Healthcare Reform From The Nurse Practitioner Perspective Essay

Many times, the people who are creating policies or legislation for health care reform are not the “first providers” of the health care system. As the journal article, “Influencing Health Care in the Legislative Arena” stated, “[nurses] are often the first providers to see clearly when and how the health care system is not effectively meeting patients needs;” hence, we need more nurses to take a stance in the legislative arena.

Since the inception of the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role in the 1960s, NPs have thrived in the delivery of primary healthcare and nurse case management. Despite patient satisfaction with NPs ' style of care, nurses have been critical of NPs, while physicians have been threatened by NP encroachment on MD practice. Balancing assessment, diagnosis, and treatment with caring defines NPs ' success as primary care providers. Understand the role and Scope of Practice of NPs is sometimes difficult for some to understand. The purpose of this paper is to define the role and history of NP, compare and contrast licensure versus certifications, understand NP Scope Of Practice and Standards of Care, discuss how the State Practice Acts regulate FNP practice, discuss credentialing and privileging, and differentiate between legislative and regulatory processes.

Healthcare reform and politics are on the forefront of most citizens throughout the United States. Our access to healthcare has become a barrier for many citizens, and a hurdle for the advanced practiced registered nurses (APRN) throughout the years. Strict state laws have burdened APRNs and limited their practice throughout Ohio. It would be prudent to follow suit of other states, and retire the Collaborative Agreement; Richards and Polsky (2014) noted an immediate 20 to 30 percent increase in nurse practitioner providers in those particular states after it was retired. House Bill 216 (H.B. 216) helps modernize the Nurse Practice Act and the retire the mandatory collaborative agreement and extensive drug formulary. Within this paper, the contents and purpose will begin to unravel as I describe the meeting Naserin Salameh and I were able to connect with Representative Margaret Ann Ruhl of Ohio House District 68 on March 30, 2016, about H.B. 216.

The author of this paper is a registered nurse, a graduate student of Maryville University who lives in San Mateo, California with zip code 94403. The author has conducted a search of her state and federal legislators. In this paper, committees of federal representatives and senators are discussed. Main focus is given to the legislators’ involvement in health care policy. The paper also discusses how California Action Coalition implements the recommendations of the Future of Nursing. Additionally, the relevance of selected websites (http://www.hhs.gov, http://www.house,gov, http://www.senate.gov, and http://www.thefutureofnursing.gov) to the author’s current practice and practice in the near future

The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing

Health care in the United States (US) is constantly evolving however, when the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into US legislation the need for evolution increased at an exponential rate (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010a). The PPACA’s primary goals were to provide safe, quality, and affordable health care to every US citizen as well as to minimize the number Americans without insurance (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). According to the IOM (2010a) nurses played a fundamental role in developing the goals of the PPACA and are an essential component in meeting the requirements of the new act. Despite making up the largest sector of the health care workforce, the nursing profession faces multiple hurdles trying to effectively respond to the rapid metamorphosis of health care (IOM, 2010a). The recommendations proposed by the IOM to overcome these hurdles were released in their report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (IOM, 2010b)

According to the Garber & Skinner (2008), the United States spends more on health care than other nations but continues to score below other nations in numerous areas of measurement. These scores in, consideration with amount spent, suggest that healthcare is the United States is inefficient. Additionally, the United States has a significantly large portion of under

The face of healthcare has been changing over the last decade. The role of nurse practitioners has become ever more important. This paper conducts a policy analysis as a systematic investigation of alternative policy options, for the emerging nationalized healthcare plan and the increased use of nurse practitioners. It looks at the goals of nationalized healthcare 's use of nurse practitioners and discusses to what extent this policy meets these goals. This paper begins with a detailing of the problem addressed by the policy and the goals and objectives of nationalized

Over the last five years, the United States has implemented a new policy in which Americans will receive their health care benefits. This policy is known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act which was implemented in 2010 through United States federal statue and signed into law by President Barack Obama. The intentions of the reform is to insure that all Americans have affordable access to health care benefits without struggling to afford the cost associated. The reform is broken down into nine title sections that affect all aspects of health care and changes that will be associated. In this paper, I will be discussing each of the title sections and how the changes will affect the field of nursing.

There are several ways in which APNs can take action and influence health policy. Directly contacting a legislator or local representative by writing a letter, sending a fax, or by telephone is one. In an article written by Maryland and Gonzalez (2010), the authors remind the reader that the majority of elected officials have no healthcare experience and often times do not realize how their decisions will effect healthcare workers. This makes sharing healthcare experiences from a nursing point of view vital. One disadvantage could be that unless the person contacted responds, there is no way of knowing if your proposal was received by the right person or even taken seriously.

There are over three million nursing professional in United States and they make the largest segment of nation’s health care workforce. Nurses can play a vital role in helping to realize the objectives set forth in the 2010 affordable act, legislation that represents the broadest health care overhaul since the 1965 creation of Medicare and Medicaid program (IOM 2010). Due to the restricting barriers nurses were not able to respond effectively to the changing health care systems. In 2008, The

“The health reform law contains provisions that will produce more nurses to meet increasing demands for health care, prepare more highly-skilled nurses to better meet the needs of an aging population with more complex health problems, and create opportunities for nurses to participate in and lead efforts to redesign the nation’s ailing health care system,” said Susan Hassmiller, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) senior adviser

For all of mankind, the cost of health care is a major daily stressor. This article stated an interesting fact that, “A concern of businesses and governments for at least 30 years, the cost of health care in the United States has approached 15 percent of the total gross national product (Barbara R. Heller, Marla T. Oros, and Jane Durney-Crowley, 2013, para. 19).” Even with that fact, there are over 40 million individuals living in the United States that do not have health care coverage. The total health care spending in America surpasses that of any other developed country. This is due to technological advances that are readily available and breakthroughs in medicine. Still, there are present concerns in nursing practices, such as: the affects on the nursing profession, treatment options for their patients, and the patients participation in their own care. This article stated, “Nursing professionals, who have historically taken the lead in health education and health promotion, are disappointed by the lack of financing and reimbursement available through managed care organizations for

Healthcare Reform has been and still is a highly debated controversial political issue in this country. It has been a hot topic of past presidential campaigns, with many proposed solutions, none of which were enacted upon by Congress. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010. This law or Obamacare, as it is commonly called, was designed to cover the 48 million Americans, including about 1 million in New Jersey who did not have health insurance. It is envisioned to provide seamless, affordable, quality care that is accessible to all. Great emphasis will be placed on transforming our current “sick care” hospital system into a community “health care” system of prevention and health promotion. This paper discusses the evolving and future roles of nurses under the new system. It also examines the proposals of a joint committee made up of members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), as an initiative to help nurses in their new leadership roles to a healthier nation.

Being a registered nurse affords one the option of working in many diverse healthcare settings. In any practice setting the climate of health care change is evident. There are diverse entities involved in the implementation and recommendation of these practice changes. These are led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), nursing campaign for action initiatives, as well as individual state-based action coalitions. Nurses need to be prepared and cognizant of the transformations occurring in health care settings as well as the plans that put them at the forefront of the future.