BACKGROUND

As patients and healthcare professionals, we all can appreciate the roles that nurses fulfill in supporting clinical systems. Patient outreach and teaching, assisting providers, overseeing quality audits, conducting telephonic and virtual triage, and responding to patients’ urgent care needs, are just a few of the many ways in which the primary care environment is enriched through nursing practice. The roles of Clinical Care Coordination and Transitional Care Coordination, both of which have been identified as important navigational elements in healthcare and which have become more developed in the past ten years, are considered to be best performed by registered nurses in primary care settings. (The American Nurses Association: The Value of Nursing Care Coordination: A White Paper, 6/12: p. 6.)  

As reimbursement models continue to evolve over time and sustain an ever-growing registry of quality indicators, the caliber of practice required to identify excellence in the primary care environment also expands. Batiste-Brown (2023) states that true clinical effectiveness will require nursing leaders to move away from historical training and roles and look toward new ways to employ resources. The mining and analytics required for accurately reporting evidence of quality supports the need to develop new ways to coordinate the patient experience. This article will explore ways in which the practice contributions of nurses in the primary care environment are linked to quality industry standards as well as to Nurse Sensitive Indicators (NSIs).

Continue Reading the Article