The role of nursing in the self-management system

Abstract

There are different types of healthcare providers in the Spanish national health system: some are public and others private. In Catalonia, an autonomous community in Spain, the public insurer CatSalut decided to contract health services to companies of healthcare professionals to manage the resources allocated to healthcare of a given population in the primary care setting. The objectives of this professional participation model are to achieve the maximum involvement of professionals, to be more efficient and more sensitive to the needs and demands of the people assisted. This singular model in the Spanish public system offers the possibility to healthcare professionals to own the entity that manages the services; this possibility extends to nursing professionals, who see expanded their field of action and their capacity to influence the organizational and assisting model of the healthcare system. These professional associative-based entities provide an opportunity to nursing, which already had an important role in the healthcare system due to their contributions and capabilities, in order to be part of an enterprise and therefore its owner. The autonomy of this group is encouraged, with its own open offices, its contributions and work are valued and its effort is recognized with incentives of all kinds, such as economic. The satisfaction of nursing in this management model, known as self-management, is elevated thanks to the role they assume and to social recognition amongst patients and the community where they practice their profession.