The future of health care

Nursing

The Future of Health Care

There is considerable evidence that many of the new medical technologies are used inappropriately, to generate income. What patient protections against inappropriate diagnostic and other procedures should be considered?

Patients should not have to undergo unnecessary procedures in order to defraud Medicare or any private insurer. One patient protection that could be put into place is the idea of making care more patient-centered (ANA's Health System Reform Agenda, 2008). This would help to educate the consumer on what should be going on so that if plan of care were to deviate off course they would be able to raise questions as to why. A second patient protection that could be implemented is that of putting into place a reward system for quality care and not one that is based upon quantity. Payment for health care services should reward value and not volume (The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Recommendation from the IOM/RWJF Initiate on the Future of Nursing, 2011). This would help to eliminate the use of inappropriate diagnostic tests and other procedures being utilized just to generate income. Under the new plan if the test or procedure was deemed as unnecessary there would be no reimbursement for it.

2.In spite of nursing's vital importance to hospitals, nurses face excessive paperwork, managerial responsibilities, and supervision of lesser-trained aides -- tasks that require an inordinate amount of time spent in functions other than direct patient care. These frustrations, combined with long work hours, stagnant salaries, and other difficulties, have resulted in fewer entrants to schools of nursing and increasing numbers of nurses leaving the profession. Discuss possible solutions to this growing problem.

The solution to this ever growing problem is to change the professional labor supply in order to deal with the issues at hand. Nurses should be trained to better respond to system changes. Reforms are needed to recognize and reward the pivotal roles that exist in order to distinguish the importance of the people who do these jobs. There also needs to be more use made of nurse practitioners and physician assistants. These roles need to be expanded and promoted in order to increase patient acceptance, effectiveness and efficiency. There is also a need to put into place new practice guidelines and computer-assisted treatment protocols in order to enhance these service extensions (Sultz & Young, 2011). All of these solutions would help to not only recognize nurses for the work that they do but would also work to redistribute the work load somewhat in order to help spread around the responsibilities in order to make the profession more attractive.

3. Do providers in the health care system recognize a broader social mission than addressing the needs of only those individuals who achieve access to their services? Elaborate.

Yes, providers in the health care system recognize the broader social mission than addressing the needs of only those people who they treat. There is a multifaceted relationship that exists between health systems and health and wealth. These concepts are symbolized in a theoretical framework that features an active interface between health systems and health, health systems and wealth, and health and wealth. This model also shows that these three things taken all together have an impact on the fundamental goal of communal health (Figueras, McKee, Lessof, Duran & Menabde, 2008).

Health has a value in and of itself. This worth can be articulated in financial terms, based on the choices that people make in their everyday lives. Health also has an important impact on economic output. Development economists have long documented the significance of the right mix of physical and human capital. People who are in poor health are less likely to work and, when in work, are less prolific. They are less probable to invest in their own schooling or to save for retirement, and so to support the broader economy. Experts believe that the present economic and labor market, social security arrangements, retirement age and the relations between all of them will need to be considered when addressing the economic benefits of better health in the future. The substantiation is clear; a healthy population including healthy older people can add substantially to the economy (Figueras, McKee, Lessof, Duran & Menabde, 2008).

4. The wisdom of depending on International Medical School Graduates (IMGs) to fill gaps in physician supply, while U.S. medical schools hold class size constant, is questionable. In addition, the aging of the physician workforce, the decreasing hours worked by both physicians in practice and physicians in residency, and a 20% reduction in the effort of the increasing proportion of female physicians, will result in a significant decrease in the "effective" supply of physicians. Should the gap be filled by a major substitution of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and others, or are there alternatives?

This gap should be filled by substituting nurse practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors, acupuncturists and others. All of the people who practice in these professions are very well trained and they should be encouraged to use their training to its fullest. There is no reason that these fields should not be utilized more often than they presently are. As long as a person has been properly trained they should be able to perform whatever duties they have been trained for so to help improve both access to and quality of care that people receive.