Pertinent Healthcare Issue Analysis: Discussion

Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.

 

Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.

 

In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.

 

To Prepare:

 

Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.

Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.

Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.

The Assignment (3-4 Pages):

 

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

 

Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:

 

Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).

Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.

Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.

Looking Ahead

 

The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper.

 

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015).

 

 

 

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

 

Required Readings

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

 

Chapter 2, “Understanding Contexts for Transformational Leadership: Complexity, Change, and Strategic Planning” (pp. 37–62)

Chapter 3, “Current Challenges in Complex Health Care Organizations: The Triple Aim” (pp. 63–86)

Read any TWO of the following (plus TWO additional readings on your selected issue):

 

Auerbach, D. I., Staiger, D. O., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2018). Growing ranks of advanced practice clinicians—Implications for the physician workforce. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(25), 2358–2360. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1801869

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Gerardi, T., Farmer, P., & Hoffman, B. (2018). Moving closer to the 2020 BSN-prepared workforce goal. American Journal of Nursing, 118(2), 43–45. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000530244.15217.aa

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging employees in well-being: Moving from the Triple Aim to the Quadruple Aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 42(3), 231–245. doi:10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000303

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Norful, A. A., de Jacq, K., Carlino, R., & Poghosyan, L. (2018). Nurse practitioner–physician comanagement: A theoretical model to alleviate primary care strain. Annals of Family Medicine, 16(3), 250–256. doi:10.1370/afm.2230

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Palumbo, M., Rambur, B., & Hart, V. (2017). Is health care payment reform impacting nurses’ work settings, roles, and education preparation? Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(6), 400–404. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.11.005

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Park, B., Gold, S. B., Bazemore, A., & Liaw, W. (2018). How evolving United States payment models influence primary care and its impact on the Quadruple Aim. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 31(4), 588–604. doi:10.3122/jabfm.2018.04.170388

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Pittman, P., & Scully-Russ, E. (2016). Workforce planning and development in times of delivery system transformation. Human Resources for Health, 14(56), 1–15. doi:10.1186/s12960-016-0154-3. Retrieved from https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12960-016-0154-3

 

Poghosyan, L., Norful, A., & Laugesen, M. (2018). Removing restrictions on nurse practitioners’ scope of practice in New York state: Physicians’ and nurse practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(6), 354–360. doi:10.1097/JXX.0000000000000040

 

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

Ricketts, T., & Fraher, E. (2013). Reconfiguring health workforce policy so that education, training, and actual delivery of care are closely connected. Health Affairs, 32(11), 1874–1880. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0531

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

THE INFORMATION BELOW IS TO SHELD LIGHT ON WHAT I DID IN PART 1. OF THIS ASSIGNMENT.

IT WILL HELP YOU TO COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT ABOVE.:

If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption?

These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.

In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.

To Prepare:

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Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.

Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.

My Discussion:

According to Rege (2018), one of the top healthcare issues confronting the nation has to deal with the internet of things (IoT), which refers to medical devices and applications that connect healthcare IT systems through online computer networks. These systems can do numerous tasks like tracking vital signs, body systems, and sleep. Naturally, the sphere of IoT falls under the umbrella of technological innovation, which is going to be ever more prominent in healthcare facilities throughout the nation. But with more facilities implementing the latest in technological tools, the more it will become necessary to bring staff, especially nurses (the primary caretakers) up to speed on these tools.

Within this realm of the IoT, I see the move to standardized language as crucial to uniformity and universal understanding. After all, if we are going to have computers manage more and more of our day-to-day operations, then we should ensure that nurses and doctors all over the country are using the same standards in electronic record keeping and, in the storage and retrieval of digitized patient information. Standardized language systems are facilitated by expert nurses who input information about current practices. As a result, adherence to set guidelines can be evaluated across health care facilities.

Consider an example. Rutherford (2008) demonstrated the role of a standardized language to ensure compliance with nursing guidelines through the example of fetal monitoring, whereby nurses used standardized terminologies to provide information regarding fetal heart rate. Based on the requirements of standardized language systems, nurses must ensure the measurement of fetal and not maternal heart rate. Nurses’ adherence to common guidelines through a standardized language, therefore, would enable observance of standards of care and the improvement of nursing competency.

But despite the advantages of technological innovations, there are challenges to implementing such innovations as standardized nursing terminologies, among which would be resistance by staffers to adopt the new tools. Nurses are stressed enough at work. To put added pressure on them to learn new and sometimes complex technologies might only push the stress factor to the overload position. For one, Thede and Schwiran (2011) conducted a study to gauge the attitudes of nurses in informatics, specifically the use of standardized terminologies. What this author discovered was that most nurses had limited knowledge and usage of standardized language at the workplace.

Challenges like this have affected my workplace as well. Fortunately, the stakeholders are very involved in staff development, and we have weekly training meetings whenever new technology or tools are brought on board. Employees can then get additional training as needed. Without such support, my facility would be missing out on the wonderful opportunity of leveraging new innovations in healthcare. The good news is that I belong to an outfit that will not let its nurses and other employees take on a “sink or swim” attitude, but rather promotes and supports all its workers.

References

Rege, A. (2018). These are the 8 most disruptive issues in healthcare. Becker’s Hospital Review.   Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-              administration/these-are-the-8-most-disruptive-issues-in-healthcare.html

Rutherford, M. (2008). Standardized nursing language: What does it mean for nursing practice?  The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 13(1). doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol13No01PPT0