PPACA on Nursing Practice: The Patient Protection

¶ … PPACA on Nursing Practice:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a legislation that was enacted in March 2010 as part of meaningful and comprehensive reform for America's healthcare system. Upon enactment, the legislation has had significant on the country's healthcare infrastructure. In order to accomplish its goals, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act focuses on registered nurses because of their role in the current healthcare system. Registered nurses are the largest single group of clinical healthcare practitioners in America's health system. They work in a holistic mechanism and interconnected system to provide care services to patients, families, and the community. The legislation seeks to transform the current sick care system into an actual healthcare system through various major provisions.

One of the major provisions with significant effects on current nursing practice is the changes in nursing workforce. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has made considerable changes on various aspects of nursing workforce, especially nursing education. As a result, the legislation will have considerable effects on nursing education with regards to increase in number of nursing students and promoting career advancement among nurses ("Key Provisions Related to Nursing," n.d.). The effect of the legislation on nursing education is linked to various factors such as increasing opportunities for advancement in education and increasing funding and eligibility for baccalaureate or graduate education such as nurse student loan.

The second provision is about quality of nursing home transparency in order to enhance the quality of care in nursing homes. The provision will contribute to improved accountability of nursing homes through disclosure of the identities of their owners and operators (Brody & Sullivan-Marx, 2012, p.5). Furthermore, nursing homes will enhance accountability by reporting and collecting staffing data, which enables geriatric patients and families to evaluate the quality of these homes.

Innovative Care Delivery Model:

The need for new models of delivery of care has been fueled by the recent trends in the health care system. Some of these trends in the United States' health care system include the demand for costly acute services in light of the looming shortages of major healthcare professionals such as nursing shortage. America's health care system continues to face this challenge despite of the increase in healthcare spending to an extent that current expenditure is nearly double as compared to the last decade. As a result, there is a huge need for innovation and new models of care delivery that leverage new roles and technology based on an interdisciplinary care delivery team. Such models would help in delivering care to many individuals at low costs while maintaining and enhancing patient safety, quality, and satisfaction.

An example of an innovative care delivery model is The Nurse Caring Delivery Model at MetroWest Medical Center. This model is a team-oriented primary nursing structure for providing healthcare services in inpatient and outpatient settings (Joynt & Kimball, 2008). The main goal for the development of this model is to provide coordinated, humanistic care through Jean Watson's Theory on Human Caring. MetroWest Medical Center developed this model following increased dissatisfaction that Chief Nursing Officers experienced with other models, especially task-oriented care provision models ("Nurse Caring Delivery Model," n.d.). It was also designed to address the lack of a coherent approach in providing care to inpatient settings.

The implementation of the model proved advantageous to the hospital's patients in terms of improving patient outcomes. It contributed towards enhanced quality of care by lessening staff absenteeism and turnover on the hospital's inpatient and outpatient units. Secondly, The Nurse Caring Delivery Model improved patient outcomes through decreasing overtime costs and contract labor expenses. Moreover, it resulted in continual improvements in the quality of care and developed a sense of interdependence and team among caregivers. Patient outcomes have also been enhanced through a simple touch from caregivers that make the unbearable bearable through its foundation of the theory of human caring.