President Obama signed the healthcare reforms bill into public law in March 2010 (Hertel, 2011, Nursing World, 2012). Following this development, a lot of changes are expected in nursing practice as this law comes into operation. Among other changes, nurses will have to further their education so that they can be more effective in the nursing profession. In my speech today, I will address the concepts of continuum of care, nurse managed health clinics, medical homes and accountable care organizations as they are applied in healthcare provision (Stockowski & Rowe, 2010).
With the healthcare reforms in place, continuum of care will be a prominent and expansive concept. It is a system designed to track and provide guidance to patients through different services. Through the concept, a framework will be created by which people will receive the best services in healthcare. Healthcare for patients will be provided ranging from the basic forms to the most advanced forms. A community of medical staff including nurses will find the opportunity to communicate about the healthcare services to patients (Cherry & Jacob, 2011).
Accountable care organizations will also feature prominently in the reformed healthcare system. These organizations will comprise of hospitals, groups of healthcare professionals and other providers of healthcare. These people will combine efforts to provide patients with well coordinated care. This will afford the patients right and timely care without any errors being made (Haas, 2011).
Medical homes are very important in healthcare especially in the improvement of primary care. This program has standards describing the criteria for care to patients of different ages with different health conditions. Healthcare providers will be involved in teamwork and care tracking over certain time periods. In medical homes patients can partner with other patients, family, nurses and doctors. Care giving will be done through information technology, registries and exchange of health information. This will make it possible for patients to get care at the time and place they need it in a manner that is appropriate based on culture and language (American Nurses Association, 2012).
Nurses will also be participants in the nurse managed health clinics which are basically community based services for primary healthcare. They put emphasis on promotion of health, prevention of disease and health education among the undeserved.
The reforms in health care require that nurses practise their training and education to the highest extent. Nurses will therefore be expected to go for higher levels of training and education. They will need more competence in managing the technology used in service provision. The basic qualification for all nurses has been set to a baccalaureate degree (Naylor, Aiken, Kurtzman, Olds, and Hirschman, 2009).
In conclusion, I have outlined what nurses should expect in the health sector with the coming of the health care reforms. Nurses will need to increase their dedication given the increased responsibilities through the patient care delivery models. The responsibilities of nurses will change and the education levels required for nursing practice will be higher. More nurses will take part in the nurse managed health clinics, medical homes, accountable care organizations and the continuum of care program.
References
American Nurses Association (2012). Key Provisions Related to Nursing. Web.
Cherry, B., Jacob, S. (2011). Contemporary nursing (5th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.
Haas K. (2011). Health Reform Act: New Models of Care and Delivery Systems: AAACN Viewpoint. Web.
Hertel (2011). Health Care Reform & Issues in Nursing. The PPACA and Its Impact on Medical-Surgical Nursing. Med-Surg Matters. Web.
National Council of State Boards of Nursing (2012). APRN Consensus Model Toolkit. Web.
Naylor, Aiken, Kurtzman, Olds, and Hirschman (2009).Translating Research into Practice: Transitional Care for Older Adults. Web.
Naylor, Aiken, Kurtzman, Olds, and Hirschman, (2011). Health Affairs: The Importance of Transitional Care in Achieving Health Reform. Web.
Nursing World (2012) Establishing a Culturally Competent Master’s and Doctorally Prepared Nursing Workforce. Web.
Stockowski and Rowe (2010) Healthcare Reform and Nurses: Challenges and Opportunities. Web.