Filling The Gap: Developing Health Economics Competencies For Baccalaureate Nursing Programs

PURPOSE OF PRESENTATION

The purpose of this presentation is to strengthen the public case for the high value and practical usefulness of the health economics (HE) concepts in the nursing profession. The project’s main contribution is the development of the unique list of essential HE competencies for baccalaureate nursing students. The presentation will describe how the subject of HE can be made more useful and familiar for both generalist nurses and nursing administrators, when the operational language and desired outcomes of HE education for nurses exist, and are defined in user-friendly terms.

BACKGROUND

The goal of cost containment has been one of the biggest priorities of the US healthcare policy during recent decades. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, such initiatives receive even more attention. This project is the next step in the campaign to create a more informed professional nurse who has greater involvement in cost containment efforts.

METHODOLOGY

Fist, a draft proposal of competencies was developed by the authors based on current professional and academic guidelines. As a second step, feedback was sought from Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program faculty who currently teach HE courses in accredited BSN programs in the United States, as well as from current students and alumni. Survey results were analyzed and HE competencies were reformulated accordingly. The resulting version was validated during the final step through soliciting further evaluation and refinement from expert health economists.

RESULTS

A set of six HE course competencies was developed. Each competency consists of several learning outcomes and is complemented with examples of practical activities that hospital nurses may perform at the patient bedside.

 

CONCLUSIONS

Development of these competencies should serve as a starting point for multiple policy initiatives. A nationwide survey is currently underway, soliciting nursing administrators’ perceptions about the value of HE education for their nursing employees. The survey results will present the current empirical evidence about the extent of nursing administrators’ awareness in this subject area.

Ultimately, the expectation is that better educated nurses will be able to make better decisions about the allocation of limited resources within the healthcare industry.

This set of competencies can also be used as a starting point for developing similar HE competencies for other health professions. Health economics thinking is relevant and has implications for all healthcare professionals. This inter-professional perspective should be promoted and embraced in higher education for all disciplines of healthcare providers. With the looming expansion of healthcare access for tens of millions of previously uninsured individuals under the Affordable Care Act, it is essential to reduce the growth in healthcare spending while expanding services. It is now more important than ever to mandate healthcare providers to have an understanding of the principles of health economics. This can be achieved through integrating these and similar competencies within the curriculum of higher education for all health professions.