Tell us about a healthcare program within your practice
In a 2- to 4-page paper, create an interview transcript of your responses to the following interview questions:
- Tell us about a healthcare program within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program?
- Who is your target population?
- What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples?
- What is your role as an advocate for your target population for this healthcare program? Do you have input into design decisions? How else do you impact design?
- What is the role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation? How does this role vary between design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you provide examples?
- Who are the members of a healthcare team that you believe are most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why?
EXPERT ANSWER AND EXPLANATION
Advocating for the Nursing Role in program Development
Patients in inpatient settings struggle with various clinical issues including pressure injuries. The effect of these issues differ depending on the age of the patient, and the severity of their illness. Hospitalized older adults, for instance, can suffer severely if they lie in one position for longer time. This is because senior’s skin is thin, and cannot effectively resist trauma. The injuries linked to the prolonged pressure on the skin can prolong the time of hospitalization of the patient, and cause hospitals to use more medical resources (Thomas, Seifert, & Joyner, 2016). A hospital can prevent this clinical issue by implementing a turn and reposition program. It is important to highlight aspects involved in the implementation of this program.
Interviewer: Tell us about a health program, within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program?
Dr. Yeshing: The Turn and Repositioning program. The program helps position, realign and turn the patient. The program works by monitoring and evaluating the patient to determine whether they are comfortable. This program has a timer that warns one about the time they should be in bed or out of bed (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). To implement this program, a hospital would spend $12,000. Following the implementation, it will manage to save up to $50,000 in medical costs.
Interviewer: Who is your target population?
Dr. Yeshing: Seniors in hospitals’ inpatient settings.
Interviewer: What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples?
Dr. Yeshing: Nursing professionals interact with patients more frequently. This implies that they have knowledge of the problems patients struggle with. They also understand the challenges associated with the turning and repositioning patients. For this reason, they can be resourceful in the sense that they can share ideas which the developer can incorporate in designing the program. For instance, they can recommend the use of a timer system to remind clinicians on what to reposition the patient. The goal is to come up with a design that improves performance (Semachew, 2018).
Interviewer: What is your role as an advocate for your target population for this healthcare program? Do you have input into the design decisions? How else do you impact design?
Dr. Yeshing: As an advocate of the seniors, my role entails identifying risks and preparing reports on these risks. My role also entails assessing patients, and providing intervention to restore their health. My role in this case also entails gathering details from patients to understand their concerns. The essence is to keep in mind their needs when designing the program. This means that as a nurse, I have input into the design decisions (Latimer, Chaboyer, & Gillespie, 2015).
Interviewer: What is the role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation? How does this role vary between design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you provide examples?
Dr. Yeshing: Nurses play crucial role when it comes to the implementation of the healthcare programs. A nurse role in this case involves receiving instructions, and implementing the program based on these instructions. They may use an informatics system, for instance, to make clinical decisions in a case where their hospital is implementing an informatics system. This differs in the way the nurse designs and implements a program on repositioning and turning. In this case, the nurse may perform training to show others how to use the program (Sharp, Schulz, & McLaws, 2019).
Interviewer: Who are the members of the healthcare team that you believe are most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why?
Dr. Yeshing: Nurses. I believe that involving nurses is a good choice. My reason is based on the role nurses play. In their respective roles, nurses get to meet patients and interact with these patients. They understand the patients’ concerns, and the clinical challenges. Thus, they are in a better position to implement a program (Bhattacharya & Mishra, 2015).
Conclusion
Nursing input is necessary to optimize the performance of the patient care assistance programs. This is because nurses have vast experience of working with patients, and they are in a position to know the patients’ needs. When developing a turn and reposition program, for instance, it is important to involve the nurse. Their involvement should occur at the design and the implementation levels.
References
Bhattacharya, S., & Mishra, R. K. (2015). Pressure ulcers: Current understanding and newer modalities of treatment. Indian journal of plastic surgery : official publication of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India, 48(1), 4–16.Doi: https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0358.155260.
Latimer, S., Chaboyer, W., & Gillespie, B. M. (2015). The repositioning of hospitalized patients with reduced mobility: a prospective study. Nursing open, 2(2), 85–93. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.20.
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing Roles for Nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12–25. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308.
Semachew, A. (2018). Implementation of nursing process in clinical settings: the case of three governmental hospitals in Ethiopia, 2017. BMC research notes, 11(1), 173. Doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3275-z.
Sharp, C. A., Schulz, M. J. S., & McLaws, M. L. (2019). Two-Hourly Repositioning for Prevention of Pressure Ulcers in the Elderly: Patient Safety or Elder Abuse?. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 16(1), 17–34. Doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-018-9892-3.
Thomas, T.W., Seifert, P.C.,& Joyner, J.C. (2016). Registered Nurses Leading Innovative Changes. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21 (3). Doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No03Man03.
