NURS 6053 Discussion Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
Walden University DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay– Step-By-Step Guide
This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Walden University DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.
How to Research and Prepare for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Walden University DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.
After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.
How to Write the Introduction for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
The introduction for the Walden University DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.
How to Write the Body for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
After the introduction, move into the main part of the DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.
Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.
How to Write the Conclusion for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.
How to Format the References List for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.
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Sample Answer for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
Staffing Shortages as a National Health are Issue/Stressor
Staffing shortages in the health care industry has become a significant issue and stressor all over the nation. Nurses work extremely hard and that is not a secret. With imminent staffing shortages in the health care profession and an increase in the volume of patients seeking care services, patient loads are increasing rapidly, thus making it difficult for nurses already short staff to manage all patient care needs effectively and efficiently (Bakhamis et al.,2019). The United States has a massive nursing shortage, and the problem is only set to grow. Due to an influx of patients into our health system, the retirement of baby boomers, and educational bottlenecks, nursing positions are not being filled fast enough to keep up with demand (Xue et al., 2016). Nurses overworked and understaffed on the front lines. There are millions of registered and licensed practical nurses in the United States. Most of these nurses, however, are not happy and comfortable in their work, they are stress, overworked, underappreciated, and underutilized leading to significant impact on the delivery of care.
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Staffing shortages can have a significant impact on the quality of work, on productivity, creativity, competitiveness, nursing care
outcomes, and on ensuring patients’ safety (Norful et al., 2018). At my health care organization due to staffing shortage, nurses sometimes work long hours because other nurses calling in sick, running one to four hours late from working under very stressful conditions resulting in burnout, injury, fatigue, and job dissatisfaction. Nurses suffering in my health care facility delay treatments and make other mistakes due to the relationship of the nurse-to-patient ratio (Xue et al., 2016). An unfortunate outcome is that patient quality of care suffers, resulting in a variety of complications including emergency room overcrowding and delay of treatment.
Organizational Response and Changes Implemented
A range of solutions has been offered as a way to solve the nursing shortage in my health care organization from subsidized funding, hiring new nurses, wage increases, and contracting with nursing agencies for nurses to fill in periodically. My health care organization provides tuition for nurses seeking to advance their degree. In addition, resources have been allocated towards increasing wages which has affected recruitment as well as retention of Registered Nurses already in the facility.
Another important strategy to further address the nursing shortage is that, nurses are allowed scheduling flexibility and coverage. This has help nurses to juggle their busy work schedule with home life and educational opportunities, and also allows room for decompressing between stressful, emotionally demanding shifts and days of work.
Health care of the nation, and patients, in particular will benefit the most from adequate staffing and a healthy and well rested nurse because efficiency and productivity will increase, the number of work-related mistakes at the same time will reduce, sick leaves are going to be rare, shorter, and burnout will not occur often (Norful et al., 2018). By introducing said strategies, we would not only increase staffing in health care but equally, reduce the stress-related illness rate among nurses and would also significantly raise the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes.
Global healthcare systems are facing unprecedented times and uncertain future based on the current situation of Covid-19 pandemic. This has prompted quick adoption of technology in healthcare systems from booking of appointments to billing. Therefore, I believe one of the major current healthcare issues is on technology disruption. Much questions have been raised on the big data usage, incorporation of telehealth, synchronization of the national health data systems and on the confidentiality and security of the patient’s health records as cases of cybersecurity have soared with increased adoption of information technology in healthcare (Sittig et al., 2018).
Big data in healthcare systems refers to the accumulation of large sets of digital information about the patients’ biodata, medical history, clinical interventions, current and past medical concerns of the patients. This data is accumulated overtime rather than that which is received in small amounts and not stored for future references (Thew, 2016). This prompts the healthcare nurse informatics to employ the use of data analytics and data mining tools so that they can extract meaningful patterns, study the correlation and develop predictions (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). Use big data has proved to be essential in healthcare management especially when analyzed and used to inform critical decision-making points and even guide future evidence-based change projects (Byrd et al, 2018). This information is used by managers and administrators to identify patterns and areas of strength and weakness within the system and help plan in resource allocation.
However, big data faces one of the greatest security challenges especially on the confidentiality of the patient’s information. Cases of cyber insecurity have been rising since most healthcare facilities and organizations adopted use of technology to manage the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. The patient’s confidential data may be easily accessed if the systems security checks are not well enforced. In some of the online platforms like Amazon, for online shopping, the systems put in adequate security checks and user authentication and verification steps. The breech of patient’s confidential medical information could have adverse effects on the healthcare facility or organization hence incur a lot of expenses in terms of compensation and in the end the reputation of the organization will also be severely damaged.
