THE FUTURE OF NURSING PRACTICE

Role of a nurse in the Emerging Health-care Environment

Martha Gomez

Florida National University

Introduction

• The current times are highly exciting in the healthcare industry. Healthcare today is marked by a high number of changes in delivery of care, increased use and advancement in technology, high patient expectations, and changes in the workplace resulting in growing and evolving role of nurses (Luz, Shadmi & Drach-Zahavy, 2019). Due to the changes occurring in the healthcare industry and elsewhere in the community, nurses of the future need to prepare for a shift in role as new challenges and opportunities changes nursing.

Statement of Issue  

• Changes in the healthcare sector and in the society have had significant impacts on role of nurses today. While critical thinking, clinical skills, compassion and people skills have always been critical in nursing, today they need to be practiced in a complex environment with new challenges and opportunities. Nurses have always been at the front line of trends in healthcare, often requiring to have improvements in education in order to lead the changes. As such, these changes will affect the way nurses carry out their work in the future.

Evidence supporting the issue  

There are several areas where nurses have been affected by the changing healthcare environment which will continue to significantly affect nursing. These include:

• Health quality initiatives and promotion of patient outcomes: As the most direct patient caregivers, nurses play a critical role in the process of improving care quality and patient outcomes (Amiri et al., 2019). Throughout the US safety records and satisfaction rates are available easily due to efforts of nurses
• Promotion of use of technology in healthcare: Nurses have had to stay sharp and keep up with technology. Nurses are the first healthcare receptors of such innovations as electronic health records and remote monitoring tools used by patients (Dorsey et al., 2020).
• Changes in healthcare delivery systems: Changes in areas of nurse practice such as the introduction of ambulatory surgery centers where patients can get services out of hospitals have increased job opportunities for nurses. Research shows that newly licensed nurses have embraced jobs in nursing homes, home health and ambulatory settings (Parker, 2019).
• Changes in patient: Demographic shifts, improved consumer education and increased access to healthcare services are changing interactions between nurses and patients (Dorsey et al., 2020). Other factors such as increase in older people also affect nurses.
• Increased need for education: Most nurses today has opted to go back to school to respond to changes and new challenges in healthcare.

Prediction      

• Nurses of the Future will take up healthcare leadership and redesign care in the society. With nurses being involved in all aspects of the increasingly complex healthcare system, they are the glue that will hold together healthcare in the future. Moreover, large number of nurses today are going for higher education to achieve bachelors and doctorate degrees hence position themselves for huge responsibilities. 
• Future Nurses will be involved in community health practices with emphasis on disease prevention. Legislations such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), promote healthcare education to reduce rates of hospital admissions.
• Nurses of the future will require to be highly accountable and responsible in providing care. There has been an increase in healthcare consumer education owing to technology and the internet where information is readily available (Dorsey et al., 2020). Mistakes in the healthcare may therefore results legal claims and reimbursement which means extra care has to be observed by nurses to prevent such challenges
• Nurses will work in collaborative teams with other healthcare professionals. Increased teamwork and multi-professional teams are expected in future.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable and nurses have to be ready for massive shifts in the healthcare industry that will affect them. If properly positioned, nurses will be at the forefront of the healthcare system, leading and guiding other healthcare professionals.

References

Amiri, A., Solankallio-Vahteri, T., & Tuomi, S. (2019). Role of nurses in improving patient safety: evidence from surgical complications in 21 countries. International journal of nursing sciences, 6(3), 239-246.

Dorsey, J. D., Hill, P., Moran, N., Nations Azzari, C., Reshadi, F., Shanks, I., & Williams, J. D. (2020). Leveraging the Existing US Healthcare Structure for Consumer Financial Well‐Being: Barriers, Opportunities, and a Framework toward Future Research. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 54(1), 70-99.

Luz, S., Shadmi, E., & Drach-Zahavy, A. (2019). Nursing innovation: The joint effects of championship behaviors, project types, and initiation levels. Nursing outlook, 67(4), 404-418.

Parker, D. K. (2019). Improving Job Retention among Registered Nurses in Hospital Settings: A Multiple Case Study (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University).