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Healthcare in 2020 is Expected to Go through Big Changes and Nurses will be in the Forefront

As Q1 2020 goes into full swing, the rest of the year is shaping up to be a particularly Important one for the healthcare industry. Similar to how it has been for the last couple of years, it looks like nurses will once again be at the forefront of those changes. To anyone who has been in touch with the industry’s latest developments, that won’t come as a surprise at all, but rather an inevitability at this point.

Going through the latest developments and staying updated with what’s happening in the segment is important for all healthcare workers, since it allows for clarity regarding where the industry is headed, what to expect, and how each factor may affect them.

Growth of the Job Market: Expectations are High for Nurses

The job of a nursing professional in the United States can be quite tiring, but it’s also one that pays well. How much a nurse will be paid exactly, depends on the specific nurse’s qualifications and experience. However, given the current shortage of medical staff in general and nurses in particular, all nursing salaries are expected to go up this year, including those of even fresh RNs.

As expected, the highest salaries in the field will be earned by nurses with DNPs, simply because it opens up career progression paths which lead to the highest rungs of the ladder. Taking a look at some of the numbers published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics should help in understanding the future estimations better:

  1. A growth of 31% in the demand for advanced practice nurses is expected by 2026
  2. No other profession in healthcare is expected to grow at such a high rate
  3. This growth in demand is not one that is likely to be met by the future nursing force
  4. The gap between demand and supply will boost salaries and work pressure simultaneously for APNs
  5. The average salary for APNs with a DNP is a very impressive $135,000+ now; by the end of 2020, this average will likely become much higher
  6. The growing deficit makes unemployment for an APN without a blemish on their record unlikely, both now and in the foreseeable future

Online Education in Healthcare is Growing Exponentially

As scarcity of necessary staff seems to have become the theme in most healthcare facilities, online education is one of the biggest hopes for creating a more capable workforce. In fields such as health informatics, where the need for practical training is not as great as it is in direct medical care, online courses can be used as an entry point into healthcare.

On the other hand, those working in direct healthcare are using the internet to earn specialization degrees and even doctorates. The popularity of online education is growing significantly with each passing year, and the reasons for that growth are rooted in convenience, practicality, and effectiveness. After going through a few points, the massive interest and consequent growth of online education should begin to make more sense:

  1. Online courses are designed to be flexible, something that’s necessary for working healthcare professionals who are already doing long shifts
  2. Since no one needs to take time off work for completing a professional degree, the already deficient workforce is not being further weakened
  3. The fact that healthcare workers can pursue higher education without having to take breaks from their present job has made it a more practical prospect
  4. Due to the convenience and economy factor being on the side of advanced online education for healthcare workers, it will help in shrinking the demand vs supply gap in certain segments

More APNs are Likely to Join Online Ph.D. Courses in 2020

BSNs and MSNs are the most popular nursing degrees pursued online, but it is estimated that there will be a new pattern this year. Aside from the already popular Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses, there will also be a significant rise in the number of Ph.D. candidates online. APNs are expected to show more interest in furthering their career opportunities to the maximum, by finally completing their education and training with a DNP.

For example, Walsh University is offering three different Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs online, which are each designed to help advanced practice nurses acquire leadership skills in a practical, healthcare setting. Nurses experienced in direct healthcare will now learn more about how to manage a healthcare facility/organization, think critically, and advocate the right causes to the right people.

This growing interest in online DNP programs is going to be instrumental in solving the gap in efficient leadership, which is a problem that’s growing in magnitude after each retirement year. Shot handed as the nurses already are, without experienced leaders to guide and organize the workforce, their work efficiency will further decline.

Adoption of the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC) is Expected from More States in 2020

The enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact or eNLC has so far been adopted by 32 states and seeing that the compact only came into being in January 2018, state adoption rates have been quite impressive. Although making progress with the remaining 18 states won’t be as fast, 2020 is still estimated to be a big year for eNLC.

The most likely states to sign this year are the following ten, but no one is expecting them all to come through by the end of 2020:

  1. Alabama
  2. Michigan
  3. Massachusetts
  4. Minnesota
  5. Rhode Island
  6. Vermont
  7. Louisiana
  8. New York
  9. New Jersey
  10. Illinois

The enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact was brought into effect by the NCSBN in 2018, and it was designed with the ideas as mentioned below:

  1. The central idea is that of meeting deficits in nursing staff by moving around the available workforce
  2. A nurse will not require separate state licenses to work in each different state anymore
  3. A single, accredited RN or higher license will now gain the status of a multistate license, granting them the legal right to work in any of the compact states

Although it is not a comprehensive solution, the effects of the freedom it provides to travel nurses have so far been quite remarkable. Nursing professionals can now be redirected to emergency situations within the compact states, as and when they occur, without having to worry about the legalities.

