Presentation
Background
Today, there are numerous appeals related to the functioning of the health care sector and its future. The fact is that, very often, health workers are not able to deliver the needed care and meet patients diverse needs. For this reason, the U.S. health passes through a radical restructuring process, which is focused on the improved quality of care, its increased affordability, and cooperation with patients. There are several primary concepts that are associated with the future of health care: continuity of care, accountable care organizations, medical homes, and nurse-managed clinics. However, despite all these changes, nurses will play a critical role in the health care delivery system.
Continuity of Care
This statement could be proven when looking at the nature of new conceptions. For instance, one of the major criticisms of the modern health care system is its episodic character (Aitamaa, Leino-Kilpi, Iltanen, & Suhonen, 2015). It means that patients are provided with the needed treatment only in acute conditions. Instead, they demand prolonged care to monitor their states and avoid critical situations. For this reason, the concept of continuity of care appears. It means tracking patients over time through a particular array of services spanning all levels and intensity of care (Aitamaa et al., 2015). Therefore, nurses become the main actors in terms of this framework as their scope of practice includes working with patients in different settings. For this reason, nurses will spend even more time working with patients at their homes or other places to ensure that their patients states are monitored, and appropriate prophylactic measures are performed.
Accountable Care Organizations
Another concept that becomes critical for the health care system is Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These could be defined as groups of different health workers who come together voluntarily to provide patients with a high quality of care (Bright, Frintner, Narayan, & Turchi, 2017). The primary purpose of these organizations is to monitor the state of chronically ill patients and guarantee timely care delivery to prevent further deterioration of their health or medical errors (Bucher & Thompson, 2012). Regarding the nature of this innovation, nurses will obviously preserve their vital role in healthcare. ACO incentives could not be realized, disregarding services these specialists provide to patients. Therefore, any organization of this sort includes several registered nurses who work with individuals in communities and assist therapists.
Medical Home
The concept of a medical home is another important idea that is now being realized to attain better results and reorganize the healthcare sector. It could be defined as a patient-centered, team-based, and focused on safety model, which is now accepted as a leading way to how primary care should be organized (Vogus & Singer, 2016). In other words, it becomes a place where all patients might acquire the needed help supported by compassion, dignity, and respect (Beadles, Voils, Crowley, Farley, & Maciejewski, 2014). This concept is not new; however, today, it acquires the top priority due to the increased necessity to meet patients diverse needs. Nurses remain important actors, as the majority of services provided regarding the concept of a medical home are included in their scope of practice.
Nurse-Managed Centers
Finally, the idea of nurse-managed centers becomes popular regarding the current health care sectors restructuring. As it comes from the title, nurses are responsible for managing these clinics and guarantee positive outcomes (Vogus & Singer, 2016). The fact is that many nurse practitioners, public health, and clinical nurses possess the needed experience and competence to assist patients in their recovery. In such a way, they might help to improve care delivery and attain better results.
Altogether, despite numerous innovative concepts that are implemented in the modern healthcare sector and its reorganization, nurses will evidently preserve their essential role. It is achieved due to the broad scope of practice and their unique experience. Moreover, there is a tendency towards the further rise of their responsibilities.
Summary of Feedbacks
Therefore, a significant scale of changes stipulated by the reorganization plan affects the whole healthcare sector and its workers. For this reason, investigating the given process and its primary peculiarities, it is essential to gather data which comes from participants of this activity. In general, nurses have a positive attitude to the suggested alterations. They are sure that the need for changes exists, and it is vital to reconsider outdated approaches to improve outcomes. Moreover, they admit that the tendency towards the further diversification of patients needs and the occurrence of new health problems shift priorities towards the continuum of care. The majority of respondents are sure that the introduction of this practice will help to improve the state of the nation and decrease the number of deaths caused by chronic illnesses or some other diseases which need constant monitoring.
