Health Care for the Future | Academic Papers Help
Health Care for the Future
The projected changes will transform care provided, from being predominantly curative to preventive. The shift from acute hospital care settings will no doubt result in a number of advantages both for the patients as well as the care givers and the hospitals (Cogan, et al 1449). Foremost amongst the advantages of community based care, is cost effectiveness. To the patient, shifting care from the hospitals to the community, allows for the full participation of the community as well as the patients loved ones in their care, resulting in better holistic care that takes care of other needs care in the hospital might otherwise not have taken care of. For the community, this shift to the community will allow for greater involvement in decisions that affect various aspects of care, leading to a greater sense of ownership and therefore greater compliance (Purdue University 9). Foremost amongst the cons of such an arrangement would be the obvious lack of immediate specialized care. Further, some aspects of healthcare may be hampered due to the fact that members of society out of fear of stigmatization may shun the use of some aspects of care.
For a registered nurse, the most significant change would essentially be a shift to community health nursing. The nurse would however still have an active role to play, as the role of the nurse in a community based care setting, would not only be that of advocacy, but also that of an educator and facilitator. For one, in order for such an approach to care to work, community diagnoses would be a cornerstone of community based care. Further, the registered nurse would need to be at the forefront of health education, as well as advocating for and facilitating adoption of various remedies to problems identified through the community diagnosis
Works Cited
Cogan J. F., R. G. Hubbard, and D. P. Kessler. Making markets work: Five steps to a better health care system. Health Affairs 24.6, (2005): 1447-1457.
Purdue University. A Healthcare Delivery System for the Next Generation. RCHE Publication Paper 49 (2006).
Quinn, Sandra. Teaching community diagnosis: integrating community experience with meeting graduate standards for health educators. Health Education Research 14.5 (1999): 685 696.
