Assignment: Point-of-Care Clinicians
Assignment: Point-of-Care Clinicians
Question Description
This is an opinion question based on an article I discovered: Promoting Evidence-Based Practice Among Point-of-Care Clinicians Through a Research Training Program (2015)
Before you read the article, tell us your thoughts on research training programs for point-of-care clinicians. Do you think this will promote or enhance EBP in your practice setting, improve patient care, and so on?
Has your opinion changed after reading the article?
You should proofread your paper. However, do not rely solely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part, and your grade will suffer as a result. Papers with a high number of misspelled words and grammatical errors will be penalized. Before submitting your paper, go over it in silence and then aloud, and make any necessary changes. It is often beneficial to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Uncorrected mistakes are preferable to handwritten corrections.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point typeface (10 to 12 characters per inch). Smaller or compressed type, as well as papers with narrow margins or single spacing, are difficult to read. It is preferable to allow your essay to exceed the recommended number of pages rather than attempting to compress it into fewer pages.
Point-of-Care (PoC) Health Technology Evaluation
Health care providers should be highly innovative irrespective of their specialties. They should adopt current and appropriate technologies as the health practice advances as a tech-driven profession. Point-of-Care (PoC) technology benefits patients and care providers alike. However, it is crucial to understand how to integrate such technologies to optimize health outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate smartphone applications as a PoC technology.
Background
Rural people are a unique client population that benefits from remote health care and other technology-centered practices. They are unique due to health care access problems, hence the need for remote access to health care services (Calton et al., 2020). Technologies used for remote data collection and patient assistance are integrated with electronic health records (EHRs) for detailed analysis of the patient’s condition and to facilitate personalized support. The identified PoC technology relevant to the client population is smartphone applications for hypertension management. Through such apps, patients set medication and blood pressure monitoring schedules. The apps also remind patients about essential disease management components such as the dose, drugs’ timing, and blood pressure measurements (Gong et al., 2020). The other essential function is data sending to health care providers.
Evaluation
Smartphone applications for hypertension management are a reliable PoC technology for enabling health care professionals to monitor patients, care for them, and document their progress. Several characteristics and functionalities ensure that smartphone apps promote data exchange and other key functions for patient monitoring and disease management. Alessa et al. (2018) explained that smartphone apps have self-monitoring capacities for blood pressure and other vital data. Such data include medication adherence, symptoms, and physical activity. Self-monitoring capabilities enable patients to track blood pressure and other data in multiple formats: graphically, tables, and summarized results. Alessa et al. (2018) further noted that smartphone apps have reminders and alert components to prompt self-monitoring. Such alerts are crucial for reminding patients about their medication time, health goals, and blood pressure measurement. Importantly, the system can alert a health care provider when there is an abnormality, such as missing a medication dose.
Despite these capabilities that will be improved progressively, several barriers limit smartphone apps use in hypertension management and patient monitoring. The first barrier is knowledge problems. There is a huge generational difference in digital inclination for health care professionals and patients. Knowledge deficiency hampers use due to challenges with identifying trustworthy sources for health apps (Byambasuren et al., 2020). Time is also a significant barrier. It requires massive time commitment for providers and patients to effectively learn and use smartphone apps. Insufficient access to the internet in remote areas hampers smartphone apps use in monitoring patients in rural areas. As health care professionals devise mechanisms to counter these barriers, they also need to consider legal/ethical issues associated with smartphone apps. For instance, data leakage can prompt malicious use of patient information (Zhou et al., 2019). As a result, health care professionals must be certain about the sources of the apps and their security before recommending them for use.
Conclusion
Technology is inevitable in today’s health practice. PoC technology immensely supports health care professionals in patients’ monitoring and documenting the progress to guide decision-making. Smartphone apps are among the recent technologies helping patients and health care professionals. As discussed in this paper, smartphone applications for pain management help patients monitor their health statuses and update their progress. The PoC technology also promptly alerts healthcare professionals about the patient’s condition. Despite its effectiveness, barriers hampering its use, such as knowledge deficiencies, should be addressed to optimize outcomes and prevent security challenges.
References
Alessa, T., Abdi, S., Hawley, M. S., & de Witte, L. (2018). Mobile apps to support the self-management of hypertension: systematic review of effectiveness, usability, and user satisfaction. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6(7), e10723. https://dx.doi.org/10.2196%2F10723
Byambasuren, O., Beller, E., Hoffmann, T., & Glasziou, P. (2020). Barriers to and facilitators of the prescription of mHealth apps in Australian general practice: Qualitative study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 8(7), e17447. https://doi.org/10.2196/17447
Calton, B., Abedini, N., & Fratkin, M. (2020). Telemedicine in the time of coronavirus. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(1), e12-e14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.019
Gong, K., Yan, Y. L., Li, Y., Du, J., Wang, J., Han, Y., … & She, Q. (2020). Mobile health applications for the management of primary hypertension: A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial. Medicine, 99(16). doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000019715
Zhou, L., Bao, J., Watzlaf, V., & Parmanto, B. (2019). Barriers to and facilitators of the use of mobile health apps from a security perspective: Mixed-methods study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 7(4), e11223. https://doi.org/10.2196/11223