Nurse's Journey and Observations: The Health Care System from the End of Polio through COVID

The Health Care System from the End of Polio through COVID: A Nurse's Journey and Observations chronicles where the US health care system currently is and where it needs to be in the future with the help and influence of the nursing profession.

"Beginning her nursing career in 1960, author Judith Murphy has witnessed both health care before the advent of Medicare/Medicaid as well as the advent of Medicare/Medicaid and the result it had on the health care system. The rapid development of medical research and the development of sophisticated bedside technology and interventions as well as the development of new drugs and vaccines all led to increased life expectancy and all this was possible, for the most part, because of Medicare/ Medicaid. Expanding health care costs were the byproduct of these successes."pandemic, which alone has led to the most significant decrease in life expectancy since World War II.

With keen discernment and vision coupled with passion for her profession, Judith sees nursing as part of the solution, beginning with herself. After obtaining her master's degree in public health from UC Berkeley, she began educating the next generation of nurses. Her passion for health care reform and expansion extends to seeking political solutions, which she does through her volunteer work.

Nurses, nurse educators, and anyone interested in health policy will resonate with and benefit from Judith's experience and insight as a nurse on the frontlines of the US health care system for fifty years.

Judith A. Murphy, RN, MPH, has fifty years in nursing practice in acute care, including eleven years teaching clinical nursing BSN students into hospital settings. She does volunteer work for organ transplant organizations as well as for political campaigns with an emphasis on voter registration. Judith is a high school guest lecturer on gun safety and violence prevention and has multiple publications in nursing journals.