PA State Nurses Association Places a Call-to-Action for Improved Health Care
The Association asks the Commonwealth to utilize the thousands of Advanced Practice Nurses to help solve the issues of delivering quality care in an over-burdened health care system.
Harrisburg, PA (PRWEB) February 4, 2005 -- The PA State Nurses Association,
in collaboration with the Alliance of Advanced Practice Nurses, today released
an extensive briefing paper, entitled “Solving One Piece of the Health Care
Delivery Crisis Puzzle: An Action Agenda for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,”
examining the full scope of Advanced Practice Nurses and their capability to
significantly expand the capacity of Pennsylvania’s health care system.
This briefing paper provides thorough background information about Nurse
Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Nurse Midwives -- all registered
nurses with advanced education – and supportive evidence of how and why the
proposed solutions will deliver measurable results that will support the health
care system and the advancement of care.
“The PA State Nurse Association
feels strongly that Advanced Practice Nurses are under-utilized and because of
this lack of use, patients suffer,” said Michele P. Campbell, MSN, RNC,
executive administrator for the PA State Nurses Association. “Many of the
problems plaguing the health care industry derive from inappropriate allocation
of resources, and this briefing paper highlights how Advanced Practice Nurses
are more than capable of delivering real solutions to the present allocation
crisis – all while providing additional benefits including, bringing quality
care to underserved areas and reducing medical costs.”
“As much as 80%
of adult primary care services and 90% of pediatric primary care services can be
performed by Advanced Practice Nurses – offering an untapped resource for the
entire state to increase access to care for patients. With specialized advanced
medical education and clinical competency to provide health and medical care for
diverse populations, there is no reason why Advanced Practice Nurses should not
be utilized to the fullest extent of their capabilities,” said Sheila Gealey,
president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners.
“This
call-to-action is about delivering better-quality care and improving how our
health care system operates,” said Tine Hansen-Turton, ED of the National
Nursing Centers Consortium. “We hope this briefing paper will be a pivotal piece
in educating our legislators, health care administrators and patients, so that
we may move toward a more efficient and effective system of administering care.”
Among the key resolutions within the briefing paper are the
following:
§ Create meaningful consumer access to
Advanced Practice Nurses through greater representation as primary care
providers in insurance company provider networks.
§ End the
further creation of unintended barriers within statute rhetoric by adopting
language rules that use a more inclusive term than physician -- extending to
appropriate health care professionals -- for legislative
intent.
§ Expand consumer access to care by Advanced
Practice Nurses by eliminating existing statutory barriers that prohibit Nurse
Practitioners, Nurse-Midwives and Clinical Nurse Specialists from performing
their full scope of practice in all settings, for all populations.
For a
complete copy of the briefing paper , or to request an interview, please contact
Mandy Priest by emailing e-mail protected from spam bots or by calling
888-707-7762 X 208 (cell 1-443-690-4197). Copies are also available at www.panurses.org.
About
the PA State Nurses Association
The PA State Nurses Association is a
nonprofit member-supported association representing the over 200,000 registered
nurses in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The PA State Nurses Association
works to advance the profession of nursing through education, advocacy,
practice, and legislation. PA State Nurses is a constituent member of the
American Nurses Association and is the official voice for nursing in
Pennsylvania. Visit www.panurses.org for more information.
About the
Alliance of Advanced Practice Nurses
The Alliance of Advanced Practice Nurses
is composed of associations of health care providers in Pennsylvania, which
support a health care delivery system that promotes quality care and is fair to
consumers and providers.
The Alliance consist of the following
supporting organizations:
Pennsylvania State Nurses
Association
Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners
Pennsylvania
College of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
Pennsylvania
Association of Nurse Anesthetists
National Association of Clinical Nurse
Specialists
Pennsylvania Chapter - American Psychiatric Nurse
Association
National Nursing Centers Consortium
Association of
Nurse-Midwives
Questions/comments regarding the Alliance should be
directed to the PA State Nurses Association by calling 888-707-7762 or emailing
e-mail protected from spam bots.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb204736.htm