Research Paper on Nursing: A Global Perspective - US & China Reforms

Introduction

The profession of nursing assumes responsibility, especially for the constant care for the disabled, the sick, and the injured. Nurses are enthusiastically involved in policy deliberations, patient advocacy, and healthcare research as well as management. Both the United States of America and china citizens need nursing care. Thus, both countries have embarked on transforming the health care system by announcing various reforms (Huang, 2016). Therefore, this paper will explore significant facts about nursing and health care system in China and the United States nursing.

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Healthcare Systems

The majority of the hospitals in China are well equipped with beds. These hospitals encompass special disease hospitals, minority hospitals, comprehensive hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, and traditional Chinese medicine - western medicine hospitals. On the other hand, in the United States hospitals have specialized facilities for rehabilitation care, pediatric and psychiatric. Furthermore the majority of the citizens are covered by the health insurance compared to China since the United States government has put in place measures to expand coverage (Huang, 2016). However, the government of China is putting effort into expanding increasing health insurance coverage to the citizens.

Nursing Manpower

Despite the high population as well as a large number of beds in hospitals in China, there are more health care providers who attend to patients on a full-time basis (Guo, 2018). However, research has shown that there are far fewer nurses in china per population compared to the United States of America. Nonetheless, the percentage of nurses in china to other primary care providers is lower in comparison to the United States. Additionally, in china there are limited or no opportunities for part-time employment of nurses. Similarly, in the United States, majority of the nurses work full time per week or even more (Spetz, 2016). Nevertheless, since the implementation of various reforms in the field of healthcare, the nursing workforce has continued to experience a major upsurge in the number of nurses.

Acute Care Nursing Roles

Both China and United States nurses work in schools, communities, clinics ambulatory settings and other settings. In addition, smaller number of nurses is employed outside acute care hospitals in china compared to the United States even though acute care setting is regarded as the largest employer in the two nations. In the United States there is the existence of three primary roles of the nursing staff which includes licensed practical nurses unit as well as assistant secretaries (Spetz, 2016). Furthermore, the United States nursing assistants assume several classifications of tasks including feeding, hygiene, ambulation toileting, or even tracking output and intake. All the nursing workforces are employed by the health care agency that they work for.

On the other hand, in China, there are no unit secretaries or licensed practical nurses. Conversely, nurses have of days per week and vacations per year. Hospitals in china have high bed capacity including emergency intensive care, outpatient, oncology, maternity, geriatric, outpatient, surgical and other services (Guo, 2018). Moreover, when comparing the actual staff in the United States and China, an analysis of intensive care inpatient unit in both countries must be done.

Nurse Shortage

Even though the United States government has continuously put in place measures to extend and increase health care coverage, the United States has an enormous nursing shortage. Nonetheless, due to educational bottlenecks and an influx of patients into the health care system of the United States, positions of nursing are not being filled to match the growing population of patients. United States is expected to experience a shortage of nursing staff specifically registered nurses that are expected to deepen for the reason that baby boomers age and healthcare need continues to grow. Nevertheless, according to the report released by Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) titled 2018-2019 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate programs in Nursing U.S, it is evident that nursing faculties turned away more competent applicants from baccalaureate and graduate programs of nursing (Spetz, 2016). This was due to the insufficient number of classroom space, clinical sites, and faculty as well as budget constraints.

Equally, at present China is experiencing the shortage of competent and well-trained nurses. Correspondingly, poor working conditions, low wages, and heavy workload are the primary reasons why majority of the students in china do not prefer to choose nursing as a career, aggravating the existing nursing shortage (Guo, 2018). However, deteriorating associations between patients and doctors as well as a serious shortage of male nurses are still major challenges that have not been successfully addressed in china.

Healthcare System Reforms

The recent health insurance reforms in China have predominantly concentrated on individuals residing in the rural areas as well as people residing in urban areas whereas the United States reforms have primarily focused on children, employed people and low-income earners (Huang, 2016). Consequently, China has divided people based on employment and urbanity, especially when determining the financial program of healthcare. America has always divided people by status of employment and age when coming up with appropriate financial programs in healthcare

Conclusion

In conclusion, after comparing the china and United States nursing and healthcare system, it is worth noting that local conditions usually play a vital role in the determination of a country's health care system structure. Although there are several challenges facing the healthcare systems in china and the United States, both China and the United States are in the process of undertaking healthcare reforms.

References

Guo, Y. H. (2018). Implementing the 'Healthy China Initiative' and promoting nursing development. Nursing, 2352, 0132. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnss.2018.02.002

Huang, Y. (2016). China's Healthcare Sector and US-China Health Cooperation. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/report/chinas-healthcare-sector-and-us-china-health-cooperation

Spetz, J. (2016). The nursing profession, diversity, and wages. Health services research, 51(2), 505. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12476