How Nurses Are Solving Some of Primary Care's Most Pressing Challenges? - Paper Example

Introduction

While policy-makers in the United States and multiple state capitals throughout the world embroil in adept debates over health and primary care reform, several aspects pertaining the healthcare sector are evolving in direct response to demographic measures and economic variables. In an ongoing series of issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Report highlighted a number of evolutionary examples related to the contemporary changes in nurses' roles as regards primary care. In the report dubbed The Future of Nursing: Leading Change Advancing Health, the authors note that nurses are obligated to connect the ever-growing gap between access and coverage while coordinating extremely complex care to a variety of patients. In fact, the report posits that the rationale behind bridging the gap entails enabling nurses to fulfill their objectives and abilities as primary care practitioners to fully satisfy the facets of their training and education in a bid to promote the adequate economic value of individual contributions in their professional practice. In fact, the authors of the report reiterate that there is a dire need of systemwide changes to capture and to a larger extent, take advantage of the economic value of nurses by considering the increasing evidence-based literature linking nursing practice in primary care to a safer and improved quality of care (Institute of Medicine, 2011).

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It is therefore paramount, in view of the report's submissions, for nurses, especially Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to be presented with opportunities for the expansion of their roles in primary care based on their training, competency and education, expanding their potential to a scale that facilitatively bridges the gap between access to care and insurance coverage. By virtue of their scientific comprehension of care processes in healthcare settings and their regular proximity to diversified patients, registered and advanced nurses have a rather unique and considerable prospect as full partners with other healthcare professionals in leading the reform and improvement of the practice environment of healthcare systems (Institute of Medicine, 2011). It is in this regard that the deliberations of the RWJF committee formulated a primary care model that prospects fundamental transformation in the nursing profession to better meet the contemporary visionary needs of an unrestricted and innovative primary health care.

Summary of Health Care Model in the RWJF Report

As presented in the report, the 20th century model of educating nurses and the practices thereof can no longer be applied to meet the healthcare needs of the 21st century. The report further argues that outdated habits, regulations, policies, and attitudes restrict prospective innovation in the nursing profession, hindering vital improvement to the health care system in times of tremendous change and complexity. The model entails four key messages structured as recommendations to the prospect transformation of the nursing profession. First, the report recommends that nurses be allowed to practice and deliver services fully in line with their training and education to ensure that all patients access maximized health care services through the reconceptualization of disseminated roles that bridge any gaps between access to care and coverage. In so doing, the transformations will redress existent inefficiencies in various hospital designs, technology infrastructure, and healthcare organizations through emphasizing on patient-centered designs, creation and establishment of seamless work environments, as well as the promotion of nurse-related vendor partnerships (Institute of Medicine, 2011).

Consequently, the practice environment will be fundamentally transformed in a manner that promotes efficient employment of nurses-both in a hospital and community setting- maximumly making use of their competencies, education, training, and skills. Secondly, the nurses should be provided with an opportunity to access improved education systems and higher education levels promoting a rather seamless academic progression for all nurses. With those improvements in place, it will necessitate the nurses to deliver quality, safe and patient-centered services across all healthcare settings such as community health and primary care. Third, in a bid to transform leadership, the model upholds the need to have nurses partnering with physicians and related health professionals in reforming the health care system of the US. Whether in administrative roles or in health policy positions, full partnership in health care reforms arms them with reconceptualized voices in decision making improving health care delivery while helping them envision the complex dynamics in health care systems (Institute of Medicine, 2011).

Lastly, the model upholds the need for the provision of better data within the healthcare environment through effective policy making and workforce planning for purposes of promoting an improved informational infrastructure. While the first three messages emphasize the need for transformational changes in the nursing profession for the achievement of improved quality health care and primary care, the fourth facet of the model focuses on comprehensive and accurate data collection on current and future projections of the health care workforce as necessitated by the vision (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The existent gaps in the workforce data hamper any progress in the identification and implementation of any advances towards the preparation of nurses for their renewed, expansive roles in the health care system.

A Brief Summary of an Article on a Primary Care Model

The article details the primary care home model (PCHM) which according to Dr. Paul Grundy, a founding president of the organization dubbed Patient-Centered Primary-Care Collaborative in the US (PCPCC), should be adopted because of its acute-focused and patient-centered approach to health care. The model stresses on patient-needs in a healthcare set-up integrating all aspects of health to improve the patient's' behavioral health, increase access to community social and health services, improve physical health as well as enable one to manage chronic diseases. As the model evolves, registered and advanced nurses are presented with a broad spectrum of roles embodying community care, public health, and medical homes that are essentially patient-centered. Medical homes have access to comprehensive health information technology, making it a virtual network for both nurses, physicians and health-care providers (Monique-Tello, 2017). In that regard, the medical home model improves the efficiency and quality of healthcare by promoting a rather patient-centered approach to primary care while providing nurses with an opportunity to use their competency to its full extent through increased care coordination, improved access to facilities that best meet their patients' needs and increased patient-nurse communication.

Reasons Why I Selected the Article

The article outlines the new primary care model that spreads out nursing roles by expanding access to care, improving quality as well as reducing the costs of using healthcare institutions. The new model, therefore, gives nurses several new roles in primary care to ensure that the goals delineated herein are accomplished to the fullest. The key components of the model are vital because they provide a holistic approach to primary care through nurse empowerment, information technology, care coordination and interprofessional teams. The article provides a model that recognizes the limitations and demands of the contemporary health care system, envisioning a prospective care system that increases the accessibility of quality care to diverse populations, hence promoting intentional wellness, compassionate care, disease prevention as well as reliable improvement of health outcomes (Monique-Tello, 2017). The health care system proposed therein demonstrates consistent responsiveness to the desire and needs of individuals through the introductory delivery of evidence-based and truly patient-centered care.

References

Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Monique Tello, M. (2017). Patient-Centered Medical Home: A new model for medical care - Harvard Health Blog. Harvard Health Blog. Retrieved 15 August 2018, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/patient-centered-medical-home-a-new-model-for-medical-care-201708301226