Graduate Education : Meeting Society Needs

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Graduate Education: Meeting Society Needs
Health care and the needs of society are ever-changing. Many of these recent changes, such as the Affordable Care Act, population growth, and a continuing nursing shortage have placed a strain on the health care system. This has driven the nursing arena to be prepared to meet the increased demands of society by educating nurses at the graduate level and integrating critical thinking, quality improvement and safety, through use of electronic healthcare record (EHR), leadership, research, and technology. Graduate nursing education will address the nursing shortage as well as the needs of society, by placing nurses in critical positions as scientists, educators, providers, and as leaders throughout the health care system.
All Americans deserve the right to accessible health care. Consequently, the government has started the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is simply “quality, affordable health care for all Americans” (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010). The demand for health care is increasing yearly, which can be contributed to not only the aging and population growth, but also the Affordable Care Act. It is estimated that by the year 2019, over 32 million individuals will be gaining health coverage (Hofer, Abraham, & Moscovice, 2011). To be able to care for the rapidly growing number of health care recipients, continued changes must take place within the health care setting. Not only is there an increase number of people seeking health care but there is a shortage of nurses available to deliver quality patient care. The US Census Bureau (2014) states that the average age of nurses will continue to rise, with approximately fifty percent entering retirement by 2020. There is an...

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...d nurses: A consensus position, 2010). This will enable the health care arena to have the resources needed to improve health care delivery to patients (Grant & Greene, 2012).
The health care system will continue to see a rise in patients seeking health care. This is due to an increased number of people who now have health care coverage since the passage of the ACA, as well as the increasing number of the aging citizens and the growth of the United States population. Compounding the problem is the nursing shortage. The role of graduate education is to ensure all nurses have the tools needed to provide quality and efficient care health care. These complex issues with the health care delivery system are no longer problems of tomorrow; changes must be made now to ensure that the health care system has qualified professionals to meet the health needs of society today.

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