This will greatly increase the number of people who will have access to health care services. Nursing will have new challenges in encouraging the public to make use of health promotion and disease prevention services. The former is directed to providers, while the latter is directed primarily to consumers and secondarily to providers. More health information will undoubtedly be delivered through the mass media, including the Internet, and its accuracy and relevance will continue to be variable. In the past, nurses have helped to ensure that people obtain the information they need, and that they are able to use it to their best advantage.
Nurses therefore are likely to play a central role in a reformed health system.
Like other providers, though, nursing roles and skills need to evolve along with the changing system. A key role for the nurse in personal health care will be that of case manager, with special responsibilities for managing vulnerable populations. The allopaths have performed well in devising solutions to acute disease. But an aging, multicultural society has different needs than a young, more homogeneous one. In addition, today's major health problems are chronic rather than acute in nature.