Presentation
Today, nursing is a fundamental part of the healthcare sector that also impacts final results and promoting patients’ recovery. Regarding the significant role this field plays in the promotion of the health of the nation, there are multiple efforts to align the gradual improvement of this sphere and ensure that it will be able to meet all challenges arising in the course of society’s development. That is why in the future, nursing will undergo some important changes aimed at the achievement of improved efficiency, better outcomes, and enhanced provision of care to patients. Such phenomena as the continuity of care, accountable care organizations, medical homes, and nurse-managed health clinics will play the leading roles in the future.
The concept of the continuum of care is already topical. However, its further evolution is one of the main factors stimulating the growth of the nursing practice. It can be determined as a system that guides and tracks patients over a prolonged period of time through a comprehensive array of services that cover all levels of care and ensure the preservation of high quality of life (Agha et al., 2018). The improved cooperation between caregivers is a key to the implementation of this approach. For this reason, the further growth of nursing should be associated with the enhanced collaboration between health facilities across the state to create a continuity of care for all patients regardless of their location, age, and social status.
Another concept associated with the future of nursing is accountable care organizations (ACOs). These can be determined as a certain group of care providers that join a team to cooperate and coordinate care for particular groups of a patient with the primary aim to provide outstanding care and reduce costs (Dressel et al., 2017). It can be considered a future of nursing practice as this category of health specialists plays an integral role in helping ACO to improve the health status of the nation. These groups will help to significantly reduce costs and enhance the quality of all services. At the same time, these units will play a fundamental role in the creation of the continuity of care.
Furthermore, the further development of nursing practice implies the rise of the importance of medical homes. These are patient-centered organizations responsible for the provision of team-based care to patients who need assistance (Sinha et al., 2018). One of the advantages of this model is the ability to achieve maximal health outcomes by focusing efforts of all specialists on particular health problems. Combined efforts of experienced caregivers will help to find individual approaches to every patient and meet their basic needs.
Finally, the idea of nurse-managed health centers will also acquire the top priority. They can be determined as health facilities operated by NPS that provide a full range of primary care and some special services (Dressel et al., 2017). By coordinating their efforts, health workers will be able to assist patients in their recovery by guaranteeing the creation of the appropriate environment and satisfaction of their basic needs. In such a way, all the elements mentioned above will contribute to the growth of the nursing practice, and it’s becoming more efficient.
Feedback
The planned reformation of the healthcare sector and growth to create the continuity of care and satisfy patients’ needs provide the basis for vigorous debates. A significant scope of the problem means that there can be various perspectives on how the sphere will evolve and what features the nursing practice will acquire in the future. Having discussed the offered presentation about the expected alterations, we outlined several important points.
First of all, it should be concluded that perspectives on the role of ACOs are similar. Nurse colleagues involved in the discussion are sure that the future of nursing is closely connected with this concept. Today, 3,1 million nurses in the USA work in these organizations and help to deliver high-quality and patient-centered care to clients (Dressel et al., 2017). At the same time, this significant part of the workforce also contributes to the reduction of costs spent on the provision of particular health services and the improvement of the health of the nation. All nurse colleagues share the same opinion that the nature of ACO and its critical elements will precondition its growing importance.
First of all, the ability to save costs is one of the fundamental aspects justifying the need to promote the rise of ACOs across the state. The financial aspect of the healthcare sector’s functioning has always been an ongoing issue. Today, there are multiple attempts to create an approach that helps to save costs without a significant reduction in the quality of provided services. In this regard, the promotion and support of accountable care organizations can be considered an appropriate choice to achieve the goal mentioned above.
Moreover, nursing colleagues who participated in the discussion agreed that patient-centered care is the future of the nursing practice. Diversification of patients’ needs due to the development of society preconditions the need for the introduction of new methods to deliver care and work with individuals. For this reason, patient-centered care with its focus on current clients’ demands can help to improve outcomes. ACOs and medical homes can be considered a part of this very approach as the primary aim of their functioning is the creation of an environment characterized by enhanced teamwork aimed at the achievement of better treatment outcomes. In such a way, ACOs further growth becomes one of the options that can be selected to create the basis for the further evolution of the nursing practice.
Another aspect that does not arouse discord is the continuity of care. It is closely associated with patient-centered care. In accordance with the recent research, alignment of the continuity of care cultivates a new environment and promotes better outcomes (Dressel et al., 2017). That is why there is no reason to deny the importance of this approach and the multiple benefits associated with it. At the same time, during the discussion, various perspectives on the ways how this continuity can be created.
All participants of the debates agree that medical homes can help to achieve the goal as all patients there will be able to benefit from the coordinated work of nurses who try to satisfy their demands. However, there is an opinion stating that along with these patient-centered organizations, other health facilities will preserve their importance because of their ability to provide multiple services to patients with different demands.
The concept of nurse-managed health centers is also supported by the majority of nursing colleagues. Along with the obvious benefits expected because of the rise of this practice, such as better results, a higher level of satisfaction among patients, better treatment results, and the creation of the continuity of care, there are many other factors that should be mentioned. First of all, playing the leading role in the functioning of health centers, nurses will master their administrative skills and their ability to organize the efficient provision of care for patients with various health problems (Brooke, 2018).
Additionally, the high responsibility will demand an increased level of competence and knowledge among nurses to avoid mistakes and ensure that the most efficient approach among the existing ones will be chosen.
Finally, all participants of the discussion agree that the nursing practice will undergo radical changes in the future. They outline several reasons among the possible causes for this evolution. First of all, the rapid rise of technologies will impact the majority of practices that exist today. In the nearest future, they will become outdated, which means that the need for new, more efficient ones will emerge. For this reason, the growing importance of ACOs, medical houses, and nurse-managed centers can be considered a part of the process of these practices’ replacement. Moreover, to prepare modern healthcare for the shift of priorities towards the continuity of care, a radical reorganization is needed. For this reason, a change of priorities becomes critical.
Altogether, the majority of ideas offered in the presentation about the future of the nursing practice were supported by the nurse colleagues. They agree that patient-centered care is the future of healthcare. For this reason, there is the need to create the ground for nurses’ improved functioning in different conditions. ACOs and medical houses are the critical elements of the reorganized healthcare sector as they provide multiple opportunities for teamwork and enhanced cooperation between nurses to improve outcomes and assist patients in their recovery.
References
Agha, A., Werner, R., Keddem, S., Huseman, T., Long, J., & Shea, J. (2018). Improving patient-centered care: How clinical staff overcomes barriers to patient engagement at the VHA. Medical Care. Web.
Brooke, B. (2018). Achieving high-value surgical care through accountable care organizations: Are the risks worth the rewards? Annals of Surgery. Web.
Dressel, A., Mkandawire-Valhmu, L., Dietrich, A., Chirwa, E., Mqawadere, F., Kambalametore, S., & Kako, P. (2017). Local to global: Working together to meet the needs of vulnerable communities. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 31(5), 667-669. Web.
Sinha, S., Moloci, N., Ryan, A., Markovitz, A., Colla, C., Lewis, V., … Hollingsworth, J. (2018). The Effect of Medicare accountable care organizations on early and late payments for cardiovascular disease episodes. Circulation. Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 11(8), e004495. Web.