In home care nursing, this 1st evidenced by nurse doing venipunctures (a laboratory technician's role) and
teaching and monitoring administration of oxygen (a respiratory therapists role). To prepare for the home care role,
nurses must be competent case managers and health educators.
In the last decade, our profession has made major process in several areas of public policy. The issue of
delegating duties to no licensed personnel has been addressed and continues to need clarification. Today, advanced
practice nurses (APNs) can bill directly through Medicare and in most states can prescribe medication. In some states
hospitals are mandated to maintain a safe level of staffing registered nurses based on the research on
staffing ratio and hospitals mortality.
Educational preparation and advanced practice nursing
Specialty areas of nurse practitioners have expanded to numerous subspecialties in the last 3 decades. These
include adult, gerontologic, neonatal, occupational, pediatric, psychiatric, school or college student, and women's
health. Nurse practitioners work in both rural and urban areas, from rural North Dakota to New York City. They
practice in diverse settings such as community health centers, hospitals, college student health clinics, physician
offices, nursing homes and hospices, home health care agencies, and nursing schools.
Educated Consumer
The educated consumer despite some information gaps, today's patient is a well-informed consumer who
expects to participate in decisions affecting personal and family health care. With advances in information technology
and quality measurement, previously unavailable information is now public information, and consumers are asked to
play a more active role in health care decision making and management. The increased power of the consumer in the
patient provider relationship creates a heightened demand for more sophisticated health education techniques and
greater levels of participation by patients in clinical decisions. Nurses must be prepared to understand this.
Technology and information
Computer technology has freed the nurse from some paper work, allowing more time for client care and
teaching about self-care. The expanding implementation of computer- based client records allows the preservation of a
client's history from birth to death.
Information age
Consumer today are more computer savvy regarding healthcare
More info on internet
Consumer could possibly be more health care worker
Joints commission 2014 all medical records have to be emergency.
Alternative and complementary therapies
To follow the holistic perspective, nurses must be knowledgeable about alternative therapies. With such
knowledge, they can monitor care and treatment and provide information about benefits and potential harm for clients.
In the future, nurses will increasingly be called on to provide knowledge about and use of alternative
therapies. Therefore, it is imperative that nurses continue to build their knowledge and skill base about alternative
therapies. As the population becomes more diverse ethnically, it is anticipated that more methods of promoting health
and treating illness will be necessary.
Research provides evidence that some alternative therapies enhance health and promote recovery from illness
for both the client and family caregivers (Research in Community-Based Nursing Care). While some caregivers still
support only Western methods of health care and continue to ignore or repudiate the value of more traditional or
alternative methods, the use of these practices has persisted and grown because people find them useful.
Shifting demographics
The nursing shortage is the latest demographic trend that will impact community-based care in the future. One
national survey of RNs indicated that 82% of nurses reported a shortage in their hospital or community. These nurse
did not have positive expectations of the impact of the shortage on work conditions, believing that some tasks