As healthcare continues to evolve each year, the importance of extensive patient care and treatment becomes a chief factor. Nurses have always been considered a crucial symbol of healthcare. They are an essential group of professionals that performs in the frontlines of the healthcare settings. They are responsible for helping the patients with diagnoses of disease while ensuring they receive hands-on care throughout their treatment. With the technological advancement paving the way for healthcare services, nurses’ roles are broadening even further. Moreover, the prevalence of the aging baby boomers and chronic illness also gave rise to the professional nurses known as nurse practitioners.
With this prevalence, healthcare is experiencing an alarming nursing shortage in the sector. Nurse practitioners are coming forward to cover various roles to diagnose and treat the illness while recording the patient’s data. Nurse practitioners push their professional expertise to the level of detailed treatment and disease prevention. As their workforce increases, their effect on the quality of healthcare also becomes prominent. The nurse group is all set to become even more crucial to healthcare because of the broader services to the patient groups. With that said, let’s discuss the role of nurse practitioners in giving quality health services.
Quality of Care
Quality of care is one of the top roles of nurse practitioners in the healthcare sector is providing. The latest COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all sectors around the globe. Not just the business, the pandemic significantly shut down the global economy. The healthcare sector was overwhelmed with the challenges of the pandemic. During the pandemic, there was an increase in the expectations of the quality of care in healthcare globally. More people are worried about receiving the top healthcare services. However, the nurse practitioner is playing a crucial role in providing the best patient care. They incorporate all the factors for the physical and mental wellness of the patients.
The nurse practitioners are qualified to provide highly efficient health services to the patients. On the other side, education also constitutes the quality of care for patients. Many nursing students and educators are now aware that education is the primary approach to enhance the quality of care. For that instance, students are considering online MSN programs to develop the skills for taking on advanced roles in healthcare. This graduate-level professional degree will fill the gaps of demand for nurse practitioners and ensure health promotion and disease prevention.
Personalized Care
As 2021 unfolds, the consumer demands personalized care from healthcare professionals. According to the research of Path to Better Health 2019, more than 64% of people look for options on personalized care for more safe and efficient treatment. It is true in most cases because they do not know what comes with their diagnosis. With the option for personalized care, they can monitor and control what is best for their health.
Nurse practitioners employ their skills to meet the personalization demands of the consumers. They provide patient-centric healthcare services by incorporating the factors that influence their health individually. These healthcare professionals stand out from other professionals by using factors like the patient’s age, religion, mental health, lifestyle, and family. It is also why nurse practitioners use the multifaceted approach to understand the patient’s health needs.
Healthcare Policymaking
Healthcare is the most complex system that directly deals with the patients, and their health, thus involves tons of considerations. The healthcare professionals control and monitor the sector with the policies to provide the consumers’ health services. These policies determine which considerations should healthcare professionals use to make decisions for the treatment of patients. This policymaking is crucial to ensure the best results for the patient treatment.
Nurse practitioners use a holistic approach to design and implement healthcare practices that are safe and affordable to consumers. Nowadays, patients are more concerned about the treatment in the healthcare sectors. In this case, it is essential to establish policies that are efficient for the treatment of patients. This way, nurse practitioners are improving health quality by promoting access to all groups of people.
Team-Based Care
For patient-centered care, healthcare must establish team-based care. It may involve at least two professionals to efficiently identify the patient treatment needs and providing them the services. For that instance, nurse practitioners are uniquely the best fit for team-based care. They use their extensive skills for communication and collaboration to use the patient-centered data to provide healthcare services.
This team-based care and collaboration can improve the quality of health services and reduce the employees’ workload and burnout. As discussed earlier, physicians cannot deal with all the patients at once, which is inefficient. Nurse practitioners leverage team-based care for the delivery of quality healthcare services.
Final Words
Nurse practitioners have proven that the quality of health services revolves around simple practices and tactics. With the right education and experience, nurse practitioners play an essential role in health promotion in various areas. However, it is still unclear when healthcare will promote a similar approach by changing healthcare delivery tailor-made to the patient. But one thing is sure that nurse practitioners will remain the best solution to all healthcare problems.