- Email: [email protected]
The power of advocacy
Heart & Lung xxx (2016) 1
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Heart & Lung journal homepage: www.heartandlung.org
AAHFN Leadership Message
The power of advocacy
Sita Price
“Be an advocate for the people and causes important to you, using the most powerful tool only you havedyour personal stories.” d John Capecci and Timothy Cage A few years ago it seemed like an every day occurrence to me while seeing patients in clinic, as I’m sure it does to most of you, that I was faced with the challenge of helping patients receive appropriate therapies to improve their quality of life. The patients in clinic were usually recently discharged or referred for management to keep them out of the hospital. Unfortunately, at that time, one of the tools that was best suited to do this was cardiac rehabilitation (CR) which was not covered by Medicare for our heart failure patients, and therefore unavailable to us. That all changed in February 2014 when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a decision memorandum expanding coverage of CR services to patients with chronic stable systolic heart failure who met certain criteria.1 This is a great start but reaches only a little over half of our patients. We still don’t have good rehabilitation solutions for those patients with diastolic dysfunction. Nurses have long been taught that they have the responsibility of advocating for their patients. This has traditionally been practiced at the bedside. Nurses strive to ensure effective communication between patients and care providers, support patients and patients’ rights to make their own health care decisions, and address ethical issues to name just a few things.2 Our goal is to ensure the best care for our patients across the continuum of health care. Occasionally, we stumble across roadblocks. Nurses comprise the largest segment of the health care professionals. This is why nursing advocacy beyond the bedside is
0147-9563/$ e see front matter Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2016.01.001
essential. An advocate is defined as a person who “pleads the cause of another.” More specifically, pleading the case of another in a court. We have the opportunity to advocate for others on a large scale at a legislative level. Nurses are on the front line and know the obstacles that patients face in getting the care they require. The mission of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN) is to lead nurses in heart failure care. In recent years and in an effort to fulfill this mission, AAHFN has established an advocacy committee to scan the environment for issues affecting both nurses and heart failure patients, and to give them a voice at a legislative level to improve patient care and outcomes. As the quote above states, it is through our personal stories of the patients that we care for that we can impact and improve care for future patients. Let’s tell our stories.
Author descriptions Sita Price is a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner and Owner/ Founder of Elite Cardiac Care, LLC, a home health agency focused on providing care to cardiac patients in a home setting. Sita has been a nurse for 20 years and a nurse practitioner for 10 years, specializing in cardiology throughout her career. Previously, she was the heart failure program coordinator at Orlando Health for their flagship hospital, Orlando Regional Medical Center. Sita was instrumental in establishing the Advocacy Committee for AAHFN and currently serves on the Board of Directors. References 1. CMS Website. https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/ncadecision-memo.aspx?NCAId¼270; Accessed 12/15. 2. AACN Website. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursingfact-sheet; Accessed 12/2015.
Sita S. Price, DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC, CHFN Elite Cardiac Care LLC, USA E-mail address: [email protected]
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Heart & Lung journal homepage: www.heartandlung.org
AAHFN Leadership Message
The power of advocacy
Sita Price
“Be an advocate for the people and causes important to you, using the most powerful tool only you havedyour personal stories.” d John Capecci and Timothy Cage A few years ago it seemed like an every day occurrence to me while seeing patients in clinic, as I’m sure it does to most of you, that I was faced with the challenge of helping patients receive appropriate therapies to improve their quality of life. The patients in clinic were usually recently discharged or referred for management to keep them out of the hospital. Unfortunately, at that time, one of the tools that was best suited to do this was cardiac rehabilitation (CR) which was not covered by Medicare for our heart failure patients, and therefore unavailable to us. That all changed in February 2014 when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a decision memorandum expanding coverage of CR services to patients with chronic stable systolic heart failure who met certain criteria.1 This is a great start but reaches only a little over half of our patients. We still don’t have good rehabilitation solutions for those patients with diastolic dysfunction. Nurses have long been taught that they have the responsibility of advocating for their patients. This has traditionally been practiced at the bedside. Nurses strive to ensure effective communication between patients and care providers, support patients and patients’ rights to make their own health care decisions, and address ethical issues to name just a few things.2 Our goal is to ensure the best care for our patients across the continuum of health care. Occasionally, we stumble across roadblocks. Nurses comprise the largest segment of the health care professionals. This is why nursing advocacy beyond the bedside is
0147-9563/$ e see front matter Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2016.01.001
essential. An advocate is defined as a person who “pleads the cause of another.” More specifically, pleading the case of another in a court. We have the opportunity to advocate for others on a large scale at a legislative level. Nurses are on the front line and know the obstacles that patients face in getting the care they require. The mission of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN) is to lead nurses in heart failure care. In recent years and in an effort to fulfill this mission, AAHFN has established an advocacy committee to scan the environment for issues affecting both nurses and heart failure patients, and to give them a voice at a legislative level to improve patient care and outcomes. As the quote above states, it is through our personal stories of the patients that we care for that we can impact and improve care for future patients. Let’s tell our stories.
Author descriptions Sita Price is a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner and Owner/ Founder of Elite Cardiac Care, LLC, a home health agency focused on providing care to cardiac patients in a home setting. Sita has been a nurse for 20 years and a nurse practitioner for 10 years, specializing in cardiology throughout her career. Previously, she was the heart failure program coordinator at Orlando Health for their flagship hospital, Orlando Regional Medical Center. Sita was instrumental in establishing the Advocacy Committee for AAHFN and currently serves on the Board of Directors. References 1. CMS Website. https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/ncadecision-memo.aspx?NCAId¼270; Accessed 12/15. 2. AACN Website. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursingfact-sheet; Accessed 12/2015.
Sita S. Price, DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC, CHFN Elite Cardiac Care LLC, USA E-mail address: [email protected]