The ongoing changes in the healthcare delivery system have significantly influenced the workforce in the system of healthcare. The interviewee is Mr. Jones who has been working as a nurse for fifteen years at the California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. Mr. Jones, can you please outline the role of the nursing practice in the health care delivery system?
Mr. Jones: Because of the rise in the importance of well-being and health as well as disease avoidance and prevention, nurses are becoming integral players in the delivery system of health care. However, being a nurse is not easy, the nursing profession is one of the most in-demand professions globally as well as it requires hard work and commitment. Furthermore, it is not surprising for a nurse to change between different roles in the delivery of health care. If a nurse is taken from the process of health care delivery, this system will become a wreck at the instant. A nurse combines various roles at the same time, for instance, a nurse can be a communicator, a patient’s advocated, a person that makes decisions, a teacher, as well as the manager of care.
Thus, a nurse can take a lot of roles at the same time. Could you expand on these specific obligations and responsibilities?
Mr. Jones: As a caregiver, a nurse must care for the patient in a holistic manner. Depending on the health condition of the patient, a nurse can do anything from complete care to helping a patient to prevent disease. As a decision-maker, a nurse is obliged to come up with the best solution for fixing the condition of a patient. The role of a communicator is implemented by a nurse to manage and improve the healing process using effective communication with patients. As the care manager, a nurse makes sure that a cohesive team of professionals that work together towards a set goal provides the care appointed to a patient. When taking the role of a patient’s advocate, a nurse is responsible to find out about the needs of the patient and address them accordingly. Lastly, as a teacher, the nurse provides information to the patients on the topic of the used medications as well as the state of their health (Sharon, 2014, para. 9).
However, nurses cannot be managers to themselves, right? What are the responsibilities of a nursing manager in controlling and facilitating health care?
Nurse managers directly affect the success of a health care institution due to their characteristics of being an authority figure responsible for the management of nursing care. An excellent nurse manager is an individual that has confidence in administering roles to other nurses, has the required level of education, as well as a wide leadership understanding. Particularly, the primary role of the nurse manager is making tight connections between the administration’s vision of the health care delivery and the actual medical practice targeted at patients (Chase, 2010, p. 3).
The American Organization of Nurse Executives frameworks outlines the responsibilities of a nurse manager as an individual that is responsible for business and leadership management as well as the development as a leader. Also, nurse managers are expected to allocate available resources to provide an effective and safe method of patient care which is based on the existing standards of the healthcare practice. Nurse managers facilitate the process of decision-making by supporting medical professionals at any level of their activities (Chase, 2010, p. 9). The accountability of a nurse manager is connected with explaining the actions or inactions connected with the manager’s responsibilities. Accountability is connected with building relationships among managers and the surrounding people that include patients, staff, health ministries, service providers, and donors. The most important aspect of nurse manager accountability is providing information and negotiating a dialogue to address issues that occur in the process of health care delivery.
To conclude the interview, Mr. Jones, what are your thoughts on the health care cost containment?
I think that as a country, the United States has never achieved success in the efforts to react upon the increasing health care costs. Cost containment efforts have only been beneficial on a temporary scale. According to Larry Levitt (2012), “one person’s cost containment is another person’s revenue or income” (par. 4). Thus, the challenge of health costs control, in my opinion, will always remain. However, cost control will be impossible if the efforts will be targeted at reducing the efforts put into taking health care away from patients.
As institutions, hospitals will continue to hear a variety of new ideas on cost containment with every season of elections. The views of Republicans and Democrats are always polarly different; furthermore, the opinions of experts also differ. Until the government in tight cooperation with health care institutions and experts comes up with a rational and justified way of health care cost containment, our country will not see success in this endeavor.
References
Chase, L. (2010). Nurse Manager Competencies. Web.
Levitt, L. (2012). JAMA Forum: What is Health Care Cost Containment. Web.
Sharon, J. (2014). 6 Roles Nurses Play that Truly Make Them the Heart of Healthcare. Web.