NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

NURS 6053 Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Reforms in the healthcare sector, like the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and subsequent changes that have occurred to this law, are meant to increase access to quality and affordable care. However, the cost of healthcare is rising and becoming pertinent healthcare in the United States, not just at the organizational level but also at the government level; both state and federal governments (Montero et al., 2022). This paper discusses the rising cost of healthcare across the U.S. health system despite the passage of ACA 2010 and other policies like the Quadruple Aim. The discussion provides a summary of two articles exploring the issue and how organizations are addressing it. It also offers strategies for addressing the impact on the organization of the issue and the overall effects it has on our healthcare facility.

Description of the National Health Stressor & Impacts on Organization

a). Cost of Healthcare

The cost of healthcare is increasing based on several factors, some within and others outside the control of organizations. The high cost of care is leading to imbalances and financial burdens for millions of Americans, some opting to remain uninsured and only accessing healthcare through emergency departments (EDs). In their article, Montero et al. (2022) discuss challenges that Americans are facing due to healthcare costs. The study shows that close to half of U.S. adults experience difficulties affording their cost of care while a significant share of those above 65 years encounter challenges in paying for various components of care, particularly services not covered by Medicare that include dental care and prescription drug costs. Despite the Affordable Care Act lowering the cost of health insurance, millions of Americans are not enrolling as expected due to the rise in premiums’ prices. These costs are attributed to a rise in demand for care due to an aging population, use of technology and equipment, and inflationary pressure making the equipment and cost of services increase.

b). Impact on Organization

The rising cost of care impacts the organization since it means that it must spend more on buying supplies and equipment to meet the increased demand for care. Again, the organization needs to hire more providers to ensure that all patients seeking care get services. More fundamentally, the organization must ensure that it complies with existing legislations like the EMTALA provisions which mandate it to offer emergency care even for uninsured individuals (Sommers, 2020). According to available data from the administration, the facility catered to 60 individuals who presented in the emergency department with conditions requiring stabilization but did not have medical or health coverage. This implies that the organization may make losses of close to $400,000 since it cannot be reimbursed the amounts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Summary of Two Articles & Addressing the Issue in Other Organizations

i). Summary of the Articles

The first article by Buntin (2021) explores the confronting challenges to the U.S. Care system during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. The article stresses the rising cost of healthcare for millions of Americans and its impact on access to care across different populations, especially racial minorities, and low-income households. The second article by Crowley et al. (2020) focuses on strategies that can help lower the cost of care and improve coverage for millions of Americans. As such, both articles are emphatic that while the ACA 2010 made tremendous steps in increasing coverage for millions of Americans, the rising costs of insurance and service provision are causing more harm than the expected benefits to these populations.

ii). Addressing the Issue in other Organizations

Healthcare organizations across the U.S. are addressing the cost of care through innovative ways that include leveraging technologies and enrolling in value-based care models under the CMS. As asserted by the American Hospitals Association (AHA), the rising cost of care is a critical challenge for many healthcare organizations, and dealing with requires investment in technology to enhance access, even for remote patients with chronic diseases as that lowers transportation expenses. Technologies like mHealth and telehealth as well as telemedicine can allow organizations to improve access to healthcare services.

Summary of Strategies to Address Organizational Impact & Effect on Organization

i). Summary of Strategies

The scholarly sources present various strategies that organizations can use to address the effects of the rising cost of care. Buntin (2021) stresses the need to invest in technologies and innovative care models to help lower the overall costs of care. On its part, the article by Crowley et al. (2020) proposes having a single-payer system and emphasizes the use of value-based care for organizations to reduce the cost of care. These articles propose that using these strategies at the national level can help organizations lower their overall expenses, especially in situations where they cannot be compensated by CMS.

1. ii) Effects on Organization

The proposed strategies by the articles have a positive effect on our organization as they demonstrate that it will not incur losses emanating from uncompensated yet provided care. Again, implementing value-based care will protect it from these losses and allow it to offer quality care (Sommers, 2020). More fundamentally, the organization will improve its overall position as an excellent care provision center.

Conclusion

The cost of care remains a national stressor despite the existing healthcare reforms aimed at improving quality, accessibility, and lowering costs. The national stressor impacts access to healthcare as millions of Americans cannot afford care. Organizations like our facility can develop innovative approaches to address the stressor and ensure that all patients have access to quality care.

References

American Hospitals Association (AHA) (2022). 2022 Costs of Caring.

https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2023-04-20-2022-costs-caring

Buntin, M. B. (2021). Confronting challenges in the US Health Care System: Potential

opportunity in a time of crisis. JAMA, 325(14), 1399-1400. DOI:10.1001/jama.2021.1471

Crowley, R., Daniel, H., Cooney, T. G., Engel, L. S., & Health and Public Policy Committee of

the American College of Physicians. (2020). Envisioning a better US health care system for all: coverage and cost of care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(2_Supplement), S7-S32. https://doi.org/10.7326/M19-2415

Montero, A., Kearney, A., Hamel, L. & Brodie, M. (2022). Americans’ Challenges with Health

Care Costs. https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/americans-challenges-with-health-care-costs/

Sommers, B. D. (2020). Health insurance coverage: What comes after the ACA? An examination

of the major gaps in health insurance coverage and access to care that remain ten years after the Affordable Care Act. Health Affairs, 39(3), 502-50. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01416.

This paper is determined to analyze Obesity and its impacts as a pertinent national issue in the United States.  It will also explain how the health issue is being addressed in other organizations.  Obesity is a treatable health disease that is a worldwide concern, associated with excess fat in the body. It is genetically and environmentally caused. It is diagnosed by a healthcare provider and is classified as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater (Fryar et al, 2018).

The use of nursing theories is critical to patient care because of the different purposes that they serve. Nursing theories assist in informing every interaction between nurses and patients. Through defining the features of the nurse-patient interaction, these theories shape how nurses develop relationships with patients (Wei et al., 2019). The purpose of most nursing theories is to help nurses identify care needs among patients, articulate what they can do for patients and why they do it, and determine the kind of information to collect to develop care plans. Through theories, nurses can comprehend and evaluate health situations, explain and anticipate certain responses from patients and map out objectives and anticipated outcomes (Bahabadi et al., 2020). These theories also help nurses determine the interventions to deliver, best practices, and selection of productive areas for research. The implication is that nursing theories are fundamental to quality care provision as they help nurses to possess background propositions to offer the best care.

Obesity is a serious healthcare problem associated with reduced quality of life and more impoverished mental health conditions. Similarly, it is also associated with an increase in the number of complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke, and other types of cancers (Cipriani et al., 2016). Moreover, Obesity is a serious healthcare problem associated with reduced quality of life and more impoverished mental health conditions. Similarly, it is also associated with an increase in the number of deaths in the United States. (Chiao et al., 2015). Obesity is a nutritional disorder that is related to unhealthy eating.

Obesity has several risk factors, including overeating, junk food consumption, decreased physical activity, and genetic inheritance (Werneck et al., 2018). The main issue is the growing prevalence of obesity in the population. Obesity is one of the most concerning chronic health conditions. Obesity, whether experienced by an adult or a child, has been linked to poor life quality and numerous killer comorbid conditions such as some types of cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes (Chiao et al., 2015). Despite its devastating effects on the population, the disease remains a complex health concern caused by a combination of individual factors such as genetics and behavior, as well as a variety of other causes such as physical activity, environment, food, skills, and education. Multiple factors, including exposure, medication use, dietary pattern, and lack of physical activity, have also been implicated (Werneck et al., 2018). Despite the fact that various interventions have been used to prevent and manage obesity, the condition appears to be on the rise in the population. (Fryar and colleagues, 2018)

The Impact of Obesity on the Nursing Professionals.

Nursing professionals face different problems in the healthcare system. These problems may be associated with the work environment as well as the treatment issues. Obesity has both mental and physical health complications for people of all ages. The complications related to Obesity range from medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, some types of cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Also, Obesity is associated with reduced self-esteem, social isolation, as well as depression.

