Paper on Transformative Roles of Advanced Practice Nurses: Navigating Access, Cost, and Quality in Healthcare

Access, Cost, Quality Environment for Advanced Practice Nurse

Different Advanced practice nurses have been equipped with the knowledge of providing high-quality health care at an affordable cost to the public (Melnyk et al., 2014). Healthcare is highly in demand by patients; hence an advanced practice nurse provides a cost-effective healthcare service, that improves the wellness of the people who require care. Families and patients responsible for paying the medical bills sometimes find it challenging to pay the hospital bills due to particular challenges. The government, therefore, has created medical insurance organizations that pay a portion of the medical bill. The advanced practice nurses have also been informed on how to handle the patients when paying the medication cost properly.

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According to research, medication from a physician is regarded as the most expensive, and many patients find it difficult to pay for it. Becoming a physician costs a lot since it requires one to have a master's degree in that field. The education cost is more than that of an advanced practice nurse; hence, a nurse's compensation is at a lower rate making access to healthcare easy, and patients pay low expenses. An advanced practice nurse has undergone a two-year nursing experience, and this test is essential for a nurse to provide quality health care. Additionally, an advanced practice nurse provides health care at a lower cost compared to a physician.

Nurse practitioners (NP) enable the health care system to gain financial privileges. Patients have easy access to medical health care since it is cost-effective (Melnyk et al., 2014). Insurance organizations have also played an essential role in financing the medical bills of patients who have challenges in paying their medical bills (Woo & Xin, 2017). The cost-saving has a positive impact on the health system, making nurse practitioners essential in the health system.

The working environment of NPs can be suited in different places like home health care, nursing homes, schools, universities, and health care departments (Stanley, 2011). Different institutions also hire these NPs to provide health care and act as their staff. Additionally, nurses have different roles and specialties. A Nurse practitioner can be a pediatrics, work as a general nurse, or a gynecologist (Melnyk et al., 2014). NPs can also be hired to be private workers for an individual or an agency dealing with health care issues.

These environments influence how a nurse delivers medical services to patients and their quality (Stanley, 2011). A suitable working environment enables a nurse to provide a high-quality health care service that is professional. A right working environment encourages nurses to adore their job and have no intention of quitting it. They are also satisfied with the daily operations at work and have no complaints about it.

A right working environment is essential for patients also since the services provided by a nurse improve the health care lifestyle and excellent healthcare outcomes can be archived. Nurse practitioners have a significant impact on patients' health, and with an excellent working environment, patients can acquire good health (Stanley, 2011). Over the past years, there have been low turning rates of nurses in various hospitals, health care agencies, and institutions due to the poor-quality working environment.

A poor-quality environment is not safe for a nurse practitioner and does not promote good health services (Stanley, 2011). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends nurses be protected from potential threats and be provided with safety, so they have good social well-being. According to the Nurses' Bill of Rights, for a nurse to work in a particular environment, specific rules and fundamentals should be considered. These rules and fundamentals aim to enable nurses to achieve the best in their line of work.

The Bills of Rights state how the working environment is expected to be and how different organizations employing nurses should adhere to the policies governing the nurse working environment (Stanley, 2011). Every nurse responsible for caring for the patients and the workplace should be suitable for this to be fulfilled.

The quality initiative is where data is used to analyze, monitor, and improve the methods used to deliver safe healthcare services to improve the quality of healthcare (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.). Different health organizations major on the quality initiative when it comes to the health care system. They have established a team of professionals in charge of developing projects to improve patients' medical services. These projects are essential in promoting quality initiatives.

Some of the quality initiatives include; any nurse not passing or ignoring patients who require medical attention without solving the medical problem, nurses should do a random check every hour on their patients, and in these random checks, the patient's pain, position, potty, and possessions should be addressed. Healthcare providers should use a dry-erase board located in the patient's room to be informed about the patient's information (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.), and it also acts as a way to communicate with the patient.

Furthermore, considering all these measures, a Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) can be affected. After a patient stays in a hospital, a questionnaire is provided to answer how health care was provided and the hospital's conditions. With this policy, healthcare providers are forced to provide practical, safe, and quality healthcare to the patient (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.). Also, the hospital can make improvements in certain areas considering health care provision.

