“I will begin by welcoming all of you to today’s presentation. The topic of this presentation is “How the practice of nursing is expected to grow and change.” The mode of healthcare delivery today is very different from the one used in the past centuries. The healthcare delivery system is now changing to meet the health needs of the current and future generations. In the coming years, we as nurses are expected to contribute positively to the restructuring of the healthcare delivery system of the United States. For example, it is anticipated that very few nurses will be required to serve in acute care hospitals while a large percentage of them are expected to work in the community. This means that future nurses must be equipped with the knowledge and skills required for quality healthcare delivery in the community. In order to produce competent nurses who can offer both community-based and hospital-based healthcare services, the educational sector must make relevant changes that match the anticipated growth and changes in the health sector.
The community is faced with the challenge of dealing with new infections that are affecting society today. With close guidance and advice from nurses, the community will be able to know the right actions that they must take in order to avoid deaths that may occur from such infections. According to Kovner and Walani (2010), there is an increasing need for health education and prevention in the community. The best way through which the community can receive relevant health education is when healthcare delivery systems are brought close to them. This explains why nurse-managed clinics should be created out in the community. An advanced practice nurse must be deployed in every nurse-managed clinic to help provide health education and to deliver care to the community (Kovner and Walani, 2010). This clearly indicates that more nursing jobs will be available in the community in the near future following the creation of nurse-managed clinics.
Apart from the anticipated change in the role of nurses in the near future, another aspect of growth in nursing practice that is expected to change is the manner in which nurse performance is rewarded. In a few years to come, nurses will be rewarded on the basis of the quality of care delivered and their ability to manage costs. In nursing, this new system is known as Accountable Care Organizations (Deloitte, 2009). Various healthcare organizations will transform into accountable care organizations that compensate physicians and nurses based on health care quality delivered. Successful implementation of this new system will completely change the manner in which healthcare organizations reward nurse performance. This calls for an immediate realignment of the nursing sector such that nurses must be in a position to deliver quality care to their patients both in the hospital setting and the community (Deloitte, 2009).
We as nurses are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that rates of disease occurrence in the community remain low. In order to achieve this, the community should be given an opportunity to make medical consultations whenever they need to (Dardani and Lyles, 2010). Patient-Centered Medical Homes is a new health care delivery system that seeks to provide the community with constant access to their personal healthcare providers and to unlimited medical consultations. According to Dardani and Lyles (2010), it is anticipated that Patient-Centered Medical Homes will change nursing roles from the provision of indoor medical services to serving community-based roles in the medical homes.
We must also remember the fact that many deaths that occur in the community today are caused by chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes. Many people succumb to these diseases because they lack adequate knowledge on how to effectively manage them back at home after they have left the hospital. Faster recovery from chronic diseases can be enhanced if the nurse continues to guide the patient even after acute care (Haggerty et al., 2003). This is known as Continuum of care and it is one of the new systems that are likely to change the face of healthcare delivery in the near future. Under Continuum of care, more nurses will be deployed in the community to offer continued care to community members who are suffering from chronic infections (Haggerty et al., 2003). Nurses who will offer a continuum of care and who will be required to serve in nurse-managed clinics, accountable care organizations, and patient-centered medical homes will be chosen at random. I, therefore, urge each and every one of us to acquire the necessary skills that will enable them to continue working as nurses in a sector characterized by rapid growth and change. Thank you!”
According to nurse 1, many people in the community acquire certain infections due to a lack of knowledge about how such diseases can be prevented. This compels the health sector to spend a lot of finances purchasing drugs that can be used to treat diseases that could have been avoided. For instance, a high percentage of the population is currently infected with HIV merely because they were not conversant with various preventative measures. Such infections can be avoided if only members of the community were taught in advance on how to avoid them. Nurse 1 supports the idea that the health care delivery system is likely to change in the near future where nurses will be required to deliver care in nurse-managed clinics and patient-centered medical homes (Kovner and Walani, 2010).
According to nurse 2, the nursing profession requires all workers to offer high quality of care to all patients. A system that assesses the quality of care can help nurses enhance their performance levels and to ensure that they offer quality care. Both modern and future hospitals are incorporating a new system that will assist them to reward nurses and physicians based on performance. Nurse 2 has an impression that in a few years to come, healthcare organizations will not reward nurses based on their academic qualifications but on the quality of care they deliver. She believes that accountable care organizations will not retain nurses who cannot meet their quality standards (Deloitte, 2009).
According to nurse 3, the healthcare conditions of people who are suffering from chronic infections normally worsen after they leave the hospital. This is attributed to either side effects of drugs or non-adherence to medication. In order to reduce rates of deaths that occur from chronic infections, nurses must be deployed in the community to deliver continuum care to patients who are suffering from such infections. This means that in the near future, the number of nurses working in the community will exceed those offering indoor services. Nurse 3 feels that the nursing sector is expected to grow and change at a rapid rate in the near future and nurses must be prepared for those changes in order to fit in the future job market (Haggerty et al., 2003).
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