The dominance of Obesity was 42.4% in 2017-2018. Moreover, from 1999–2000 through 2017–2018, the bulk of Obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe Obesity risen from 4.7% to 9.2%. Its related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer that are leading causes of preventable, premature death. Similarly, the estimated annual medical cost of Obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical cost for people who have Obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight. (NCHS 2017-2018). The working adults of non-Hispanic blacks (49.6%) had the highest age-adjusted higher number of Obesity. Similarly, working-age of Hispanic (44.8%) and non-Hispanic White adults (42.2%) (Fryar et al, 2018).

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Thank you for your response. This brings to mind King James Bible/New Living Translation 2005, Luke 8:17; For all that is secret will eventually turn to light. I was in Nursing school and happen to be tutoring a nursing student that was a class or two behind me. The student was prepared to take her med-surgical exam; we had reviewed the pathophysiology so that she would be able to look at, for example, be given a scenario regarding a patient’s lab values and know if the patient was in metabolic acidosis. We reviewed the ability to think critically. Prior to her taking the test we, both felt confident that she would pass. Day later she called and asked to come over and when she arrived, she was distraught.

I was dumb founded; she explained that she had taken the exam, but it did not go very well because she decided to cheat. A couple of her classmates reassured her that they had the answers to the exam; She did not even read the exam to use anything that we had reviewed as far a critically thinking and using pathophysiology, lab values, and so on to arrive at the answers. I was upset that she had taken up hours and days of my time to prepare for an exam and she just totally threw everything out the window and just put down answers. The class prior to hers had aced the exam, but the instructor and the Director of the Nursing department reviewed the class trends and knew that the class prior to her class should not have scored that many A’s. Therefore, the test was changed and the test that my friend took was different from the one the prior class had taken.

On top of that she had to speak with the Director of the Nursing department and was expelled from the program. She needed to at least pass with a C to remain in the program. The class prior had students that were also expelled as well as the students that were in her class. I only knew about this as she confided in me regarding the situation; otherwise, the was emphasis in my class to make sure that all the concepts were understood; if not ask questions during/after lecture and because in clinical we were taking care of patients and need to know why we were administering some as simple as a vitamin E and the side effects. In my practice I have been conscientious regarding patient care. In the Neonatal Intensive Care everything we gave during the time I worked in the unit was doubled checked. If it did not fit into a 1cc syringe it was triple checked.

In general, healthcare provision entails identifying public health problems and developing practical intervention strategies. As this occurs, policies are developed to streamline care delivery while healthcare providers continue to learn in order to improve outcomes. The overall mandate of caregivers is to improve patient safety while always striving to optimize quality. However, not everything goes as planned because many healthcare stressors affect care delivery and prevent healthcare providers from meeting the set goals. This paper assesses the organizational impacts of nursing shortage as a pertinent healthcare issue and summarizes evidence-based interventions used by other organizations.

The Nursing Shortage Issue

In practice, healthcare providers should be kept well-rested. The caregiver-to-patient ratio should be manageable so that caregivers are not physically and mentally exhausted. A nursing shortage occurs when the number of patients is so large that care providers are unable to provide adequate services. The issue creates an environment in which caregivers are dissatisfied and ready to leave (Chang et al., 2017). As a result, there has been a 25% nurse turnover in the organization, with 10% of care providers leaving the profession entirely. This data indicates a lack of motivation to continue providing healthcare services, regardless of other measures such as rewards used by the organization to motivate employees.

Undeniably, this proportion of turnover is high and implies two things. Firstly, the organization will continue using massive resources to replace the lost workforce. Doing so leads to a scenario where some areas are underserved since resources are used wrongly. Secondly, turnover increases the healthcare burden to the employees left serving. Since the ones left behind are overworked, they are easily frustrated and can quit too. Eventually, a cycle where patients are underserved and dissatisfied ensues. Such instances reduce the overall quality of care and make it challenging to achieve the set objectives.

I enjoyed reading your post. Before the class, I did not understand that there were additional factors contributing to the shortage besides burnout and underappreciation.  The lack of educational resources such as instructors and, clinical sites is a major cause of the nursing shortage. My research led me to the Title VII and VIII education and training programs of the Public Health Service Act. “The Titles VII and VIII education and training programs of the Public Health Service Act are federal programs that help shape the supply, diversity, and distribution of the physician and health professions workforce to address current and emerging health care quality and access challenges/opportunities. (aamc.org, 2022) Although this Act deals with expanding resources for health professionals across cultures, I believe this act can aid in the provision of clinical sites for nursing students and, loan reimbursement. “Further, the impact of reimbursement, legislation, regulation, and technological advances must also be considered. Failure to consider the relationships among these aspects limits the full appreciation of the nursing workforce shortage complexity.” (aacnnursing.org, 2022) The nursing shortage needed to be dealt with head-on. Organizations are dealing with their shortages, but the government needs to do more.

