The nursing field does not include only the direct patient care. There are several specializations that require additional skills apart from the medical knowledge. The nursing specialists include practitioners, educators, administrators, and informaticists. Each of these groups carries out a different task.
Nursing practitioners are engaged in the direct patient care. They need to be skilled in exercising various medical procedures required for certain patients. Besides, it is not enough to just possess the theoretical knowledge. Practicing nurses must have the critical thinking skills and be able to analyze each situation to establish the manipulations that have to be done. However, the most important role of the direct care providers is communication. It includes the communication directly with patients and their families. Depending on how well nurses cope with this role the health practices of the whole community may be affected.
All other nursing specialists work towards supporting this communication. The primary role of the nursing administrators is enabling the appropriate working conditions for the personnel. Nursing administrators need to spread the hospital’s vision and culture, show leadership during the decision-making process, and ensure the same values are shared by all staff members. They have to be proficient in all matters concerning the providing of health care, including management of the conflict situations. Nursing educators are the ones who help the NPs to grow more professional. Their role of delivering knowledge is crucial in the field where regular learning is a key to the quality patient care. Nursing informaticists have the role of enhancing the patient care with the technological means. They must educate direct care providers and patients on how to use certain technology, as well as combine the knowledge of mathematics and medicine to create programs for treatment and development of health practices.
Health Policy and the Advanced Practice Role
Theory Overview
The vaccination policy is one of the most important initiatives in the modern world. It targets the whole nations and aims to stop the spreading of some of the most contagious dangerous diseases. However, the system is far from perfect, as the vaccination policy in the United States lacks the uniform structure (Lakoff & Collier, 2008, p. 95). In fact, it requires serious reconsideration since at the moment the vaccination policy is more of a set of recommendations rather than the norm enforced by law. Even though the U.S. has made significant progress in the vaccine development over the past several decades, some people view the industry as dependent on the interests of the major pharmaceutical corporations (Plotkin, Orenstein, & Offit, 2008, p. 37). The efficiency of immunization programs must be promoted by such organizations as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Bloom & Lambert, 2003, p. 40). Thus, the strategy of improving the current vaccination policy must include the promotion of the vaccines’ positive effect and the creation of the stricter laws that would enforce immunization.
Identifying Parties
When talking about the changing of the legislation, it becomes evident that the primary force in this task should be the government. The Congress should develop a strategy that would reduce the number of conditions, which are now used by some people to refuse the immunization. For instance, the personal beliefs present a very delicate matter, yet they can be used as a faulty excuse for rejecting the vaccination by parents who read about its adverse effects on children from some non-credible resources.
Another group of people who should take part in implementing the strategy must be scientists. They should create reports about the positive effects of the vaccination and make them understandable to the majority of people. It is important to engage only independent scientists since people would find it hard to believe specialists who work for a certain pharmaceutical corporation, as the research might be made to support its interests.
Practicing Nurses’ Effort
Practicing nurses may also take part in improving the vaccination policy. As it has been mentioned earlier, their primary role is communication. This is exactly the tool that they should use for this purpose. Nurses may consult families on the results of vaccination that helped to reduce the spreading of a particular disease in their region. They may also show parents the rates of immunized children staying healthy during the epidemics. Practicing nurses must know the latest news on the infection state in their community and operate those facts to prove patients the importance of immunization.
Predictions
People are usually suspicious of the governmental initiatives that concern the health care. However, they are likely to take into consideration the advice of a nurse whom they know well. The success of this policy changing would lead to the decline of illnesses caused by infections, especially among children. Communities would become safer, as the spreading of viruses will be taken under control. Moreover, the information delivered by nurses might boost the rise of the health literacy among people. They would learn why the vaccines are important, and this knowledge could be a reason for developing other healthy lifestyle practices. Finally, parents who vaccinate their children might feel safer as they would know there are more vaccinated people surrounding them.
References
Bloom, B. R., & Lambert, P. H. (2003). The vaccine book. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
Lakoff, A., & Collier, S. J. (2008). Biosecurity interventions: Global health and security in question. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Plotkin, S. A., Orenstein, W. A., & Offit, P. A. (2008). Vaccines. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.