Health Care System in the United States - Essay Example

Health care system in the United s The first question that needs to be addressed discusses about the direction of health care system in the United States. In particular, where does the US’s health care system headed? To answer this, it is important to address in particular the current health care system in the United States. There is a conglomeration of health practitioners, agencies and organizations in sharing the mission of health care delivery in the United States even if they work independently in practice (Cockerham, & Hinote, 2008). Offices and clinics of physicians selling their services for payment right away create the greatest portion of all patient services available in the health care system. Due to employment, most of Americans availed health insurance benefits through contributions of employees and employers. The high costs of health care resulted to close monitoring of health insurance utilization. There is a significant increase of Americans without health insurance that is why the health care system of the US is called the best but costly, inefficient, wasteful and inequitable (Cockerham, & Hinote, 2008). There is definitely health crisis in the US considering that its health care system is creating a picture of surprisingly high cost yet with limited access, uneven quality and substandard health outcomes (Dorn, 2009). Due to political, bureaucratic and economic constraints, the US for the past 30 years struggles to provide health care to its citizens despite large differences in wealth, health care organizations and health care politics particularly to undeserved populations (Sherraden, & Wallace, 1992). In the past, the acknowledgement of health care crisis had long been taken into consideration by federal policymakers but realignment in health care organization or delivery had not yet been fully recognized. Today, a new Presidential Administration, and economic recession create the necessity to go for some changes which are now at hand (Dorn, 2009). The impact of reform to APNs Reforms on health care system create necessary and significant changes. These changes have significant impact to who will be treated, the delivery of care and compensation of health care experts and practitioners. The reform must be within the health care insurance system and moving forward to universal coverage, shift to reimbursement model that promotes quality while care is given, reorganizing health care delivery through integrated practices, patient-centered medical homes, responsible care organizations, electronic health records, comparative effectiveness research and transparent reporting (Dorn, 2009). Advance practice nurses or APNs are emerging important members of the nursing facility and interdisciplinary team (Rapp, 2003). APNs have important roles to play and these include clinical care, administration, nursing consultation and including education. APNs are associated with the positive outcomes in key indicators of care and reduction of costs in healthcare system (Rapp, 2003). Health care system in the United States is dynamic for there is constant change on it and together with this comes the bright future for APNs as clinical and professional leaders (Hamric, Spross, & Hanson, 2005). It is important to consider that the US healthcare system is now becoming dynamic to make some changes and along with these APNs as healthcare service experts and providers need to focus on the government reform and be part of it. This can be either beneficial or harmful for APNs’ career depending on their level of acceptance to the reform. Salaries, demand and availability for APNs One of the most essential questions is whether the said reform on health care will influence salaries, demand, and availability for APNs, specifically family nurse practitioners. The answer is definitely yes. Considering that the government is after of quality care for patients by embarking on integrated practices, patient-centered medical homes, effective research, education and more, APNs especially family nurse practitioners will be of high demand considering that they are in line with the reform that the government is creating. Moreover, APNs are frontline leaders in the implementation program. Thus, there is a need for APNs to be more equipped and highly advanced in their career and this needs more important strategies in order to have effective implementation in the days to come. Strategies needed by APNs Strategies are very important for APNs in order to maximize their potential on the government’s health reform program. This means that they can focus on the improvement of clinical care by allowing themselves to adapt best practices, building teams with strong commitment to evidence-based practice and modeling effective leadership (Hamric, Spross, & Hanson, 2005). Next, in order to effectively spread the leadership among APNs, they need to extend it into communities, professional organizations and national and international health policy areas (Hamric, Spross, & Hanson, 2005). It is also important to take note that nursing care is definitely based on interactive style that empowers patients and colleagues and this stands as foundation leading forward to advanced practice nursing leaders in better position in the days to come (Hamric, Spross, & Hanson, 2005). The Domino effect Doctors and hospitals are more likely to react on the above strategies since it would mean creating higher demand for APNs. Hospitals in return will respond to the need of the existing market as mandated by the government. This means that APN’s will have more refined roles to play. However, there are some barriers in the implementation of roles of APNs and these include regulatory issues, facility resistance and problem adapting to environment (Rapp, 2003). Thus, it is still required to properly orient the APNs on their corresponding roles aside from career enhancement programs for them. In order to facilitate the roles, there must be collegial relationships and role recognition so in order for APNs to focus on prevention, restoration, maintenance and palliative care which allow physicians to only focus on complex medical problems. Thus, there is a need for APNs to identify APN-sensitive outcomes, collect and analyze data and disseminate findings (Rapp, 2003). Conclusion APNs have brighter future in the current health care reform program of the US government if they will be able to identify current strategies that would maximize their potential in the days to come. APNs have important roles to play and finding them is a matter of thinking ahead of time. References Cockerham, W. C. & Hinote, B. P. (2008). Health System of United States. International Encyclopedia of Public Health, 434-440. Dorn, S. D. (2009). United States Health Care Reform in 2009: A Primer for Gastroenterologists. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 7(11), 1168-1173. Hamric, A. B., Spross, J. A. & Hanson, C. M. (2005). Advanced practice nursing: an integrative approach. 3rd ed. USA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Rapp, M. P. (2003). Opportunities for Advance Practice Nurses in the Nursing Facility. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 4(6): 337-343. Sherraden, M. S. & Wallace, S. P. (1992). Innovation in primary care: Community health services in Mexico and the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 35(12), 1433-1443. Read More