Primary Care And Health Care

Healthcare workers in the United States work together to provide the best possible care for patients that come into their facility. Patients go through different waves of health care professionals before seeing an actual physician. Healthcare systems use a nurse practitioner, which is a registered nurse with more education and specialization, to help treat a patient in a timely manner. According to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, NPs have been providing care to patients for over 45 years. The year 2011 has seen 140,000 practicing nurse practitioners in the United States alone, with 9,000 more expected to enter the work force (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners a, 2010). With statistics demonstrating great expectations of

There is a growing trend where physicians are choosing different specialties instead of choosing primary care, primarily due to the low reimbursement rate in primary care. According to Iglehart (2014),” the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) still projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025, split almost equally between primary and specialty care” (para. 1). With this decline comes an answer, an increase in the number of nurse practitioners providing patient care, reported 154,00 in 2012 and growing every year (Iglehart, 2014). This increase in nurse practitioners’ helps fill that gap, allow greater health care access to the community, especially special populations. By gaining access to healthcare were a nurse practitioner is the provider not only with the special population have high quality affordable health care, a trusting long lasting relationship will develop. This relationship will break the barriers of; lack of trust, lack of health care education and discrimination. Nursing is a trusted profession that provides education and care that no other health care professional

Budzi, Lurie, Singh, and Hooker (2010) state, “Nurse Practitioners’ (NP) interpersonal skills in patient teaching, counseling, and patient centered care contribute to positive health outcomes and patient satisfaction.” According to their research they encourage healthcare systems in the U.S. to hire more NPs to allow for better access affordable, and quality care (Denisco & Barker, 2016). With the demand for primary care providers, The NP role aids in delivering a solution to some of the healthcare issues that exist today. Organizations like the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) all agree to allow nurses to practice to their full abilities to make healthcare more accessible and affordable, especially for the aging baby boomers and less accessible rural neighborhoods, and densely populated urban areas. Research has proven that NPs that provide primary care have similar health outcomes to primary care physicians (DeNisco et. al., 2016). NPs particularly take pride in their holistic approach, forming therapeutic relationships between other providers of the healthcare team, patients, and their families, aiding the informed decision making process, use of the evidence based practice approach in health management (Brown, 2005). Some of the other actions or qualities that

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

Nurse Practitioners (NPs) play a key role in long term health care by ensuring provision of holistic healthcare services particularly in remote areas and in those areas that have few physicians. Currently, there is a concern where there is a shortage of physicians in nursing homes and in other critical health care services questioning the care being provided (Colwill, Cultice, & Kruse, 2008). Due to population growth,

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of the physician shortage in Unite State of America. This is more exactly delineate as a gap between the population’s demand for primary care services and the capacity of primary care, as currently delivered, respond to the demand. According to Nile (2015), physician is person trained and licensed to practice medicine or an individual with a Doctor degree in medicine. Physicians play a central role in health care delivery. Although now, physicians are sharing patient care responsibility with a team of Physician assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP), especially with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementations. The PA and NP are alternative to medical doctor or physician

Every individual in the world deserves to enjoy health and wellness. Maintaining or achieving proper health needs enables individuals to be productive at work and leisure. Traditionally, many people have had barriers obtaining adequate healthcare due to economic constraints or personal inconveniences. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to the Americans continues to be debated amongst the nation’s political and healthcare leaders. The aging baby-boomers and the increased number of uninsured people add to the equation of population growth which results in limited access to primary healthcare for the entire public. On the

With advances in medicine, Americans are living longer and with chronic illnesses that require long term medical maintenance. As the population has grown with patients that are aging and becoming sicker in the process, there has presented a shortage of physicians to manage this rise in demand. Now, with the passage of new legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, more patients have access to health care than ever before. Many experts have suggested increasing the utilization of Nurse Practitioners and Physicians assistants as a cost effective resource to tackle to rising cost of healthcare amid a physician shortage in America. Several studies have been performed to assess the viability of these options, to address the advantages and

