When it comes to providing high-quality and affordable care for the US veterans, it is crucial to consider all aspects of this multi-faceted issue. On the one hand, using the expertise of Nurse Practitioners in giving health care to veterans is a viable decision while on the other hand, there is already immense pressure put on NPs that have to perform too many tasks simultaneously. According to the research conducted by Chen, Wang, Yang, and Fan (2016), Nurse Practitioners reported below-average self-perceived health and high levels of anxiety due to the increased job pressure, which points to the lack of efforts of the government to cater to the needs of health care practitioners.
Therefore, putting extra pressure or NPs and making them take responsibility to care for veterans is a rather unviable decision. However, there are other alternatives that may solve the problem. For instance, an alternative may be to use the funds of the Veteran Health Administration to support the enrollment of veterans in Medicare (Weeks, 2016). With the use of means testing, the enrollment of veterans can make sure that the most vulnerable patients receive the high value of care. For example, a complete subsidy can be provided to veterans that agree to use high-value healthcare providers. Such a design of benefits will be helpful in retaining choice of providers (veterans can choose others, but will not get complete subsidy) and have a dramatic impact on the improvement of the access of care, improving the health outcomes of veterans, reduce their costs, and save the money of the taxpayers (Weeks, 2016).
References
Chen, C., Wang, J., Yang, C., & Fan, J. (2016). Nurse practitioner job content and stress effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms, and self-perceived health status. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(5), 695-704.
Hammerman, L. (2016). Saving veteran’s health: Nurse practitioners to the rescue.
Weeks, W. (2016). An alternative way to provide healthcare for veterans.