All nurses share a commitment to promote quality client care.
This includes provision of primary health care, acknowledgment of family responsibilities and coping patterns, and availability of community-based and institutional care to those with ongoing and unremitting care needs. To this end, the American Nurses Association, state nurses associations, and individual nurses must pursue activities that enhance the provision of nursing services and improve the quality of long term care in the United States. Background Long term care provides physical, psychological, spiritual, social, and economic services to help people attain, maintain, or regain their optimum level of functioning. It encompasses a range of services, including health maintenance as well as care during acute and protracted illness and disability, provided throughout the life span to people who have lost their capacity to function independently because of a chronic illness or condition. The cohort of nearly 1.6 million residents of nursing facilities is experiencing increasing complexity and acuity of illness, multimorbidity, increased risk of iatrogenic illness and more rapid discharge of hospitalized patients.