Increase Nurses’ Awareness of Health Care Financing Issues

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Increase Nurses’ Awareness of Health Care Financing Issues Health care financing has significant implications on nursing practice and the clinical decisions made at all care levels. A lack of financial knowledge can cripple nursing practice and reverse the progress made in healthcare. Nurses, therefore, need to know basic facts on healthcare financing including reimbursement and other financial issues. Reimbursement changes are likely to influence how nurses deliver care in all settings. Since these changes have a direct impact on the nurse’s welfare, communication of the changes to the nurses needs to be accurate and effective. Understandably, nurses have long been reluctant to embrace financial expertise. This reluctance makes it challenging for these professionals to comprehend the impact of various financial changes on nursing practice.

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Strategies for sharing information on reimbursement changes Improving nurses’ comprehension of various financial issues, including reimbursement and how they are intertwined with their daily activities, is necessary. Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations have not implemented the necessary strategies to enlighten nurses of relevant health care financial issues (Bai et al., 2017). Proper communication and training mechanisms are required to increase the nurse’s knowledge of the language of finance. Providing service as a caregiver versus dealing with financial issues may seem at odds for many nurses.

After all, they joined the profession to offer care to the people not to engage in budgets, balance sheets and other financial issues. Therefore, proactive communication with the nurses is crucial when addressing issues related to reimbursement changes and healthcare financing.

Nurse Managers are mandated with the task of educating other nurses on critical financial issues. Educational forums provide a concrete ground for sharing vital information on financial changes (Rambur, 2015). During these forums, managers provide the nurses with clear and accurate information concerning the actual changes in their reimbursement procedures. These professionals are also informed of the potential benefits and disadvantages of the proposed reimbursement changes.

Suggestions to increase nurses’ awareness of health care financing issues?

Collaboration between staff in the nursing and finance departments is a strategic way to improve the nurses’ awareness of healthcare financing issues (Mississippi College, 2021). This collaboration gives nurses a chance to inquire about complex financial issues affecting their daily tasks. Understandably, the nursing-finance gap goes both ways. Nursing education rarely touches on financial issues. Finance education, on the other hand, does not deal with nursing issues.

Therefore, the partnership between these two departments creates an opportunity for the finance

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officers to learn the nursing practice's day-to-day realities while allowing nurses to learn more about healthcare financing.

Education can also enhance nurses’ knowledge of healthcare financial issues. During educational forums, nurses are granted an opportunity to ask questions on complex healthcare financial issues. Facilitators in these sessions are healthcare finance specialists capable of answering all questions regarding healthcare financing. Besides education, nurses need to be provided with learning materials containing relevant information on healthcare financial issues.

These materials provide a base for reference when faced with challenges in the future.

Another strategy to increase nurses’ awareness of healthcare financing issues is incorporating healthcare finance into nursing education. This move helps improve the education system, thus increasing the nurses’ knowledge on critical healthcare and financial issues. Since measures have been established to enable nurses to practice to their full extent of training and education, training on finances enables them to handle complicated healthcare financial issues.

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References Bai, Y., Gu, C., Chen, Q., Xiao, J., Liu, D., & Tang, S. (2017). The challenges that head nurses confront on financial management today: A qualitative study. International journal of nursing sciences, 4(2), 122-127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2017.03.00 Mississippi College. (2021). Why Healthcare Finance Is Important to Nurses. https://online.mc.edu/degrees/nursing/rn-to-bsn/healthcare-finance-important-to-nurses/ Paterson, M. A. (2014). Healthcare finance and financial management: Essentials for advanced practice nurses and interdisciplinary care teams. DEStech Publications, Inc. Rambur, B. (2015). Health care finance, economics, and policy for nurses: A foundational guide.

Springer Publishing Company.

Sasso, L., Bagnasco, A., Aleo, G., Catania, G., Dasso, N., Zanini, M. P., & Watson, R. (2017).

Incorporating nursing complexity in reimbursement coding systems: the potential impact on missed care. BMJ Quality and Safety, 26, 929-932. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs2017-006622