Therefore, it is imperative for healthcare organizations and systems that procure any digital platform for managing healthcare records to invest heavily on ensuring the system is safe and secure from cyber security threats and phishing on patient’s data (Bibhuranjan, 2019). Moreover, there is need to improve the software technology to develop systems that are less susceptible to hacking. It is also essential to ensure that patients are well educated on ways of safely using the digital platforms and there should be readily accessible customer care agent to help patient’s carry out proper verification and maintain safety of their data.
Increased usage of digital platforms and information technology poses another safety threat to the patients as they are likely to seek for medical advice from online blogs and unverified media sources that could be misleading to the patients. This information collected on such blogs has no scientifically proven or evidence-based data to support the claims or the medical advice offered. Moreover, the information could be provided by individuals who have no professional training in the areas that they are providing the medical information. There has been rapid increase in blogs from unregistered dietician and fitness coaches whose methods are not scientifically viable to rely on as professional medical procedures. Many patients have fallen prey to such misleading information that even sometimes discourages the use of conventional medication and clinical intervention measures (Young, 2016).
In conclusion, it is imperative for the federal and state government to come up with strict measures, laws and policies that govern the use of information technology in healthcare. The guidelines should be clear and the regulations must be standardized to enhance security of the patients’ data and also safeguard them from unverified and unethical practices and information availed to them on social media platforms. Any digital platforms or media engaging in medical or clinical information must have passed the licensure criteria that would be guided by strict conformity to the ethical issues in healthcare and meets the set standards.
References
Bibhuranjan. (2019). Big data analytics – How beneficial is it for healthcare? Technofaq. https://technofaq.org/posts/2019/05/big-data-analytics-how-beneficial-is-it-for-healthcare/#:~:text=%20Big%20Data%20Analytics-%20Benefits%20in%20the%20Healthcare,is%20very%20important%20for%20any%20organization…%20More
Byrd, T.A., Kung, L., & Wang, Y. (2018). Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126(1), 3-13. doi:10. 1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Sittig, D. F., Wright, A., Coiera, E., Magrabi, F., Ratwani, R., Bates, D. W., & Singh, H. (2018). Current challenges in health information technology–related patient safety. Health Informatics Journal, 26(1), 146045821881489. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458218814893
Thew, J. (2016). Big data means big potential, changes for nurse execs. HealthLeaders. https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/big-data-means-big-potential-challenges-nurse-execs
Young, A. (2016). The pros and cons of big data in the healthcare industry. HealthCareZone. https://www.healthtechzone.com/topics/healthcare/articles/2016/11/18/427248-pros-cons-big-data-the-healthcare-industry.htm
Sample Answer 2 for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
High Cost of Care
The National Healthcare Issue I will be discussing is High Cost of Care
Description of National Health Issue (High Cost of Care)
U.S healthcare cost is the highest globally, although the U.S is rated high regarding patient-centered care. The continuous upward cost of U.S healthcare costs has created economic hardship for some families in America (Lyford & Lash, 2019). Many quality issues are noted within the healthcare system. For example, medical errors have been attributed to several thousands of leaks per year in America, lack of transparency leading to fraud is noticeable in the U.S healthcare system, coding system has caused clashes between healthcare providers and insurance companies, and the policyholders have become the bargaining chips.
Up code is a way providers extort money from insurance companies, and insurance companies, on the other hand, may introduce higher premiums to the employers. There are also challenges in getting competent Doctors; health consumers need access to information about doctors’ credentials and accomplishments, making it difficult to make an informed decision. In America, the high cost of healthcare is linked to new technology, and money is pumped into training and managing new Electronic Health Records and Electronic Medical records. Most of these expenses come from the operational and staff cost required to be in charge of these new systems. In America, prescription drugs and diagnostic tests are so exorbitant. Increasing transparency is synonymous with reducing costs. For example, Drug companies never affix any price to their product when advertising it on TV. A significant way to facilitate transparency is by asking drug makers to disclose the cost of their products in media advertisements (Garness, 2019).
Various steps the government has taken to reduce the cost of healthcare have proven futile. Providing healthcare consumers with necessary and adequate information to better their health and teaching consumers about preventive screenings will reduce the risk of preventable conditions and save the cost of healthcare services.
When consumers are well educated about their health, it brings down demands for health services, potentially lowering healthcare service prices. Healthcare professionals are restructuring care to facilitate positive patient outcomes in combating the high cost of healthcare services. Healthcare professionals face the problem of creating new ways to restructure care and create systems that make providers liable for standard, cost, and patient care outcomes (Ricketts & Fraher, 2013).
