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CHANGES IN HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND NURSING EDUCATION
Nursing is changing. Rising hospital costs, increasing home health care and extended life spans all affect the role of the nurse, say nursing educators at The University of Texas at Austin.
"One of the biggest impacts on nursing education, as well as on nursing care, is the efforts to control the cost of health care," says Dr. Marlene H. Weitzel, assistant professor of nursing.
In an effort to control costs hospital stays are being shortened, and "nurses have had to change their pattern of thinking related to planning health care for their patients," explains Dr. R. Craig Stotts, assistant professor of nursing.
"Nursing probably has been most affected by the expanse in life span from the newborn to the very elderly and the very, very complex treatments and modalities that nursing, as well as medicine, is dealing with in that wide age group," adds Dr. Barbara M. Petrosino, assistant professor of nursing.
Drs. Stotts, Weitzel and Petrosino discussed the impact of changes in health care delivery on nursing education in October on "The Next 200 Years," a weekly radio series produced by The University of Texas at Austin.
Nursing must enlarge its teaching role, Dr. Petrosino explains, "because much of the care that has been done in acute care settings is now being done in the home with the assistance of community resources."
In addition to the vital role of the nurse in community care, Dr. Petrosino stresses the "increased role of the family as caregiver in...