5/26/2011
Innovative Examples...an initial listing...
The following are some examples that have come to our attention over the past year or so, placed here to stimulate readers to add other promising activities and to alert them to these efforts such that you can pursue any that interest you in further detail. Here are some which could be of use in our program evolution for the August 22/23, 2011 Summit: State universal coverage programs...Hawaii, Vermont, Michigan; state based programs that are having an impact...South Carolina..(ray greenberg/ med. Univ. Of S.C.), MD/Univ. MD (Claudia Bacquet); programs with a regional reach - WAMI, univ of wash educational collaboration; univ. Of Colorado Native American Center Telecommunications-based public health (Spero Manson, Director); public health educational organizational innovations - Texas A & M School of Rural Public Health, Ciro Sumaya (Founding Dean Emeritus), NEOCOM community based medic an and public health school (Jay Gershen, President.......), striking example of new health education community model involving nurse educative training Native American community leaders in public health...a new model that seems to work...Sheila Ryan and JoAnn Koerner).
5/24/2011
A pre-season (ie pre-re-awakening of HDP Blog) example!
Each day, between now and "opening day" for this health disparities blog, I hope to provide examples of why our organization decided there was a pressing need for it's August 22/23 MLKjr Health Equity Summit and a continuing educational effort through each year between subsequent Summits. The health policy blog is envisioned as a potentially useful venue to keep abreast of this complex and ever-changing societal effort to reduce health disparities. Illustrative examples are a good tool to appreciate why we think this is true.
Today's example has to do with the pressing need to address the issue of growing and perhaps reshaping the health care workforce over the coming decade if we are to have any reasonable chance of delivering excellent and cost effective health care to over 32 million currently unisured citizens. In the Jan. 20, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the editors published a cluster of short reports dealing with nursing education and practice. The first article, entitled "broadening the Scope of NursinG Practice"' by J A Fairman and others, summarizes the evidence that Advanced Practice Nurses, working indepently or in teams with physicians and other health professionals, can provide excellent primary care in a significantly cost-effective manner. After describing the traditional obstacles to such an expansion of nurse practice and pointing out that already 17 states allow such independent practice by qualified nurses, they conclude as follows, "Fighting the expansion of nurse practitioners' scope of practice is no longer a defensible strategy. The challenge will be for all health care professionals to embrace these changes and come together to improve US health care."
A major new Institute of Medicicine report provides a major foundation for the evidence and opinions above. One policy implication here is that the 33 remaing states which do not allow independent practice for nurses, should address that issue. But, there remains the question that there remains a dramatic nursing shortage in the USA.
A second relevant article in the same issue of the NEJM, "Nurses for the Future" by Linda Aiken, addresses that complex problem of an insufficienr supply cominG from the nursing educational pipeline. Dr.Aiken cites the impressive expansion in recent year of so-called retail clinics, staffed primarily by APRNs and that the supply os newly- minted APRNs is insufficienr to meet the anticipated demands. AIken argues that by shifting all nurse preparation program to the baccalaureate level via collaborative efforts involving community colleges and baccalaureate level institutions, tahr problems of nurse shortfal can be met. She argues that " public funding for nursing education must be used to steer the change in basic nursing education, just as public funding for patient care steers change in health care delivery." she goes on to identify existing educational public funding that can be used to address these changes. Aiken's ideas open up an area of innovative thinking about one of the most important issues (ie how to expand the health workforce) facing us right now and suggests to that there are certain workforce data that should be added to our growing list of evaluative benchmarks to check on as we follow progress in reducing health disparities over the coming decade.
Today's example has to do with the pressing need to address the issue of growing and perhaps reshaping the health care workforce over the coming decade if we are to have any reasonable chance of delivering excellent and cost effective health care to over 32 million currently unisured citizens. In the Jan. 20, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the editors published a cluster of short reports dealing with nursing education and practice. The first article, entitled "broadening the Scope of NursinG Practice"' by J A Fairman and others, summarizes the evidence that Advanced Practice Nurses, working indepently or in teams with physicians and other health professionals, can provide excellent primary care in a significantly cost-effective manner. After describing the traditional obstacles to such an expansion of nurse practice and pointing out that already 17 states allow such independent practice by qualified nurses, they conclude as follows, "Fighting the expansion of nurse practitioners' scope of practice is no longer a defensible strategy. The challenge will be for all health care professionals to embrace these changes and come together to improve US health care."
A major new Institute of Medicicine report provides a major foundation for the evidence and opinions above. One policy implication here is that the 33 remaing states which do not allow independent practice for nurses, should address that issue. But, there remains the question that there remains a dramatic nursing shortage in the USA.
A second relevant article in the same issue of the NEJM, "Nurses for the Future" by Linda Aiken, addresses that complex problem of an insufficienr supply cominG from the nursing educational pipeline. Dr.Aiken cites the impressive expansion in recent year of so-called retail clinics, staffed primarily by APRNs and that the supply os newly- minted APRNs is insufficienr to meet the anticipated demands. AIken argues that by shifting all nurse preparation program to the baccalaureate level via collaborative efforts involving community colleges and baccalaureate level institutions, tahr problems of nurse shortfal can be met. She argues that " public funding for nursing education must be used to steer the change in basic nursing education, just as public funding for patient care steers change in health care delivery." she goes on to identify existing educational public funding that can be used to address these changes. Aiken's ideas open up an area of innovative thinking about one of the most important issues (ie how to expand the health workforce) facing us right now and suggests to that there are certain workforce data that should be added to our growing list of evaluative benchmarks to check on as we follow progress in reducing health disparities over the coming decade.
5/22/2011
Introducing samples of health disparities policy issues.
The goal of this blog is to highlight relevant disparities issues, progress in the reduction (or lack thereof) of health disparities in America and globally, and to identify innovative approaches to addressing those disparities associated with unnecessary societal burden of disease. IAMMM expects to focus on the issues surrounding the existence of health disparities through the lenses of those suffering from them, until health disparities are no longer a major societal challenge. To prepare the new reader of our blog for the upcoming commentaries from some of the major contributors to the august 22/23 Summit on Health Equity, let me enumerate here some of the major themes the will be covered. Our program will give attention to the following issues: a review of the past decade and more of the nature and dimensions of health disparities; an examination of the health disparities' reduction goals of Healthy People - 2020; a review of plans for adjustment to the health clinical care workforce to accomodate coverage of an expanded population; a review of progress and plans for meeting existing and projected research needs in health disparities; innovations and initiatives in public health, prevention and health promotion; innovations and trends in meeting the complex needs of acute and chronic clinical care and the changing demography of an aging population; the cost-effectiveness of integrative (complementary) medicine and health care with relation to health disparities reduction; the impact of social/economic status on health status and disparities; analysis of the Health Reform Act and it's potential impact and relevance to the reduction of our national disease burden through health disparities reduction; health information technology and it's potential impact on improving quality and efficiency in the health care delivery systems; and finally, some models of innovative approaches in the US and globally tha deserve our attention as we look to future strategies for improvement. More to come from those hard at work on the development of the August Summit!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
