The U.S. healthcare has witnessed drastic changes as numerous reforms and restructuring proposals have been made. Hence, this paper discusses the effect of these changes on nursing practice and nurses’ role in this ever-changing environment. New healthcare laws, quality measures, emerging leadership roles, and how these factors may lead to a transformation of nursing practice for future healthcare trends.
Emerging Health Care Law
In the past five years, the No Surprises Act, which is one of the sections under the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, has brought significant changes to the U.S. healthcare industry. The law was enacted to insulate patients against unaffordable charges for unforeseen, as well as in some non-emergent cases. As frontline healthcare providers, the No Surprises Act has also impacted nurses. Currently, they play a critical role as health advisors and educators. Nursing one’s significant role is to help the patient understand his rights enshrined in this act (Reich, 2020). They should communicate to their patients the possible financial repercussions of seeking care from an out-of-network provider and lead them through the billing process.
Furthermore, the nursing fraternity should step up its communicative abilities so that it can simplify the processes of explaining complicated billing matters and insurance information covers. Such effective communication enables patients to understand the necessary health issues of the disease and prevent unforeseen financial costs (Reich, 2020). Nurses also will have increased interaction with the billing department, insurers, and other healthcare professionals to facilitate correct billing and resolving bill-related issues, yet with high-quality standards for patient care maintenance.
Quality Measures and Pay for Performance
The quality measures and P4P schemes influence a large part of the nature of health care delivery and its result in the health outcome of a patient. This is done through different initiatives that award or pay nurses to ensure they focus on the high quality of care provided. These aim at enhancing healthcare outcomes for patients in different settings. In this equation, nurses are essential since they are the ones who interact with patients directly (Green et al., 2020). Evidence-based medical practice requires these people to adhere to evidence-based clinical guidelines, ensuring that medical practice is in accordance with the best data at hand. This ensures high-quality care that leads to better outcomes for patients. This can be illustrated by an instance where strict adherence to infection control can contribute to the elimination of healthcare-associated infections and improve patient safety.
Quality measures and P4P programs heavily rely on data collection and reporting. Nurses frequently get tasked with gathering data and recording information about such metrics, especially nowadays. Accuracy of data has to involve attention to detail and precise recording; this should reflect the care provided so as not to mislead clients. With this data-driven approach, healthcare organizations will be able to monitor their performance and pinpoint areas of need (Green et al., 2020). Therefore, nurses play an essential role in educating the patients. In fact, informed patients will most likely be actively involved in care, which will result in good outcomes. Nurses need to impart knowledge on patients’ illnesses, possible treatments, and personal health care tactics, which enable patients to come up with educated choices on their well-being.
In particular, care coordination plays a vital role in nurses’ work that largely determines patients’ results. Nurses frequently act as care coordinators, making sure that patients get prompt and proper care from different sources of health care provision. It is through effective care coordination that gaps in care are minimized, patients’ safety risks reduced, and smooth care transition accomplished. As a cornerstone of nursing practice, advocacy is crucial, especially under quality measures and the P4P regime. Advocacy for necessary staffing levels, sufficient resources, and appropriate interventions in support of quality care is a crucial role that nurses play on behalf of their patients (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). Nurses act as patient’s advocate and thus contributes to generating favourable patient result. Nurses need to monitor patient progress and evaluate the efficiency of provided interventions over time. Quality measures, as well as the pay-for-performance programs, require constant adjustments of the care plan to improve patient outcomes.
Professional Nursing Leadership and Management Roles
In response to changing trends in healthcare, professional nursing leadership and management positions continue to evolve to promote patient safety and deliver quality care within various healthcare settings. The provision of such healthcare services involves the use of these essential aspects of any healthcare system to address the existing dynamics and opportunities in the health environment (Baek et al., 2019). The nurse manager is a senior officer who heads the operations in the clinical units each day. Moreover, they ensure proper utilization of resources, staff development, and implementation of patient protection policies. In dealing with changes in trends like technology, nurse managers readapt their leadership style and make employee training a topical agenda. They play a critical part in providing quality care while keeping patients safe on their wards.
CNOs are strategic leaders whose role is to align the nursing services in healthcare organizations towards a specific direction. They should remain aware of developing healthcare issues and ensure patient safety and high-quality provision of medical services through a policy formulation and implementation process. Visionary leadership and direction are integral for nursing professionals in order to ensure that they are up-to-date and meet current healthcare demands (Baek et al., 2019). Nurse educators must ensure that they prepare nurses who can handle emerging trends and provide safe and quality care. These institutions ensure that nurses are well-trained in their field and also provide them with the needed knowledge during the education sessions conducted within such programs. The importance of nurse educators in bringing together traditional practices with modern-day healthcare demands can be seen across different kinds of healthcare setups. The nurse leader’s role in quality improvement revolves around improving care practices, as well as clinical and patient outcome measures. They carry out analyses of data, use evidence-based actions and engage in continuous improvement of the quality (Baek et al., 2019). The leaders work together to improve the safety and the standards of health care in different hospitals.
Transformations in Health Care
Telehealth Integration: It is anticipated that telehealth and virtual care will redefine nursing roles. Remote patient monitoring, teleconsultations, as well as tele-triage will heavily rely on nurses. They must come up with robust digital and communication skills to enable them to transact virtually with patients and healthcare teams as well. Besides, some nurses will be trained to offer specialized telehealth nursing and this calls for special certification and training (Agrawal & Prabakaran, 2020). Such a change will increase health service delivery, enhance patient outcomes and help remedy some labour deficiencies in healthcare setups.
Population Health and Preventive Care: With an increase in emphasis on prevention and population health, nursing positions would extend to focus on health promotion, disease prevention, as well as community-based care. Nurses will work alongside other health providers in designing plans that can address the community’s health needs (Agrawal & Prabakaran, 2020). Such activities may include health assessment, educating people and groups on healthy lifestyles, as well as engaging in outreach programs in communities. As a result, nurses are gradually becoming more influential advocates of marginalized population cores that help reduce existing health differences. The change is aimed at the general purpose of improving the quality of health services and prevention of diseases and other pathologies in advance.
Conclusion
The reform of the U.S. healthcare system has transformed nurse practice that focuses on communication, data gathering, and patient advocacy. Nursing leadership positions have adapted and transformed with shifting trends, with telehealth adoption and preventative care poised to reinvent future nursing practice.
References
Agrawal, R., & Prabakaran, S. (2020). Big data in digital healthcare: lessons learnt and recommendations for general practice. Heredity, 124(4), 525-534. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41437-020-0303-2
Baek, H., Han, K., & Ryu, E. (2019). Authentic leadership, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: The moderating effect of nurse tenure. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(8), 1655-1663. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jonm.12853
Green, E., Peterson, K. S., Markiewicz, K., O’Brien, J., & Arring, N. M. (2020). Cautionary study on the effects of pay for performance on quality of care: a pilot randomized controlled trial using standardized patients. BMJ Quality & Safety, 29(8), 664–671. https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/29/8/664.abstract
Reich, M. R. (2020). Restructuring health reform, Mexican style. Health Systems & Reform, 6(1), e1763114. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23288604.2020.1763114
Turale, S., & Kunaviktikul, W. (2019). The contribution of nurses to health policy and advocacy requires leaders to provide training and mentorship. International nursing review, 66(3), 302-304. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/inr.12550
write