Managing Client Care

Globally healthcare systems are challenged by a range of factors, including workforce shortages, ageing populations, increasing rates of chronic conditions and escalating health inequities (Australian Department of Health and Ageing, 2006, World Health Organization, 2002). Yet in spite of these challenges nurses have never before been equipped with such a robust body of research and scholarship to inform their practice. Although there is an increasing diversity of professionals in the healthcare setting, nurses are responsible for the greatest proportion of client care and often are required to coordinate that care. As a consequence nurses are driving a range of healthcare reforms through innovative care delivery models, such as link nurses in palliative care settings (Phillips and others, 2006). Nurses in contemporary healthcare systems are at the forefront of planning and managing care, directing the agenda of healthcare delivery in the preventive, acute, community and residential care settings. ISBN: 978072953862