Week 8 Professional Portfolio: Health Care Reform This course has exposed me to today's health care delivery system with the anticipated shift to address access to health care, cost, quality, equity, globalization, and the aging population. The current health care system will continue to develop inter-professional collaborative efforts, each organization transforming health care today into a future of wellness and preventive care. I have reflected upon the teachings in this course from the perspective of a nurse informaticist. The purpose of this paper is to consider how this course has affected my attitude toward other health care professionals and reveal insight I believe will be helpful moving health care reform forward. I will discuss how my ideas developed during this course regarding my ethical responsibilities toward patients, the family of patients, my profession, organization, society, and myself; and new insights gained between legal and ethical guidelines. My Attitude Toward Other Health Professionals My attitude toward other health professionals remains respectful as health care shifts toward a future of inter-professional collaboration. The availability of the electronic health record (EHR) allows practitioner's quick, easy access to the internet to research best practice for disease management, seek advice from other health care professionals, and provide quality care (Kropf, 2011). Health care professionals should maintain positive attitudes toward the EHR in the hopes of developing a system of wellness. Knowledge/Insights Useful in Moving Healthcare Reform Forward Information technology (IT) is one asset the United States (U.S.) will rely upon in the effort to move health care reform forward. Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS, 2012) identified the potential benefits of EHR as streamlining patient care, eliminating duplication of 12 services, reducing medication errors, legible patient records, prompt access to advancements in evidence-based practice, collaborating care, enhanced communication for patients and health care providers, and convenient access to patient records. The electronic health record (EHR) transformed the nurses' approach to data collection and interpretation to improve patient safety and excellent outcomes with knowledge readily available at the point of patient care (Kropf, 2011). Coordinating Information Technology (IT) with health science offers opportunities promoting preventive care in the wellness continuum. Ethical Responsibilities Nurses contend with health care policy, politics, and professional ethics regarding patients on a daily basis. Nurses, bound by confidentiality, hold the patient with high regard, while family, organizations, and society separate and apart. Advances in IT and the implementation of the EHR leave patients vulnerable for potential breeches in confidentiality resulting in possible ethical and legal consequences. All decisions made, are in the best interest of the patient; therefore, nurses must poses confidence in their own sense of self-awareness, deliberation, and stay well versed in the knowledge of medicine, law, and ethics to provide the highest quality of patient care (Kropf, 2011). Professional nursing organizations support and guide nurses in their endeavor to provide quality care. The code of ethics, developed by the ANA, provides the standards by which nurses. Understandings Gained, the Relationship Between Legal and Ethical Guidelines Legal and ethical guidelines provide a platform for nurses to abide by throughout their careers to safeguard patients. Nurses understand the patient rights and autonomy; however, an effort must be made on the nurse's behalf to comprehend the legal jargon. Nurses often find 13 themselves conflicted with incidents, such as nonmalfeasance, or not harming a patient intentionally (ANA, 2010). Regardless, one must keep an open mind and abide by the patient. Summary The focus of health care is moving beyond the patient care received today, and places emphasis on the health of the patient across the wellness continuum. This renewed perspective integrates all aspects health care and services; therefore, eliminating fragmentation and concentrating on patient centered medical care. In summary, my attitude, outlook, and perspective remain positive with regard to implementing the EHR to better assist, organize, and move health care reform into a future forward.
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