Comprehensive Health Care Policy

Health Care Reforms Legislation and Its Effect on Nursing Practice One of the milestone legislations that President Obama signed into law in 2010 was the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152). This policy, commonly referred to as the comprehensive healthcare policy has been widely supported by several nursing organizations including the American Nursing Association and the American Academy of Nursing.

Indeed, the bid to have reforms in the health sector has been a central agenda since the mid 20th century which has culminated in several changes in legislations that are geared towards having a better health care system. The latest significant change in legislation has significantly put the practicing nurses in the forefront and the daily contribution and impact of the nurses in ensuring the success of the policy is evident as will be discussed herein (Institute of Medicine, 2010).

The health care reforms policy that was passed in 2010 is mainly geared towards providing all Americans with the chance to access the cost effective yet high quality care as well as helping the change in the American health system to be directed more towards the preventive care and the primary health care. These have been the priority of the nursing as a profession since the 1958 inception of the Medicaid program, when such ideas were not popular in the post WWII period.

The same trend of supporting the health reforms was seen among the nurses in the 1990s when Clinton brought forth the federal health reforms (though it was defeated) and the years leading to the current policy signed in 2010.

These instances of indicating outright support for the policies that improve on the healthcare reforms is a clear indication that the nursing practice and profession as a whole is affected by these changes and also contributes significantly to the implementation of the policies hence the centrality and significance of the choice of this particular policy. With the new policy in place, there will be more focus towards the medical homes and health homes in order to ensure there is provision of primary health care.

This means that more primary care providers will be required to fulfill the goals of the policy. The APRN -- managed practices will be depended on to give the needed primary care to the broad range of patients, these include the chronically ill patients who are mostly found within the underserved communities. The registered nurses, and the APRNs are able to provide the needed services hence this policy will significantly shape their operations in this sector.

This policy, under section 2703 gives the option of establishing the Medicaid health homes where for one to qualify to be considered for these homes must be suffering from at least two chronic diseases, may have one chronic disease but at risk of getting a second one or must have mental condition that is serious and persistent. In these health homes established, the policy indicates that there will be high-quality services provided and comprehensive care management.

This means that there must be a team of healthcare professionals at hand to help in the management of the chronic diseases. One of these professionals is the nurses and nurse care coordinators. This is an indication that the policy implementation will directly affect the nursing practice and there will be a higher demand for nurses in the process as more health homes are established to take care of the chronically ill people.

It is also worth noting that the new policy is meant to help stabilize and add quality to the healthcare and the healthcare providers like the registered nurses in practice. In the ACA section 3501 indicates that there will be a formation of institutions and bodies like the AHRQ that focus on quality improvement through identifying, developing, disseminating and providing training on the aspects of health care value, safety and quality. This will in turn influence positively the professional in the healthcare sector among them being the practicing nurses.

Once the standards are set for the type and standard of care that the nurses need to provide to the patients, there will be a strict adherence to these standards and in turn improve the nursing practice within the U.S. The new policy gives the provision for the pursuit of the patient-centered outcomes research. Through the possible establishment of Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as provided in the Section 6301, there will be identification, planning and implementation of the comparative clinical effectiveness research.

This approach is set to improve the nursing practice since it will come up with comparative clinical effectiveness research which will compare health outcomes, clinical effectiveness, benefits of a given number of treatments, risks, services protocols, items, procedures, medical devices, pharmaceuticals among other strategies and items that are used in treatment, management or prevention of diseases.

In this manner, once such comparative researches are made and results made known to the nurses, they will align their practice t the best results given and recommended hence the policy helping shape nursing practice (American Nursing College, 2010:Pp14-20). The health reform policy of 2010 also puts in place measures that would ensure there is an increased enrolment in the nursing profession. This is done by ensuring there are grants that are provided by the federal government which targets the associate, baccalaureate, and advanced education nursing.

The National Nurse Service corps repays 60% of the nursing student loans as long as the student agrees to give in exchange 2 years of their labor and practice at a facility that has a shortage in the expertise that they hold. These are measures that are meant for the future and are meant to revamp the number of nurses and in the long run make the profession more equipped with skilled nurses, free of burnout and adequate ration of patient to nurses (Barclay L., 2010).

From the various provisions of the policy mentioned above, it is evident the nursing practitioners are central in ensuring that the policy is well established and successful, and at the same time there is the reverse benefit to the nurses in that it will help them to professionalize their practice over the next several years that the policy will be.