Although it is clear that a growing patient population requires a larger nurse workforce, the nursing shortage Americans face is not just about numbers; it’s about skills for the future. The aging Baby Boomer generation is creating a pressing need for legions of new nurses with expanded skills who can provide the primary and preventive care, chronic care management and care coordination these older Americans need. Further, as more Americans have access to health care through health care reform provisions, more advanced practice nurses, especially those who provide primary
The American Academy of Nursing and its Raise the Voice campaign brought together distinguished health care providers and other prominent stakeholders for a dynamic and informative discussion—Solutions to Scale: Proven Health Care Models for Primetime—at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Barbara Jordan Conference Center. The event, moderated by National Public Radio’s Scott Hensley, examined how various innovations could be applied during the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was enacted in March of this year.
According to recently released study in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, simulation-based learning significantly reduces the number of medication errors. This first-of-its-kind study, was conducted in adult coronary critical care (CCU) and medical intensive care (MICU) units in the Pittsburgh area. Because patients in these types of units receive multiple medications, they are at greater risks for error than those in non-intensive units..
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) provide primary care. NPs and CNMs take health histories, provide complete physical exams, diagnose and treat many common acute and chronic problems, interpret lab results and other diagnostic tests, prescribe medications, and teach and counsel patients and their families about health and illness.
Read more here about the role of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in providing quality health care to Americans.
Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) has launched the Center for Nursing Excellence in Long-Term CareTM in an effort to help meet the demand for health care providers, especially nurses, that has been created by the world's aging population.
According to an Indianapolis Star article, 15 Indianapolis-area schools have a nurse practitioner (NP) on staff in their on-site health clinics. In many cases, these NPs serve as primary-care providers, not only for students, but for an entire family. In some states, nurse practitioners can diagnose conditions and write prescriptions. Although this article puts the spotlight on a local practice, the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care reports that about 24 percent of school-based health centers offer such care, and 42 percent see relatives of students.
According to this op-ed piece, federal dollars could not be better spent than on a program like the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). The newspaper highlights this evidence-based program as an excellent example of how to reduce health care costs and improve quality through preventive care.
The program, started 30 years ago by University of Colorado pediatrics professor David Olds was initiated in Dallas in 2006 by the Dallas Foundation in collaboration with the YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas to serve eligible mothers and children, many from disadvantaged homes.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recently announced that 63 schools of nursing are the recipients of the RWJF New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program (NCIN) scholarship awards. This year, 511 students entering accelerated programs for the 2010-2011 academic year will get scholarships of $10,000 each.
This week, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $250 million in new investments to increase the number of health care providers and strengthen the primary care workforce. This announcement reflects an increasing focus on workforce issues as part of health care reform implementation; the new investments were made possible by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
