Health Care Change: Impact on Nurses

Change has been constant in health care for decades but has accelerated in the last 10 to 15 years. Change in the health care system is driven by a number of strong forces that promise to continue into the foreseeable future. A short list of driving forces of change includes:

• increasing cost
• constantly changing technology
• an aging population
• increased diversity of the population and the workforce
• changing disease patterns
• economic pressures
• federal and state legislative and regulatory rules affecting health care

Of all these shaping forces, the pressing need to provide good quality care at reasonable cost is probably the one most strongly felt on a daily basis by providers, including nurses. The forces of change shape the way nurses and other providers give care. They determine where care is given, how it is given, and even how we think about health care issues.