Nurse colleagues are also sure that the alteration of the health care sector mentioned above will result in a significant increase in their independence. At the moment, they might sometimes experience a lack of authorities or independence. However, the scope of their practice includes work with patients in diverse conditions and states. Moreover, their work in communities become an important element of the system as it guarantees the preservation of links between medical workers and people living in different areas. Under these conditions, innovations aimed at the further reconsideration of nurses roles and increased importance of the work in communities become logical for them as numerous patients demand specific attention and want to be provided with care at home. This demand is considered one of the peculiarities of the society and, for this reason, the model of health delivery should be reconsidered.
At the same time, nurses are sure that the increased independence will be followed by the new responsibilities. It seems evident to them as working in Accountable Care Organizations or nurse-managed centers a specialist will become one of the main caregivers and all decisions made by him/her will have a significant impact on final results. In such a way, the number of demands for the quality of their knowledge and experiences will increase significantly as the enlarged scope of practice and new opportunities will play a crucial role in the further evolution of the healthcare sector. That is why nurses should be ready to engage in additional training to ensure that they will be able to meet new challenges and provide appropriate care to patients who need it.
At the same time, several nurses doubt the efficiency of radical alterations and shift of priorities towards the provisioning of care in communities, at homes, or other unprepared settings as it might have a negative impact on the efficiency of the sphere. The fact is that in case the needed treatment is provided inappropriately, a significant deterioration of outcomes might be observed. Moreover, patients might acquire new tools to impact health workers and prevent them from delivering care appropriately by giving recommendations or asking for particular services which might be not needed (Bucher & Thompson, 2012). Under these conditions, some nurses are sure that the given alteration should be preconditioned by a preparatory work to investigate the potential impact these might have on the overall functioning of the sector and its future.
Finally, nurses colleagues outline the preservation of their significant role in the healthcare and its further evolution. All innovations that are introduced nowadays underline the tendency towards the further empowerment of nurses and impossibility of positive changes without health specialists active participation (Bucher & Thompson, 2012). Thus, nurses admit that there are new responsibilities and duties they have to accept due to the increased demand for the quality of care and models of delivery. In such a way, the above-mentioned concepts should be analyzed regarding the modern framework and the tendency towards the further reconsideration of nurses scope of practice. That is why the majority of nurses are sure that they are ready to the outlined innovations. Moreover, their positive impact remains evident for them as the current situation in the healthcare is inappropriate and they are not able to guarantee positive outcomes in a significant number of cases.
Altogether, the nurses feedback could be considered positive. They demonstrate supportive perspectives and attitudes. Therefore, the investigation of the suggested reform demonstrates that it creates the basis for the increased authority of numerous health workers, including nurses, for them to be able to meet customers diverse requirements. Thus, the majority respondents impressions are consistent with the nature of reforms. It demonstrates health workers readiness to meet new challenges that might appear due to the reconsideration of the healthcare sector. At the same time, some opinions doubt the need for the further growth of nurses independence and shift of priorities towards community care. Specialists are afraid that it might result in deterioration of outcomes. However, the majority of specialists consider these alterations appropriate for current needs.
References
Aitamaa, E., Leino-Kilpi, H.,Iltanen, S., & Suhonen, R. (2015). Ethical problems in nursing management. The views of nurse managers. Nursing Ethics, 23(6), 646-658. Web.
Beadles, C., Voils, C., Crowley, M., Farley,J., & Maciejewski, M. (2014). Continuity of medication management and continuity of care: Conceptual and operational considerations. SAGE Open Medicine. Web.
Bright, D., Frintner, M., Narayan, A., & Turchi, R. (2017). Are graduating residents trained and prepared to engage in medical home activities in practice? Clinical Pediatrics. Web.
Bucher, J., & Thompson, C. (2012). Promoting health in low-income communities: The asthma safe kids program delivered by an Academic Nurse Managed Center. Journal of Asthma & Allergy Educators, 3(5), 215-220. Web.
Vogus, T., & Singer, S. (2016). Creating highly reliable accountable care organizations. Medical Care Research and Review, 73(6), 660-672. Web.