TheUS Health Care System
TheUS Health Care System
Majorreforms have been undertaken on US Healthcare in an attempt toincrease its standards in terms of quality of care. Some of thesereforms include the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid but mostnotably the introduction of the Doctor for Nursing Practice, DNPdegree for nurses. The degree is a doctoral program designed fornurses, especially advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs)seeking a terminal degree in nursing. It offers an alternative to theexisting research based doctoral programs (MichiganHealth Council, 2016).This paper analyses the various ways that a DNP-prepared nurse cancontribute to the improvement of the US healthcare system,additionally, I will describe two of my personal professionalexperiences with health policy, law and ethics.
Competencesof a dnp-prepared nurse
Thisnon-research clinical doctorate degree for nurses is aimed atcreating expert practitioners who are also conversant with theclinical faculty. This doctorate program is expected to among otherthings expand the nurses’ knowledge underlying the practice, giventhe increased complexity and the very high expected quality ofpatient care and safety in the U.S (AACN, 2016). A persistentshortage of nurses in the U.S also demands that the nursing educationprograms prepare leaders in nursing practitioners, who can design andassess care.
Transitionof nursing from the traditional master’s degree for those seeking aterminal nursing degree to DNP is a move in the direction of otherhealthcare professions (Bemker& Schreiner, 2016). Theother doctorate programs for healthcare professionals in the USinclude doctorates in, Medicine (MD), Dentistry (DDS), Pharmacy(PharmD), Psychology (PsyD), Physical Therapy (DPT) and Audiology(AudD). These doctorate degrees were created to improve thehealthcare standards in the US, which necessitated a similar programfor nurses, for a similar purpose.
TheDNP degree builds on the traditional master’s programs thatprepared nurses especially APRN’s like Clinical Nurse Specialists,Nursing Practitioners and Certified Nurse-Midwives among others(MichiganHealth Council, 2016).Unlike the existing research based doctoral programs for nurses, itprepares them to fully implement the new and versatile sciencesdeveloped by nurse researchers at all levels of education includingPhD, DNSc and even the research-focused nursing doctorates.
Personalexperiences
Acase of the security of medically collected, genetic information frompatients and their rights on the sharing of this information,strictly for medical purposes using the Electronic Health Register(EHR). A patient claimed that their employer got access to suchinformation without consent, which is unethical given the assumedprivacy of information agreement with the hospital (uOttawa, 2016).It was discovered that the employer is in the Healthcare industry andas such could access the information but not use it for non-medicalpurposes. In another case an elderly patient under the long term stayin hospital program, due to old age diseases, contracted a catheterinduced Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) while under the hospital care(uOttawa, 2016). This resulted in litigation against the hospitalfrom the patient’s relations for negligence.
Conclusions
TheUS Healthcare system is one of the most advanced and progressivesystems globally, which in turn creates increasing demands andexpectations especially from practitioners in the industry. DNP-prepared nurses are better equipped with information andpractical capabilities to handle the modern healthcare demands andthe high expectations compared to their traditional master’scounter parts. This is better explained by their higher salary scaleover the rest of the nurses by $8,576 in 2011, depicting a higherlevel of competence. New policies and regulations on any emergingethical issues, especially given the rapidly changing healthcareenvironment, are necessary for the accountability of practitionersand safety of patients.
References
AACN.(2016). TheDoctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).Retrieved on 13thJanuary 2017 from,http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/dnp
MichiganHealth Council. (2016).Whatdoes a “Doctor of Nursing Practice” Mean to You?Retrieved on 13thJanuary 2017 from,https://www.michigancenterfornursing.org/news/news-reports-and-data/what-does-%E2%80%9Cdoctor-nursing-practice%E2%80%9D-mean-you
Bemker,M., & Schreiner, B. (2016). TheDNP degree & capstone project: A practical guide.Lancaster PA: Destech Pubns Inc.
uOttawa.(2016). Centerfor Health Law, Policy and Ethics.Retrieved on 13thJanuary 2017 from, https://commonlaw.uottawa.ca/health-law/research
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