How High Costs of Care May Impact My Work Settings
I work in a hospital. Many people in America either delayed or did not get healthcare services for cost reasons. Costs of healthcare services are the most debilitating factor to healthcare access. People with lower income and uninsured have difficulties affording healthcare costs. The rich and those with healthcare insurance also pay a very high price for healthcare services. The high price of healthcare can either make the patient skip or delay pursuing healthcare services.
The increase in the cost of healthcare services is linked to the quantity, not quality, of services. The advent of new technologies is driving the cost upward. There needs to be more information regarding medical services, and cost implication is also responsible for high costs. Doctors are scared of malpractice lawsuits and engage in defensive medicine; this leads to the prescription of irrelevant tests, and this practice drives up the cost. Some studies have shown that some patients spent more on healthcare services than their income could support.
In my hospital, patients are suspending care services because of healthcare costs. Most canceled healthcare appointments or procedures are traceable to the high cost, and appointments get canceled when patients receive high estimates. Even though patients know that untreated medical condition can aggravate, resulting in worsening symptoms, when a patient postpones care, cancel, or delay, it causes workflow disruptions. Revenue is lost, necessary clinician time is wasted, and it leads to a lack of inefficient care delivery.
The patient is shopping for providers that guarantee a positive patient payment experience. Without any doubt, when patients receive surprise bills, they will be tempted to search for different providers. This is a nightmare for healthcare providers. When patients switch providers, such providers will lose revenue and may be unable to meet their financial obligations. For a healthcare provider to maintain a competitive edge, such must offer a better payment experience. The increase in healthcare services costs is affecting healthcare organizations’ revenue generation. For providers to stay afloat, they must provide the best financial experience.
My hospital cuts jobs and reduces services in my workplace due to increasing costs and strain budgets. As the execution of the U.S Affordable Care Act moves, several healthcare systems seek considerable changes in how the healthcare workforce is sorted out (Pittman & Scilly-Russ, 2016). Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on the hospital budget. Our hospital is paying high wages to healthcare workers due to shortages, and this is driving the cost of healthcare upward.
As a result of this shortage, my organization scaled back services. In the hospital I worked, we have been experiencing low procedure volumes and supply chain issues post-pandemic. Hospital payroll has gone above the ceiling. The cost of healthcare delivery had made my healthcare organization cut executive compensation and readjusted workloads. Contract workers were switched to full-time employees, and existing staff were retained at a minimum wage increase. Some patient do not mind travelling for healthcare services to reduce the cost. As a way of increasing profitability, my workplace has resulted in reducing nurse staffing. The nursing staffing ratio directly relates to the quality of patient care outcomes. Reducing staffing has contributed to nurse burnout as nurses ended up working long, and nurse’s burnout has been the cause of high nurse turnover. Increased nursing turnover has been the source of an increase in overtime pay. Nurse burnout affects staff morale and productivity, as nurse turnover affects the nurse-patient ratio.
Social Determinant that Most Affect High Cost of Care
Social determinant of health includes stigma, disparity, poverty, racism, and lack of education. Social determinant of health are the situations in the surrounding where people work or live, and social determinant plays a vital role in quality-of-life outcomes. Health disparities, education discrimination, literacy, etc., contribute to arrays of health disparities and inequities. Socioeconomic factors encircle many several social determinants of health. Poverty can inhibit access to quality healthcare. Social determinant of health is not a medical factor, but they impact health outcomes. In this case, poverty and lack of education are social determinants that most affect the high cost of care.
How My Health System Work Setting Has Responded to the High Cost of Health Services
Because there are intermediaries between healthcare providers and patients, many sick patients are paying a high price to get treated. My health system implemented cost containment, and this facility designs effective cost-containment strategies to alleviate the cost of care without compromising high-quality care. Cost containment has led to the creation of new payment models and revamped care delivery (Palumbo et al., 2017).
My health system work setting responded to the high cost of healthcare through cost containment. Promoting comprehension of organizational costs, encouraging engagement throughout the hospital, having frequent meetings with the stakeholders, stressing the correlation between labor costs and productivity, and making available powerful tools for data-directed decision-making.
Using generic medicines, and asking the patient to do a routine health screening, enables the detection of health problems early, and if diseases are treated early, it saves cost. To alleviate the cost on the side of the patient, patients are advised to use in-Network Health care providers to save money. The management first communicates the plan to implement cost containment around all hospital departments. Essential expenditure and revenue data are passed to all stakeholders, so they must learn the rationale behind cost containment.
The appropriate authority can translate data and expose clinicians to insights into the system’s financial operations. Stakeholders such as doctors and nurse practitioners were provided with adequate financial data to enable them to make appropriate adjustments as they could potentially drive-up costs. Exposing cost data to frontline decision-makers in the healthcare system is a difficult decision. The reason for high healthcare costs can be linked to advancements in medical technology, the aging population, and the cost of labor.
