its greater focus on patient outcomes. Healthcare policy at the state and organizational levels also shapes the APN profession. At the state level, regulatory agencies develop rules and regulations that affect nurses and how they deliver healthcare (DeNisco, 2021). In essence, healthcare policy significantly impacts the APN profession, and it is thus vital for nurses to understand relevant healthcare policy and participate in its development.
Healthcare policy can shape the profession's priorities by laying down what is expected of APNs. The enactment and implementation of ACA significantly shaped the priorities of APNs. With ACA increasing access to insurance coverage resulting in higher demand for healthcare (Brom et al., 2018), there was bound to be an inadequate nurse-to-patient ratio and nurses working long hours. ACA also placed pressure on healthcare organizations to improve their performances, which implies that the role of APNs in relation to patient interaction was elevated. In essence, national, state, and organizational policy changes shape the APN profession significantly.
Why Advocacy is Considered Essential
One of the essential components of the APN’s role is advocacy. In this sense, APNs have to participate in transforming healthcare through advocacy since the profession is rooted in concern for the emotional, social, and physical needs of the less fortunate members of society (Williams et al., 2018). Advanced practice nursing, therefore, has a responsibility to advocate for policies that improve the welfare of society, especially disadvantaged groups.
Advocacy is also considered essential in APN’s role since nurses are uniquely placed in the healthcare system as they act as a link between patients and other key stakeholders. As noted by DeNisco (2021), APNs not only have patient care experience but have also experienced the challenges that come with working in complex healthcare systems. In this case, the unique experiences APNs have within the healthcare sector place them in a good position to advocate for the needs of patients. Hughes et al. (2018) focus on clinical nurse specialists (CNS) who are APRNs that provide expert care with a key focus on population health. The authors point out that CNS majorly practice in acute care environments, and their responsibilities include assessment, diagnosis, and management of patient problems (Hughes et al., 2018). In this case, such APRNs have unique experiences within the healthcare system that make them invaluable in advocating for the needs of the patient. As Hughes et al. (2018) put it, inherent in their role is serving as an advocate.