Health Care System - Healthcare Services - Wellness and Prevention

Question: What is the role of health care reform in shifting the focus from a disease-oriented health care system toward one of wellness and prevention, and how does nursing fit into this shift? Answer: It can be said that healthcare sector has been an important sector in USA and other parts of the world. This sector has seen number of reforms and changes. The reforms in healthcare sector has shifted the healthcare delivery to managed care. With healthcare reforms, the concept of outpatient services has also expanded (Robertson, 2011). There has been a transformation in the healthcare sector in American from disease oriented healthcare system to wellness and prevention. This transformation has been possible only because of increase awareness among patients and people. Today people are more proactive in their approach towards healthcare services. Today, people would not wait for a disease to happen and then visit hospitals. Instead, people would focus on their wellness strategy and preventive measures. This would not have been possible without the support of nursing staff (Salomon, 2011). It can be said that the role of nursing staff has increased with this transformation. Today, nurses are considered as partners to patients and nurses act as the first line of support for patients. It is expected that this trend would mature in future and nurses would have more responsibility to share. It is expected that nurses would have more role to play with the penetration of managed care programs and preventive programs for healthcare. References Pande, A. H., Ross-Degnan, D., Zaslavsky, A. M., Salomon, J. A. (2011). Effects of healthcare reforms on coverage, access, and disparities: quasi-experimental analysis of evidence from Massachusetts.American journal of preventive medicine,41(1), 1-8. Schoen, C., Doty, M. M., Robertson, R. H., Collins, S. R. (2011). Affordable Care Act reforms could reduce the number of underinsured US adults by 70 percent.Health Affairs,30(9), 1762-1771.