To lower the cost of healthcare services, our hospital utilizes Telehealth, which has brought meaningful saving substantial financial savings to the hospital. The patient is seen virtually by doctors. These strategies were initiated at the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. These strategies help the hospital to save money, and the patient does not have to make unnecessary trips to the emergency department which can make the patient cough out thousands of dollars per visit. Hospitals throughout the nations are adapting to these changes using the theory of complex adaptive systems. Complex Adaptive Systems theory is considered one feature of complexity science that describes how an organization adapts to an ever-evolving environment (Marshall & Broome, 2021).
References
Garness, K. (2019). The Challenge of High Drug Prices in America: Cost Disclosure in Direct-to-Consumer Advertising May Offer a Solution. American Health & Drug Benefits, 12(5), 254–255.
Lyford, S., & Lash, T. A. (2019). America’s Healthcare Cost Crisis: As the costs of U.S. healthcare continue to escalate, three commonsense reforms could reverse this unsustainable trend. Generations, 7–12.
Marshall, E. S., & Broome, M. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.11.005Links to an external site.
Pittman, P., & Scully-Russ, E. (2016). Workforce planning and development in times of delivery system transformation. Human Resources for Health, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0154-3Links to an external site.
Ricketts, T. C., & Fraher, E. P. (2013). Reconfiguring health workforce policy so that education, training, and actual delivery of care are closely connected. Health Affairs, 32(11). https://www.proquest.com/docview/1458313016?accountid=14872%26forcedol=trueLinks to an external site.
Sample Answer 3 for DQ: Review of Current Healthcare Issues Essay
Introduction
There are many healthcare issues all worth discussing. The healthcare issue I will be analyzing is cost of healthcare. In 2020, 31.6 million (9.7%) of Americans were without insurance (Cha & Cohen, 2022). Because the cost of healthcare is so expensive, those that are uninsured find healthcare services almost unattainable. Over the years the cost of healthcare has rose due to aging populations and medical technologies, but patient outcomes have not improved despite the increased costs (Kaplan, et al, 2017).
Impact on Work Setting
Rising healthcare costs impacts just about every department in the hospital. A lot of uninsured American’s avoid healthcare at almost all costs. This means they are not retrieving preventative care and they are not taking their prescription medications. When the hospital is their last and only option, they come. These patients tend to not come to the hospital or retrieve any type of care until their symptoms are severe. This causes hospitals and hospital staff to become overwhelmed.
Social Determinants of Health
There are many social determinants of health that affect healthcare costs. These include affordable housing, access to nutritious food, quality education, and opportunities for employment (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, 2021). All of these challenges can lead to higher healthcare costs and poor health outcomes. Ways these challenges can be overcome is by providing housing support, transportation, meals delivered to homes, employment support, and educational support (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, 2021).
Work Setting Response
As healthcare costs rise, the hospital I work at make it a priority to talk to patients about health insurance to help their costs lower. It is important to learn why patients do not have health insurance. Some may not because they do not have a job or they cannot afford other basic needs such as food or housing. After finding out why they do not have insurance, we get them support to fix the underlying cause. For example, a young women came into the emergency department with a wound on her foot that had gotten infected. She said she did not come sooner due to lack of insurance. It was explored why she did not have insurance. It was found that she could not afford basic needs such as nutritious foods and had no job. A social worker got involved with her case and gave her the support she needed in order to get health insurance.
Conclusion
Increasing healthcare costs causes many problems in the healthcare setting. Uninsured Americans wait until they are severely sick before retrieving treatment and they do not receive preventative care. If costs where not so high and more Americans were insured, hospitals would see patients well before they were severe. This, in turn, would decrease costs both for the patient and for the hospital. Clinical practice guidelines are needed to focus on value assessments and cost-effectiveness (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Regardless of cost of care, the quality of care must be measured.
References:
Broome, M. & Marshall, E. (2021). Transformational Leadership in Nursing. (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. (2021). CMS Issues New Roadmap for States to Address the Social Determinants of Health to Improve Outcomes, Lower Costs, Support State Value-Based Care Strategies. Retrieved February 27, 2023 from: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-issues-new-roadmap-states-address-social-determinants-health-improve-outcomes-lower-costsLinks to an external site.
Cha, A. & Cohen, R. (2022). Demographic Variation in Health Insurance Coverage: United States, 2020. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:113097Links to an external site.
Kaplan, R., Porter, M., & Frigo, M. (2017). Managing Healthcare Costs and Values. Retrieved February 27, 2023 from: https://sfmagazine.com/articles/2017/january/managing-healthcare-costs-and-value/Links to an external site.