Discussion 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Discussion 5 - Assignment Example According to the nurse, some patients or patients’ associates may turn hostile or physical at worst, especially when a health worker reveals certain disturbing information to them such as the loss of a loved one or the failure of a surgical procedure done on a person close them. The issue is related to the ethical principle of nonmaleficence because the nurse may have to decide between retaliating and upholding professionalism (Kjervik & Brous, 2010). Understanding the concerns of the advanced practice nurse provides me with an insight into the complexities involved in adjudicating similar ethical issues in my practice. The understanding demonstrates to me the need to be prudent in my conduct. An issue facing the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act is the increased backlog of patients that physicians have to attend to due to the expansion of medical coverage that have accrued from the implementation of the act. Shortage of nurses in the U.S accentuates the problem from this issue. While expanding coverage to the uninsured Americans is good, physicians’ increased backlog might delay patients’ access to care because of inadequate healthcare workforce. A legal issue surrounding the increased backlog of patients for the few available physicians is the challenge to expand the scope of practice for non-physician health professionals in order to help reduce the backlog. Laws regulating the scope of practice of health practitioners have always required that physicians supervise the practice of other non-physician practitioners. This policy will provide a window for me as an advanced practice nurse to exercise my specific role complementing that of physicians (Le Buhn & Swankin, 2010). One of the changes that I would make to the Affordable Care Act is to expand the role of advanced practice nurses by charging them with management of health homes. Advanced