More Stringent Requirements Send Nurses Back to School - Essay Example

More Stringent Requirements Send Nurses Back to School - By Richard Perez Pena According to Perez Pena, as he has referred in his article “More Stringent Requirements Send Nurses Back to School” published in The New York Times on 23rd June, 2012, a more stringent rule is about to come to the nurses. From now on the nurses need to have a Bachelor’s degree as the hospitals in the United States of America (USA) require the same. Due to this particular decision nurses have started to take admission in colleges for these courses, even already registered nurses have to undergo the same process.

A recent statistical finding of the American Association of College of Nursing has revealed the fact that admission to such program has witnessed a three fold growth in less than 10 years and due to the rise in online nursing courses. The requirement for nurses is so huge that the undergraduate nurses are still in demand. But the analysts have predicted that may change in the near future. Lawmakers in several states have framed bills according to, which at least some nurses working in a hospital should have a bachelor’s degree.

However it is still not institutionalized (Pena, 2012). The stakeholders are the general public and the nurses. The nurses are going to be directly affected while the general public will be indirectly affected by this decision. Here the author is emphasizing on two points. On one hand he is saying that nurses will have to become more educated to retain their jobs and to get better equipped in their future. However, this will also pose difficulties for the current as well as aspiring nurses, since from now on becoming a nurse would be a more tedious job than before.

On the other hand he is stating that if the nurses are more qualified, they will be able to do their jobs in a better way as they would have better knowledge about the subject and the patients will get a better service. The author has given an example of a nurse named Jennifer Matton who works at Abington Memorial Hospital. She has to get a nursing degree from a college to remain in this field. She has to continue doing her job simultaneously and has to take care of her four children. This definitely sounds cumbersome and difficult to manage. But Ms. Matton also stated herself that pursuing this degree has helped her to understand her subject better than before.

She now understands what she does in the hospital and why she does so (Pena, 2012). The section of the general public who are aspiring nurses will have to at least pursue their graduation in nursing and earn a bachelor’s degree to get their desired job. Now this may not affect those who have already planned to do their graduation, but it will certainly adversely affect those who desperately need a job, since they first have to get their degree in nursing, without which they are going to remain jobless.

Again, to attain the degree these people have to spend quite a lot of money. Some of them may not be in a position to bear the cost. Hence, this financial condition of these people will definitely act as a barrier between them and their goal. The nurses will have to complete their bachelor’s degree and need to do their job simultaneously, which is difficult and extremely hectic. Lots of nurses have to take care of their families, which will make their job even more difficult. On the other hand the patients will be better off because of this decision.

They will enjoy better service from the nurses as they will be more qualified and they would have a much better knowledge about their subject. Medicare Billing at Higher Rates -By Fred Schulte, Joe Eaton and David Donald The Centre for Public Integrity carried out an investigation regarding increase in medical billing abuse. Medicare has received bills worth $ 11 billion from more than thousands of doctors in the last 10 years. Recent studies show that the average person’s health conditions have not deteriorated and so the theory placed by the doctors that people nowadays need more complicated and costly treatments is invalid (Shulte, 2012).

Here the author is saying that medical practitioners and doctors have started unethical practices to earn more profit out of their services. In the last 10 years doctors have increased their high-paying rates which they have billed to Medicare, while decreasing their lower-paying rates. Some medical groups say that this phenomenon is due to the fact that the people are getting older and their health issues are getting more and more complicated. But research has been done by the Centre for Public Integrity states otherwise.

Also surveys done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that the amount of time spent by physicians with their patients has not increased. So this act can be stated as Upcoding or Code-creep where doctors bill more than what should have been billed (Shulte, 2012). Now these activities were proving to be beneficial for the doctors as they were charging Medicare or their patients more than they should have. But from the patient’s or Medicare’s point of view they were incurring losses for obvious reasons.

References Pena, R.P. (2012). More stringent requirements send nurses back to school. New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/education/changing-requirements-send-nurses-back-to-school.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn Schulte, F. Eaton, J. and D. Donald (2012). Doctors, others billing Medicare at higher rates. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doctors-others-billing-medicare-at-higher-rates/2012/09/15/27047458-f2fa-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html 2