NURS 6053 Discussion Reducing Stress on Healthcare

Reducing Stress on Healthcare

According to the ANA The balance of safety and efficacy and the perception of personal risk versus overall benefit are at the core of acceptability of immunization practices. The known and potential benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine must outweigh the known and potential risks. ANA strongly recommends that registered nurses be vaccinated against COVID-19. All health care personnel (HCP), including registered nurses (RNs), should be vaccinated according to current recommendations for immunization of HCP by the CDC and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). ANA also believes that it is imperative for everyone to receive immunizations for vaccine-preventable diseases as vaccines are critical to infectious disease control and prevention. Moreover, nurses have a professional and ethical obligation to model the same health care standards they prescribe to their patients. There is now significant clinical evidence on the safety and effectiveness with approved COVID-19 vaccines being administered under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization process.

Annals of Internal Medicine stated We need to be more aggressive about respiratory hygiene and placing restrictions on patients, visitors, and health care workers with even mild symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection. Potential policies to consider include the following: 1) screening all visitors for any respiratory symptoms that may be related to a virus, including fever, myalgias, pharyngitis, rhinorrhea, and cough, and excluding them from visiting until they are better; 2) restricting health care workers from working if they have any upper respiratory tract symptoms, even in the absence of fever; and 3) screening all patients, testing for all respiratory viruses (including SARS-CoV-2) in those with positive screening results regardless of illness severity, and using precautions (single rooms, contact precautions, droplet precautions, and eye protection) for patients with respiratory syndromes for the duration of their symptoms regardless of viral test results. A collateral benefit is that if a patient is subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19, staff who used these precautions will be considered minimally exposed and will be able to continue working.

Conclusion

Laureate education (2015) states, that one thing that individuals and leaders can do to be prepared for healthcare challenges of the future is to develop cultural competency, gain skills to view multiple perspectives, and develop greater understanding the survival side of any healthcare organization. Having Beyond the immediate needs in responding to COVID-19, the pulse survey documents hospitals’ perspectives about longer-term opportunities for improvement to address challenges that existed before, and were exacerbated by, the pandemic. These include reducing disparities in access to health care and in health outcomes; building and maintaining a more robust health care workforce; and strengthening the resiliency of our health care system to respond to pandemics and other public health emergencies and disasters.

References

ANA Board of Directors September 2020 www.NursingWorld.org/COVID19Vaccines/

Annals of Internal Medicine https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-0751

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Daily updates of totals by week and state. Retrieved June 2, 2020 from, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

Vahedian-Azimi, A., Hajiesmaeili, M., Kangasniemi, M., Fornes-Vives, J., Hunsucker, R. L., Rahimibashar, F., … Miller, A. C. (2017). Effects of Stress on Critical Care Nurses: A National Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, 34(4), 311–322. doi: 10.1177/0885066617696853

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.

By Day 3 of Week 1

Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor NURS 6053 Discussion Reducing Stress on Healthcare

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.

By Day 6 of Week 1

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days who chose a different national healthcare issue/stressor than you selected. Explain how their chosen national healthcare issue/stressor may also impact your work setting and what (if anything) is being done to address the national healthcare issue/stressor.

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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.

Impact on Work Setting

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.

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Response #1

Alexis,

Thank you for your informative post. I agree with you that the rising cost of care continues to force many patients not to seek or receive the care they need, resulting in further complications of their health issues and even death. Although many adults are healthy and have health insurance, in my work setting, we have noticed that many of our patients delay or do not get care due to high costs. Because of this critical issue, about one in every ten adults (10.5%) stated that they delayed or did not get medical care due to the high cost in 2019. The worst of it is that the population that needs medical care the most, such as those with comorbidities, are twice as likely to delay or go without care still due to cost (Amin et al., 2021). Many of our patients do not comply with their treatment plan because they cannot afford their prescription drugs, causing further health issues. Plus, the rising cost of care forces many of our patients to seek care in emergency rooms or urgent care since they are not established with a usual primary care physician.

Additionally, the rising cost of care has a significant impact on us employees. Wages have been stagnant for most workers due to more expensive co-pays and deductibles, forcing employers to take a more substantial cut of their employees’ pay to cover insurance premiums. On average, employees of large companies contribute about one-third of the total cost of health spending. As health costs continue to increase, health spending by families with large employer health plans has increased two times faster than workers’ wages over the last ten years (Rodriguez, 2019).

My organization has a few strategies in place to address the rising cost of care for our patients. First, patients can apply for financial assistance, an income-based process that allows patients to have some or all of their hospital bills waived. For example, I had my first son at the hospital I work while in my last year of nursing school. Since my husband was also in school and not working much then, we applied, and the hospital covered over 75% of our bill. Also, the organization continues to educate the staff and remind them to avoid ordering extra supplies or duplicating other orders for patients to avoid additional fees that they do not need, especially when they are uninsured. For example, a patient gets an extra commode ordered because the staff only looked for it in the room except in the bathroom. Another example is when a patient on a hydrocortisone cream gets a new tube pulled when the old one is still half full in her bedside table drawer. As nurses, we must ensure that our patients do not get charged more than they need to with the cost of care already so high and with many of the patients without health coverage. Finally, my organization has formed a partnership with other pharmaceutical organizations to provide prescription assistance to patients. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance helps uninsured or underinsured patients access the medicines they need through the right program for them and free or nearly free of charge. For example, my hospital educates patients and staff about using the Medicine Assistance Tool (MAT). The MAT is a search engine designed to help patients, caregivers, and health care providers learn more about the resources available through the various biopharmaceutical industry assistance programs (Medicine Assistance Tool.org, n.d.).

References

Amin, K., Claxton, G., Ramirez, G., & Cox, C. (2021, January 5). How does cost affect access to care? Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/cost-affect-access-care/

Medicine Assistance Tool.org. (n.d.). Worried about affording your medicine? MAT is here to help. mat.org. https://medicineassistancetool.org/

Rodriguez, A. (2019, August 26). Healthcare costs increased twice as fast as worker wages over last decade. AJMC. https://www.ajmc.com/view/healthcare-costs-increased-twice-as-fast–over-last-decade

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