Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440
Our role as a nurse changing to more home health jobs:
The country is facing many changes especially with Obama Care being up in the air with the new president. The Affordable Care Act has restructured how we receive our health care in the United States. Nurses have and always will play a very important role in our health care today. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440. The one change that is very different from how we receive our health care today is the simple fact that in years to come it is expected that nursing will be in high demand outside of the hospital compared to just having nurses in and around hospitals delivering acute care.
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The practice of nursing is an ever evolving career. As we grow and evolve as a country so does the career in nursing. The concept of continuity of care used to be considered inside a hospital setting only but because our culture is changing so much it reflects on how nursing is approached. My goal is to provide you with information showing the recent trend of providing in home health care compared to the traditional hospital care we are all used to receiving. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.
Traditional roles vs. more opportunities
The traditional role of nursing has been to provide care inside the hospital. As a nurse we tend to think if we would like to work as a RN the place to apply would be a hospital. This is no longer the case. Job opportunities are going to be in the community especially because the Affordable Care Act has placed programs for the elderly to be at home for as long as possible. There are more and more rehabs, assisted living places being opened up by the 100’s. The need for nurses at these facilities is only going to become greater as the bigger hospitals increase these types of programs. In a recent article by ANA Career Center Staff the topic being looked at was heath care and the affect it had on the nurses. It addressed things like the fact over half of the nurses were looking at retirement. They went as far as to state, “More than half of working nurses are over 50, which means there will be a lot of empty positions to fill in the coming years as they retire, says Susan Yox, EdD, RN, director of editorial content at Medscape.” (ANA, 2015). Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440. Peggy Crabtree is from the Camden group and she believes that there will be more opportunities for the nurse to work considering how many patients will be discharged to one of the facilities outside of the hospital. The opportunities are really endless for nurses because there are now programs for this very thing everywhere. One of the options are ACO’s which are Accountable Care Organizations. These are a great alternative for the patient and the nurse to provide care in an environment other than the hospital. The ACO has been defined as a “model of care, an ACO generally consists of an interrelated system of providers that may comprise hospitals, home care and long-term care agencies, physician group practices, and other health care entities, such as medical homes, whose focus is primary care. The ACO assumes responsibility for managing the care of the patient and the delivery of services across the continuum of care, with a strong emphasis on primary care and prevention”. (Hart, 21012) Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.
Home Hemodialysis
One program that I happened to know a bit more about is Home Hemodialysis. I just switched jobs recently and this is now what I am presently learning. The home dialysis program is amazing for patient’s. These patients are tied down to the dialyzer for three to four times a week and it usually is for a 4-hour time period. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440. So if you can only imagine the life style commitment these people make. So, if you can imagine this machine is the patient’s life line. It really helps that patient feel the least bit of freedom by giving them a bit of control with a home dialysis machine. It can do wonders for their health both mentally and physically. The patient is actually able to travel to different areas in the United States due to the Affordable Health Care Act. Most of them will qualify for the home dialysis unit which is portable if they are at a pretty high functioning level. It has made things like home dialysis an everyday topic rather than a wish that the patient longs for and dreams about. It can make it a reality. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.
Many years ago these things like home dialysis were not an option. Overtime things like rehab facilities, home health care, hospice, assisted living facilities are all fairly new. With these types of health care being offered over just the acute care units in the hospitals it requires a more diverse set of skills for the nurse to have. While all of this new and upcoming healthcare is great it definitely causes a nursing shortage. It requires the nursing community to rethink about how they are training the new nurses.
Nurses Response
I shared this with three colleagues on my floor and asked for their feedback. The following is some of their responses to my presentation. All three basically had the same thing to say in general. They all felt like they knew how fast our health care was changing but were not aware that it was changing towards home health more than the acute care in the hospital. The more all three were talking I saw that they also agreed that in general all of the programs offered were starting to have an affect on the patient census Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440. There are times of the year we see more patients especially now with the holidays but they also stated that having programs like home Hemodialysis is amazing. It allows our center the ability to see at least 100 more people in need. I think their point was that right now they really have not seen a change in the jobs for nursing dwindling in any way at the hospital but they have seen many of the jobs open up at home because of these new programs. I personally would have to agree with this point they were making too. Basically, in home dialysis there is so many patients waiting to be seen that yes many nursing jobs have been created at the home level but it still is in high demand at the acute care center in the hospital due to how many patients have needed this. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.
Another point they were making was about the funding for these programs and if it was truly available. They were questioning the fact that like in many clinics or hospitals they never want to pay the nurse what she is truly valued at. They were asking about the load of work a nurse would be expected to do at a home treatment rather than the treatment in the hospital where they have access to PCT’s and CNS’s that help them tremendously. They raised some really good questions and points. They agreed that in general our health care is starting to use things like home health care over coming into the ER room and getting saline due to being dehydrated. They also agreed that these options were so much healthier for a family with a sick loved one Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440. The amount of time and energy it takes on the family to bring the patient to the hospital and then to be around all the other people that are sick when that person is likely immunocompromised to begin with.
Our Nursing Future
Once I shared with them some of the good these home clinics are capable of I think all tree were more likely to be on board with the fact our health care system is changing and it will affect nursing in the areas we actually are providing care to our patients. When you spend time explaining personal stories about how home health care has not only helped a patient but also has allowed the patient to feel a sense of control again over their own life all three of the nurses were listening with a new sense of hearing. We all get complacent with our job and all it took for a renewed outlook on things was for these three nurses was to listen to a presentation. I actually could tell when we went back into the clinic for the acute care hemodialysis that they were extra careful and sensitive with their patients. It made me realize just how much it helps our health care team see things as they are. We all might need to have an open mind about working and providing care in a home, rehab, or assisted care facility rather than the traditional hospital. It will do the whole nursing community a world of good. Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.
References
Accountable care organizations: the future of care delivery? (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22277862
- (n.d.). Affordable Care Act Summary. Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://obamacarefacts.com/affordablecareact-summary/
4 Health Care Trends That Will Affect American Nurses. (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2016, from
Nather, D. (n.d.). Understanding Obamacare: A guide about the Affordable Care Act by POLITICO. Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://www.politico.com/obamacare-guide/ Changing role of nursing essay example NRS 440.