In the ever changing world of healthcare, as new illnesses come along and as managed care gets more involved, nurses and doctors alike will be required to be on top of different ways that they can provide care to patients, DNP’s ( Doctorate of Nurse Practice) will have to step in and provide expert clinical advice. With health care costs on the rise, there are new and improved ways to provide care to patients both in and out of the hospitals. Much of it involves empowering patients and their families to learn more about healthcare. This will put more responsibility on the nurse to manage the care. Many people use the emergency room as their primary care doctor. This is the information that nurses can take to empower patients to have a primary care doctor or go to a less urgent facility like a walk in clinic if it is after hours to allow them to determine severity of their condition.
With the Affordable Care Act, it would be helpful for the DNP to be in an interdisciplinary team, because the nurse cannot possibly function in all the capacities and take care of multiple patients. Nurses these days coordinate care for patients at home and even in the hospital, so that the different disciplines that need to see the patient, can help them recuperate from their illness or adjust to a new way of life due to a life changing illness. The eight essential roles for the DNP may be interwoven, however each is a specialty in of itself and that is where the interdisciplinary team can come in to play (Fain, Asselin, & McCurry, 2008).
References
Fain, J., Asselin, M., & McCurry, M. (2008, July). The DNP why now. Nursing Management Springhouse, 39(7), 34-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000326565.46790.c0
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