Nurse Practitioners
Nurse Practitioners Taking Over Home Health Fields
Nurse Practitioners (NP’s) have integrated their profession into many fields including adult primary care, family primary care, neonatal care, acute care, pediatric primary care, as well as many more fields. NP’s have started to penetrate the home health care field, but have not fully integrated their profession into it yet. This paper will delve into the idea of NP’s fully integrating into the home health profession as well as the legal changes that will need to be made in order to successfully implement this plan.
Home Health
In the United States, it is estimated that there are 2.4 million disabled and elderly people that need home health care yearly (Ellenbecker, Samia, & Cushman, 2008). …show more content…
However, this is a great opportunity for NP’s to intervene as well. For many of these patients it is extremely difficult to travel whether it be to visit the doctor or to return to the hospital. This would be the point where a NP could travel to the patient’s home like the home health nurse would and would be able to examine the patient at home. For example, a patient is being treated by a home health nurse for a chronic wound. The nurse suspects that the wound is infected and suggests that the patient be seen by their doctor or by a specialist in the hospital. Instead of the patient traveling, a wound care NP could come and see the patient at home and could save them a trip to the …show more content…
The demand for home health care nurses and NP’s is already booming. This demand is only expected to increase. As more people have access to health care, and with population growth, the demand for home health NP’s should increase (Ellenbecker et al., 2008).
Home Health NP’s would work with home health RN’s to ensure the homebound patient is cared for. This would be convenient for the patient and the patient’s family. These NP’s would have the opportunity to integrate themselves in their patient’s lives. They would become part of the family. Visiting someone at home is a completely different scenario than seeing a patient in the hospital.
Conclusion
NP’s have many different options when looking for an employer. They can work in various healthcare fields and some have the option to work independently. NP’s working in the home health field gives NP’s another option as well as provides the best possible care for the homebound patient. NP’s should be granted access to prescribe home health for their clients, and they should be able to provide excellent care for their
Nurse Practitioners (NP’s) have integrated their profession into many fields including adult primary care, family primary care, neonatal care, acute care, pediatric primary care, as well as many more fields. NP’s have started to penetrate the home health care field, but have not fully integrated their profession into it yet. This paper will delve into the idea of NP’s fully integrating into the home health profession as well as the legal changes that will need to be made in order to successfully implement this plan.
Home Health
In the United States, it is estimated that there are 2.4 million disabled and elderly people that need home health care yearly (Ellenbecker, Samia, & Cushman, 2008). …show more content…
However, this is a great opportunity for NP’s to intervene as well. For many of these patients it is extremely difficult to travel whether it be to visit the doctor or to return to the hospital. This would be the point where a NP could travel to the patient’s home like the home health nurse would and would be able to examine the patient at home. For example, a patient is being treated by a home health nurse for a chronic wound. The nurse suspects that the wound is infected and suggests that the patient be seen by their doctor or by a specialist in the hospital. Instead of the patient traveling, a wound care NP could come and see the patient at home and could save them a trip to the …show more content…
The demand for home health care nurses and NP’s is already booming. This demand is only expected to increase. As more people have access to health care, and with population growth, the demand for home health NP’s should increase (Ellenbecker et al., 2008).
Home Health NP’s would work with home health RN’s to ensure the homebound patient is cared for. This would be convenient for the patient and the patient’s family. These NP’s would have the opportunity to integrate themselves in their patient’s lives. They would become part of the family. Visiting someone at home is a completely different scenario than seeing a patient in the hospital.
Conclusion
NP’s have many different options when looking for an employer. They can work in various healthcare fields and some have the option to work independently. NP’s working in the home health field gives NP’s another option as well as provides the best possible care for the homebound patient. NP’s should be granted access to prescribe home health for their clients, and they should be able to provide excellent care for their