Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion
NUR3894CBE Contemporary Issues in Nursing Deliverable 6 Nursing Newsletter Contemporary Trends Impacts on Nursing. In this rapidly changing environment, nurses must have a solid educational background and advanced skills as well as a broader contemporary knowledge base to navigate in today’s healthcare infrastructure. Holland (2018) said it best, “Agile nurses who are able to pivot their skills to flow with new developments, whether those are new electronic medical records systems or alternative care settings, will be the most successful” (p. 8). