Designing and Implementing New Healthcare Programs
Interview on Designing and Implementing New Healthcare Programs: The Role of the Nurse
- Tell us about a healthcare program, within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program?
The new healthcare program that was started with my input within my practice was a treatment and rehabilitation program for drug addicts with the aim of making them productive members of the society again and lowering the petty crime rates. The program was an initiative of the local city authorities and specifically the brainchild of the current mayor. The city has a significant population of African Americans and Hispanics who experience significantly unfavorable social determinants of health or SDOH (WHO, 2019; Powell, 2016). There is lack of healthcare coverage and access to quality healthcare, educational achievement is low, and unemployment is high with household incomes below state benchmarks. The healthcare program consists of a center where persons with substance use disorders can come or get referred to and get detoxification, counseling, and psychotherapy free of charge. The program partners with the local sheriff’s office to help lower the petty crime rates that are correlated to drug and substance abuse in the community. The costs of the program include hiring skilled psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) to offer treatment and psychotherapy, buying medications such as naltrexone (Vivitrol) for alcohol dependence (Stahl, 2017), and paying for the overheads.Designing and Implementing New Healthcare Programs
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- Who is your target population?
The target population for this new healthcare program is that of drug addicts and substance abusers of all ages. The program does not discriminate in terms of age, race, or social background.
- What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples?
The role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this program was in coming up with the community diagnosis and the plan for the intervention as well as its modalities. Since a huge part of the program would be to engage in preventive health education and community outreach, the nurse had to be involved in deciding the message, the timing, and the method of delivery of the message. Also, since it would be the PMHNPs who would diagnose and treat the clients, it was imperative that they be involved in deciding which medications needed to be stocked in anticipation of the clients to be seen. It is the PMHNPs who have a DEA number (Androus, 2019).
- 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?
The role of the nurse as a patient advocate in this program is to return to the target population their self esteem and dignity. This she does by making them feel that they are still worthy and useful to the society. The nurse achieves this by actively seeking out drug addicts in the community, doing home visits, counseling families with drug addicts, and bringing the victims to the center for further treatment and psychotherapy. As the patient advocate, the nurse makes sure the rights of the client are respected and that they get the best care possible regardless of their status (ANA, n.d.). As already stated above, the nurse indeed has significant input into design decisions. This is because she is the one who is much more involved in the running of the program and delivering the service (Tummers & Bekkers, 2014). The other way that the nurse impacts design is by her modus operandi of delivering interventions in her care plan coming from the nursing diagnoses.
- 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?
The role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation is to ensure that primary health care is delivered seamlessly and that health promotion and disease prevention is put at the top of program priorities. This is because the program addresses a public health concern or issue. This role varies between design and implementation in that during design interventions are written down on paper, while during implementation the actual practical tasks are performed. For instance, during design it this particular program the nurse will state that they will need culturally safe holistic care for the drug addicts. But during implementation, the nurse will need to counsel the patient and make a home visit to counsel the family too. This way she comes to terms with the contributing SDOH at the home.
- Who are the members of a healthcare team that you believe are most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why?Designing and Implementing New Healthcare Programs
The members most needed to implement a program are staff nurses, specialist nurses such as nurse practitioners, nurse assistants, and social workers. This is because they are directly involved in providing the care.
References
American Nurses Association [ANA] (n.d.). Advocacy. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/
Androus, A.B. (2019). What is a DEA number and how can a nurse practitioner obtain one? https://www.registerednursing.org/answers/dea-number-how-nurse-practitioner-obtain-one/
Powell, D.L. (2016). Social determinants of health: Cultural competence is not enough. Creative Nursing, 24(1), 5-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.22.1.5
Stahl, S.M. (2017). Stahl’s essential psychopharmacology: Prescriber’s guide, 6th ed. Cambridge University Press.
Tummers, L., & Bekkers, V. (2014). Policy implementation, street level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretion. Public Management Review, 16(4), 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.841978
World Health Organisation [WHO] (2019). Social determinants of health. https://www.who.int/social_determinants/sdh_definition/en/
Designing and Implementing New Healthcare Programs