The quality initiative is essential to improve the performance of a hospital (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.). Quality improvement programs are also formed to lower patients' mortality rates, considering safety when delivering health care services, increasing staff efficiency, and general patient health improvement. Quality initiative programs' practices include; setting targets considering the patient's safety, health care effectiveness, and health access. These programs are based on the goals of the hospital.

The government, employers, and patients have, for several years, been forcing the healthcare system to provide quality and safe services to them. The healthcare system has been accused of having inappropriate resources and health providers committing medical errors (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.). Therefore, the healthcare system is forced to seek initiative practices to achieve a sound healthcare system, which is also affordable. Quality management is one of the initiatives proposed to eliminate medical errors among nurses and healthcare providers. The nurses are supposed to ensure standard medical practices to provide quality health care.

Health organizations considering the quality initiative can improve the healthcare system. The organization can monitor the nurse's and the health providers' activities and ensure they deliver a good performance (Scanlon & Andrew, n.d.). The health system can equip nurses with knowledge on how to handle technological devices to increase efficiency in the results.

Nurse practitioners monitored by a health organization should understand the delivery of services as per the health organization's requirements (Melnyk et al., 2014). Services delivered by the nurse should be appropriate so that the needs of the patients are satisfied. Additionally, the nurse should focus on the patient's needs while providing medication. The focus should mainly be on the patient's safety, communication of the patients, and many others.

Furthermore, the nurse should focus on the data, which describes how the system works, changes made in the health provision, and steps to follow when delivering a service. Data is essential in providing small variations, minimum medical errors, decreased infection rates, and improved healthcare service (Woo & Xin, 2017). Data to be used by the health care providers should be based on facts and verified by experts in the health care system.

Additionally, nurses should be provided with care-coordination software, where a patient's health record is stored and easily accessible. The software is secure in that only relevant persons are allowed to access the information in the system. Care coordination also makes it easy for nurses to work without confusion.

The Relationship between Quality Measures and Evaluation & Role Development

Nurses have a crucial role in social and economic measures to deliver quality healthcare. Social policy is where every public citizen should respect every nurse since the major nurse's role to the public is to provide quality healthcare. The public should allow nurses to practice science and other health-related issues so that the healthcare system's performance is improved. Therefore, the social relationship between a nurse and the public is essential in providing medical services (Stanley, 2011).

Nurses' performance should be measured. Every nurse is obligated to provide services such as the prevention of illness, treatment, and diagnosis of diseases, limiting human suffering, care of individuals, and prevention of injury (Jones, 2016). These services are supposed to be measured, and every nurse is held accountable for these outcomes' outcomes. The outcomes should be of quality for the patients and families involved.

On the economic role, the nurses must take care of resources used in providing healthcare services to the public. The resources meant for the nurse should be provided to benefit them to avoid failure while delivering health services (Stanley, 2011). Therefore, nurses are obligated to develop an evidence-based document that talks about what they do for patients and the achievements they have made (Jones, 2016). The healthcare services measure majorly focuses on the quality of the healthcare provided, and the quality is based on the structures of care, processes of care, and the outcomes of care.

How the Role Of The Advanced Practice Nurse Might Change Effective Quality Measure

The Advanced practice nurse's role in the healthcare system is to respond to patient's treatment, keep and maintain the patient's records, ensure the privacy of the patient's records, and provide care to patients. The demand for care has continuously increased over the past few years, especially for older people. Most people suffer from chronic illness; hence the requirement for critical care is high (Woo & Xin, 2017). A diverse workforce and individuals are most in need of physician care; hence healthcare system is in high demand of these physicians.

People demand quality healthcare, which is also affordable, and this can only be achieved through nurse practitioners since their workforce is adorable. An advanced practice nurse can provide primary care and treat the patients while considering their needs (Woo & Xin, 2017). The nurse also considers the safety of the patients and effectively delivers the treatment. The treatment offered by a nurse practitioner is considered to be better than that of a physician.

The advanced practice nurse can also deliver acute care. Acute care is care provided for unstable chronic conditions and critical conditions. Nurse practitioners are trained to manage critical healthcare conditions and emergencies in the short term (Woo & Xin, 2017). This practice done by nurse practitioners has promoted efficiency in delivering healthcare services and reducing the cost.