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Why Nurses Are The Way of The Futureby Gina BrowneNurse-led Care Is The Solution
Why Nurses Are The Way of The Futureby Gina BrowneNurse-led Care Is The Solution
Why Nurses Are The Way of The Futureby Gina BrowneNurse-led Care Is The Solution
ca
http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/evidencenetwork/archives/6540
For example, a 10% reduction in the $8 billion spent on acute care in Ontario for the 1% of citizens who account for almost half of hospital and home care spending could result in a potential savings of $800 million a year money that could be used for managing chronic diseases in the community or at home. Research has also shown that a post-hospital discharge program for patients who have been hospitalized for congestive heart failure can cut hospital readmissions by over 60%. Similarly, a primary care asthma intervention program yielded 50% fewer emergency visits. Beyond the issue of cost-effectiveness, a nurse-led proactive, comprehensive model of health and social care makes sense because nurses, more than any other healthcare professional, have been trained to manage patient health, and include the social circumstances that determine health in general. They are also trained to identify specific situations that require more expert input from members of the care team. For the past 50 years, we have had an insured on-demand physician-led model focused on episodic acute care. For people with multiple chronic conditions, its time to test the value of a nurse-led model, with a physician as one member of a team. Every member of the team can then do what they do best, with nurses enlisting all the health and social services that can augment the determinants of a persons overall health. In July, Canadas provincial and territorial premiers will be meeting as the Council of the Federation and a report from the federations health care innovation working group will be on the agenda. We hope that this different model of care, with nurses at the forefront, will be explored and endorsed for addressing the growing needs and costs of patients with multiple chronic illnesses. Gina Browne is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and a professor with McMaster Universitys Faculty of Health Sciences. She is co-author of a report, Better Care: An Analysis of Nursing and Healthcare System Outcomes that is available on the website of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.