More Men are Expected to Join Nursing Schools in 2020 than in Any Previous Year

Looking only into the facts, it becomes obvious that nursing has not been the first choice of career for men who are interested in joining the healthcare industry. However, that trend is changing, and quite significantly at that. Prime reasons behind the change in perception are as much social, as they are economical and practical.

  1. Nursing has become an extremely lucrative career choice now, especially for highly qualified professionals
  2. Over the last decade, changes in social perception and world views have been nothing short of immense
  3. As there is an active deficit in a sector as vital as healthcare, gender-biased career decisions are beginning to make much less sense

A Care Model is Being Implemented to Make Healthcare More Affordable in the US

To state that healthcare in the US has been expensive would be a gross understatement of the actual facts. Going through the points as highlighted below should help in giving more gravity to the seriousness of the situation.

  1. There is no other nation in the world with more expensive healthcare than the US ($10,586 per capita health expenditure in 2018)
  2. The US is also the nation which spends more money on healthcare than any other; it’s not enough and that’s a huge problem

The Care Model is expected to bring down the costs to some extent at least, and some of its main features can be summarized as follows:

  1. Value-based payment models will provide the best value-for-money payment options to each patient; best treatment possible within the budget
  2. More transparency to patients regarding their procedures and associated expenses beforehand
  3. Universal health coverage can become a more practical option soon
  4. The government is expected to clamp down on the previously uncontrolled pricing, exploited heavily by pharmaceutical companies
  5. Population health management (PHM): identification, coverage, and treatment of each citizen, in accordance with their specific needs

Wider Adoption of the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE) Platform

Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies, or PULSE, has seen wide adoption rates already, but it is expected that even more states will join in this year. PULSE is a disaster response platform with national reach, and states with access to the platform will gain the ability to manage disasters better, helped by such features as follows:

  1. Disaster workers anywhere in the United States will be able to utilize the network and find patient documents from the database of all connected healthcare facilities
  2. They will also be able to forward queries to specific/all connected facilities simultaneously
  3. Working with the HHS, ASPR, ONC, NCDHHS and various other organizations at state level, PULSE will be the most complete platform for disaster assistance yet

The Slow Speed of Adaptive Changes Will Continue to be a Big Issue in Some States

Developments and expectations seen in 2019 and early 2020 do show a sign of intent towards bringing changes within the healthcare structure, something that was perhaps missing earlier. Industry specialists are of the opinion that these initiatives and steps should have been observed a while ago, and even as they are now, the speed is insufficient.

Florida has long been a place that only allows highly restricted authority to nurse practitioners and other advanced practice nurses. This created a difficult situation for both the local healthcare sector and the patients to deal with, on account of the following:

  1. A high senior population in Florida is catered to by an alarmingly low number of physicians
  2. The senior population will continue to need more regular, medical attention in the near future, as they age further

In realization of these facts, it was largely believed that nurse practitioners would finally be gaining the authority they needed for filling some of the gaps between supply and demand. The proposed plans, however, only managed to pass the Florida House (Bill 821), but its counterpart (SB 972) was canceled, indefinitely postponed, and put out of consideration completely on May 5, 2019. This decision established the following conclusions for the time being:

  1. End of any possibility for nurse practitioners to gain full autonomy in the state of Florida this year
  2. As no alternative solution was provided to counter Florida’s growing physician crisis, patients and doctors are going to find it increasingly more difficult

A point to be noted here is that in spite of NPs being kept restricted in Florida, their salaries have grown quite steadily in the state. A look at some of the numbers should provide more context:

  1. As of January 2020, nurse practitioners were earning $103,020 annually in the state on an average (median salary)
  2. Senior NPs in leading positions, who have completed their DNP, earn more than $120,000/annum
  3. Even the lowest-earning NP in Florida is expected to earn roughly $90,000 in salary
  4. While the lowest percentile for entry-level NPs is lower than the national average of $93,506, NPs in Florida enjoy a higher median/average salary

Autonomy would have been quite helpful in meeting the lack of physician presence in Florida’s current healthcare setting, but the Senate’s decision to not grant it to the APNs has not affected their employment opportunities or salaries in any manner. The decision is, however, being seen as a loss of opportunity to make healthcare in Florida better for the patients.

The US healthcare system has remained deficient in their personnel availability for a long time now, but that gap is widening further with every passing year. The availability and wide adoption of advanced online education in multiple sectors of healthcare is good news nonetheless. In fact, the admission rates for advanced study programs today is going to be crucial tomorrow when that widening gap becomes way too wide to be sustainable. Since nurses in particular cannot exactly be trained to become leaders in healthcare, or among communities immediately, preparations need to begin now.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.

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