Nurses' Roles in the Healthcare System (Essay Sample)

Role of Nurses in the Healthcare System
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Role of Nurses in the Healthcare System
The healthcare system has undergone tremendous changes over recent years. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and new technologies have transformed the roles of nurses in the healthcare system. Nurses' roles include providing patient-centered care, even in the face of workaround issues and policy reforms.
Patient and family-centered care has been a key characteristic of the current healthcare system under ACA. There is an emphasis on establishing a partnership between nurses, patients, and their families to ensure physician's decisions respect patients' wishes (Salmon & Chavarria, 2017). Nurses must provide a holistic care approach that involve patients and their families, and tethered around empowering patients in their care. Nurses have the responsibility to form a partnership with patients and educate them to strengthen their capacity to make care decisions.
Healthcare technologies such as bar-code medication administration (BCMA) have been put in place to reduce preventable errors. However, challenges inherent to these technologies result in workarounds to circumvent the obstacles. Numerous problems lead to workarounds related to BCMA, including failing batteries of hand-held scanners, alerts that sound like confirmation beeps, and patients without bar-codes (McGee et al, 2019). Workarounds involve deviations from standard procedures by nurses and other care providers (McGee et al, 2019). Therefore, workarounds can lead to medical errors and compromise the quality of care.
The ACA has brought sweeping changes to the US Healthcare System. The policy increased access to care and emphasized prevention, collaboration, and health promotion (Salmon & Chavarria, 2017). Nurses play a critical role in ensuring the success of ACA objectives by spearheading the wellness and prevention program (Salmon & Chavarria, 2017). Patient care now goes further than the mere treatment of patie