AAMC. (2019). Increase funding and reauthorize the Title VII and VIII Health Professions Training Programs. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/increase-funding-and-reauthorize-title-vii-and-viii-health-professions-training-programs#:~:text=The%20Titles%20VII%20and%20VIII%20education%20and%20training,and%20emerging%20health%20care%20quality%20and%20access%20challenges%2Fopportunities.

American Association of the Colleges of Nursing. (2022) Strategies to reverse the new nursing shortage. Retrieved on September 17, 2022 from https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Position-Statements-White-Papers/Reverse-Shortage.

Summary of Articles

Nursing shortage causes dissatisfaction, which increases the turnover rate. In this case, nurses are overwhelmed, and the reasons to remain in practice decrease progressively. In response, different organizations apply varying and sometimes interrelated strategies to increase healthcare workers’ satisfaction. The primary role of the strategies used is to inspire healthcare providers and give them more reasons to serve. Indeed, motivation makes them embrace crucial healthcare principles, such as empathy and compassion. It is right to deduce that nursing outcomes can improve if such methods were used universally.

The first article I reviewed examines the relationship between career development and healthcare outcomes. According to Price and Reichert (2017), providing healthcare workers with meaningful training and developmental opportunities make them more engaged. The main reason for investing in development is to reduce the cost associated with recruiting a new workforce. Some of the costs that training and development help to avoid include interviewing, onboarding, and orientation costs. Moreover, if given a chance to attain the highest education possible, healthcare providers feel more satisfied and can stay within the organization for a long time.

The other article that I reviewed examined the connection between healthcare workers’ engagement and health outcomes. As Bokhour et al. (2018) posited, healthcare organizations should always align employee and organizational goals. This consideration is based on the premise that healthcare workers are passionate about helping others when they join the practice, but their mindsets change depending on how healthcare organizations treat them. Given this, as Bokhour et al. (2018) insisted, healthcare workers should be set up for success by providing them with the necessary resources and skill development opportunities. Organizations should always recognize the role of workers and consider their personal goals as they develop their goals.

Strategies to Address Organizational Impact

A high turnover rate is detrimental to the achievement of healthcare goals. Situations prompting turnover at whichever level should be avoided by all means. According to Ayanwale (2019), reward systems can be integrated into healthcare practice to reduce turnover. Like other employees, healthcare providers should be highly motivated to work by recognizing their efforts where they excel. For instance, they should be given off days if they meet their weekly targets. Opportunities for promotion should be fair and based on effort. If such practices are persistent, healthcare workers will remain satisfied and remain committed to serving in an organization. Although reward systems are positively impacting, it is crucial to be careful about their sustenance since they can be expensive.

The other way of preventing turnover is by involving healthcare workers in policymaking. Here, as Safari et al. (2020) suggested, organizations must consider employees’ input when making decisions. The main advantage of recognizing employees’ input is that organizational leaders can know where they might be falling short. The feedback they receive from employees helps them to adapt and deliver better results. Eventually, the entire practice makes employees feel valued and wanted. Such a culture prevents turnover as the level of satisfaction is high, but it can be disastrous since healthcare workers may feel entitled to contribute to everything.

In conclusion, nursing shortage is a real problem in healthcare provision. It hampers the delivery of quality care and risks patients’ safety since patients are underserved. As discussed, the problem can be addressed by addressing issues that cause employee turnover. Such strategies include career development plans for healthcare providers, reward systems, and involving healthcare workers in policymaking.

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.

