Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues
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:
• 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.
Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting. Then, describe how your health system work setting has responded to the healthcare issue/stressor, including a description of what changes may have been implemented. Be specific and provide examples. Current Healthcare Issues Essay Paper
READING/RESOURCES
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.
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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.
Current Healthcare Issues
The selected national healthcare issue is the high rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) within hospital settings. HAIs are infections that patients acquire during care provision (AhmedKhan et al., 2017). The Agency for Health care Research and Quality indicates that reported that these infections are the most common complications within hospital settings and among the top ten leading causes of death within America (Haque et al., 2018).
In my workplace, there have been reported cases of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), surgical site infections, and pneumonia. These types of HAIs normally lead to complications to the patients, elevate the morbidity and mortality, increase the length of hospital stay for the patients, and also lead to increased healthcare costs. For example, in the medical-surgical ward, there are patients who get surgical site infections after surgery and this results in unbearable pain to the patients, and some patients end up requiring further treatment which increases their period of stay in the hospital and healthcare costs as well.
The main strategy implemented to reduce the rate of HAIs in my workplace is ensuring that healthcare providers adhere to the required hand hygiene practices. In addition, the nursing staff is constantly being trained regarding hand hygiene techniques. In addition, the organization increased alcohol-based hand rubs and they are always placed at strategic places. This is was in line with research evidence that indicates that the use of alcohol-based hand rubs increases adherence of healthcare workers to hand hygiene ((Haque et al., 2018). In addition, alcohol-based hand rubs are more effective in killing microorganisms and are more effective than hand-washing when the hands are not soiled. All these strategies have led to a significant reduction of HAIs in my organization.
References
Haque, M., Sartelli, M., McKimm, J., & Abu Bakar, M. (2018). Healthcare-associated infections – an overview. Infection and drug resistance, 11, 2321–2333. https://doi.org/10.2147/IDR.S177247.
AhmedKhan H, Kanwal F & Mehboob R. (2017). Nosocomial infections: Epidemiology, prevention, control, and surveillance. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. 7(5), 478-482. Current Healthcare Issues Essay Paper