How the practice of nursing is expected to grow and change.Nurses play an important role in delivering quality care and improving patient outcomes as they are the primary caregivers for patients.
Nurses play an important role in delivering quality care and improving patient outcomes as they are the primary caregivers for patients. As such, their role as healthcare professionals is expected to evolve and grow further, especially with increased patient expectations and changes in technological advances and care delivery. These changes are particularly with regards to the continuum of care and in different healthcare organizations including Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), medical homes, and nurse-managed health clinics.
Changes in the Continuum of Care
In the continuity of care, the ultimate goal is to provide cost-effective and high quality services for all patients, especially those with chronic or complex conditions. In community based services, the role of nurses included making visits to patients in their residence for the provision of essential services and to perform the necessary assessments (Kemppainen, Tossavainen, and Turunen 493). However, telemedicine has facilitated these activities more efficiently, and in the future, nurses will plan interventions and coordinate services for rural residents more efficiently.
Patients suffering from chronic diseases can benefit from disease management programs based on the quality initiatives implemented by nurses. These initiatives are designed to ensure that the needs of a particular group are met accordingly. Nurses who have specialized in disease management will be expected to coordinate a wide array of services to correct economic, behavioural, and environmental hindrances to care for the purpose of promoting healthy living (Barnes 139). This will also help patients self-manage their chronic conditions.
Nurses will also benefit from the new health information systems, which function to facilitate the provision of cost-effective and high-quality care. Nurses will be able to access data and information on patients through time in order to make the necessary changes and determine the progress of each patient across geographic borders. Ultimately, they will have a positive impact on the structure and operation of the systems.
It is also important to note that patients are extremely vulnerable at transition points especially when they get transferred across the levels of care. With the changes in healthcare, nurse managers will be able to coordinate these transitions effectively, including end-of-life, and discharge planning.
Changes in Healthcare Organizations
The ultimate goal of Accountable Care Organizations, medical homes, and nurse-managed healthcare clinics is to improve the quality of healthcare provided while reducing the progression of care expenditures (Chesney and Lindeke 314). In the future, nurses will be expected to emphasize on primary care provision, which would involve detecting problems early enough and preventing the development of other complications. The provision of high quality care coordination would also ensure appropriate and timely access to the necessary care for patients. This would require nurses to synchronize their work accordingly, to ensure that patients have access to the necessary services and that wasteful expenditure is reduced.
In the past, patients had to pay additional costs for several tests and procedures that may not have been necessary in order to ensure that they received the best care. However, if nurses coordinated accordingly with other healthcare professionals, it would be easier to detect the problems early enough and ensure that the right course of treatment is implemented. This would help to reduce patient stay and the cost of healthcare. In the end, the role of nurses is expected to change in the future. Their part in the system will be more active, and it will directly impact the costs and quality of healthcare. However, with technological advancements, it is anticipated that the execution of these tasks will be more efficient for them.
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