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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.
By Day 7 of Week 2
Submit your paper.
Submission and Grading Information
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• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK2Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 2 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
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• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
• Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback.
Grading Criteria

Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The impact of the healthcare issue on my organization

Patient experience has become a national health issue in the health sector. Patient experience is how the patient interacts with the healthcare systems, the doctors, caregivers, the nursing staff, and their general experience with treatment in the hospitals (Wolf, 2019). However, the patient experience is a great healthcare issue in my organization as patients are not receiving quality healthcare. This healthcare issue has led to an immense impact on the organization. First, the healthcare issue makes it hard for the caregivers to have a good relationship with the patients. The healthcare organization patients are not corporative due to the lack of effective patient experience in the care provided to them. The issue is also scaring away patients from the organization. This is causing the organization to incur losses as the income is significantly going down. Low patient experience also negatively impacts the organization in terms of patient satisfaction. The nursing staff in the organization has a tough time increasing patient outcomes and satisfaction. Patient satisfaction, however, remains very low, and patients are having a negative attitude towards the services given to them in the hospital.

Looking at the rate at which the health organization admits patients currently and in the past, there is a huge difference. The patient registration desk data shows a reduced margin in the number of patients visiting our health organization for the past few months. Data from the finance department also reflects a significant decline in its finance. These facts are a representation of patient experience issues is affecting the health organizations. It is a health issue that threatens the health sector’s survival and needs to be addressed with appropriate strategies.

Summary of two related articles related to the healthcare issue and how other organizations address the health issue  

I reviewed two articles that addressed patient experience as a national health issue. The resources I reviewed focus on some strategies which health organizations could use to address patient experience as one of the national health issues facing the health sector. The first article focuses on how patient experience in the health organizations could be improved (Informing practice by identifying meaningful communication from the patient’s perspective, n.d). The article talks about how nurse relationships with patients are vital in enhancing the patient experience. According to the article, collaborative working, support from the management, increased nurse staff, and patient-centered healthcare service approaches that health care organizations could use to improve patient experience in health organizations. These strategies will lead to quality nursing care, thus addressing the healthcare issue in the health sector.

The second article that I have reviewed focusing more on improving communication between nurses and patients, allowing patients to be free to communicate issues, and provide a contusive working environment for the nurses (How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care, n.d). The article sees these strategies as being very effective in improving patient experience. As per the article’s authors, lack of effective communication leads to dissatisfaction among the patients. Dissatisfaction among the patients leads to reduced patient experience in the health organizations. However, effective communication and improved communication between the patients and the caregivers offer the patients an opportunity to raise any healthcare facilities issues. This move gives the health organization a chance to change their activities according to the patients’ issues.

In other organizations, patient experience is enhanced by improving nursing care quality. To improve patient experience, these organizations are also increasing the number of nurses in their organizations. This move ensures that the organizations have an adequate number of nurses to deliver nursing care to them. Involving patients in decision-making about their treatment is another approach the organizations are using to deal with the patient experience issue (Wolf, 2019).

Strategies presented in the resources to address the health issue and how the strategies might affect the organization positively and negatively.   

The resources I selected present various strategies to address the national health issue. For instance, in the first article, collaborative working, support from the management, increased nurse staff, and patient-centered healthcare service are strategies that could be used to address patient experience. These strategies are very effective as the health organizations’ activities revolve around increases patient experience and outcome. Support from the management, having more nurses, and incrassating patient service delivery are significant in promoting patient care and experience (Wolf, 2016). Improved patient-nurse relationship and communication as per the second resource are also very effective strategies in increasing patient experience. Allowing the patients to communicate freely, interact freely with the nursing staff and express their concerns increases the patients’ experience in the healthcare organizations.

These strategies could help my organization very much in improving patient care. The strategies especially increasing nurse staff, increasing communication, support from the management, and enhancing patient nurse relationship, will help the organization improve the patient experience. The strategies will also ensure that the organization’s technology is effective in enhancing patient care (Wolf, 2019).  The strategies, if implemented in the health organizations, patient experience will be addressed.

However, these strategies might also impact the organization negatively. First, the strategies, for instance, increasing the number of nurse staff, will cost the organization additional capital in sourcing the nurses. The strategies might also affect the majority of the nurses who are used to working in the organization. Implementing a change might lead to some nurses leaving the organization, affecting the organization negatively in terms of nursing staff. However, the strategies are essential in supporting and improving patient experience.

Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

By Day 7 of Week 2

Submission and Grading Information