Even after half a decade there remains a shortage in primary care providers with only a reported one forth of medical school graduates seeking residencies in family practice, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology. The FNP is a qualified clinically competent healthcare member that can fill this void in primary care in this cost-sensitive society. Despite barriers like the lack of third-party reimbursement, prescriptive authority, and hospital admission privileges the projected employment

On an average, primary physician groups may see about four or five patients within an hour, probably about one patient every fifteen minutes. Because of increase productivity and cost restraints and pressures, this number could increase dramatically. This trend, unfortunately, will be matching the burden of physicians declining incomes and job market. A lessor number of physicians earn what physicians earned many years ago. Primary health has been affected more as compared to services rendered. Additionally, the shift to a bundled fee for performance from the fee for service reimbursement system for force solo practicing physicians and small group practices into forming or partnering into

The overall health care industry has undergone fundamental change over the last decade. Most of the changes have occurred within the underlying business operation of the healthcare industry. Legislation in particular has had a profound impact on the health care industry. First, due to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the nursing profession is undergoing a fundamental shift in regards to the patient experience. The U.S. health care system is now shifting the focus from acute and specialty care to that of primary care which requires a shift in business operations. Also, due primarily to that aging of the baby boomer generation, the need for primary car overall is shifting and will be needed heavily in the future. The last 10 years in particular has seen an increasing influx of retiring baby boomers that subsequently need care. A positive impact on the ACA legislation is that more individuals are now insured. As such, the need for primary care will also increase over subsequent years, particular within the minority population. This patient centric approach will require more care predicated on specific communities in a seamless manner. Furthermore, primary care physicians will be in high demand over the coming years.

Primary care practice will be greatly impacted by health care reform. To provide better health care, the country will see a trend away from specialty to primary care and the avoidance of acute issues by delivering this care in the community setting. As a result, primary care physicians will be overwhelmed with the patient load as the number of the insured increases exponentially. The committee recognizes the scope of nursing practice that remains untapped and therefore the profession

Primary care is a first and vital step to accessing medical services that includes: (a) health promotion, (b) disease prevention, (c) health maintenance, (d) counseling, (e) patient education, (f) diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2016). Today, the shortage of primary care physicians/providers (PCP) and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have presented the nation with a great quandary. It has been estimated that the shortage of PCPs will rise to 66,000 by the year 2025 due to the Medical Doctors (MD) leaving this practice in the pursuit of specialization and thus more money (Buerhaus, DesRoches, Dittus, & Donelan, 2015). Moreover, MDs are less likely than APNs to practice in urban and rural communities, offer services to other underserved groups as well as accepting Medicare consumers (Buerhaus et al., 2015). Additionally, many of these communities are left struggling to obtain needed medical care. While at the same time, the population continues to grow; patients increase in age suffering from many acute and chronic ailments.

The role that nurse practitioner (NP) plays within the increasing complex health care system is a constant changing role with the Consensus Model and the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The scope of the nurse practitioner (NP) includes the care of the young, the old, the sick and the well. The educational needs of a nurse practitioner vary greatly from that of a Registered Nurse (RN), in the amount of education as well as the focus of the education. NPs provide coordinated primary care with the use of comprehensive health histories and physical examinations, diagnosing and treating acute and chronic illnesses, the management of medications and therapies, ordering and interpreting tests results, and educating and

There are many stakeholders involved in the healthcare system including healthcare administrator, healthcare professionals, hospitals, primary care, and patients. Burrows, Suh, and Hamann (2012) states that the Association of American Medical Colleges believes that by the year 2025 there will be a shortage or at least 124,000 full-time doctors and the Council on Graduate Medical Education believes that by the year 2020 there will be a shortage of 85,000 doctors which is 10 percent of the doctors in the healthcare field today. The need for nurses is increasing because there is already a shortage of nurses. But this need will become even more urgent as nurses retire. According to Burrows, Suh, and Hamann (2012) over 51 percent of nurses today are 40 years old and 50 year old nurses make up 40 percent. So, when these nurses retire there will be a shortage and an urgent need to fill the vacancies of these nurses.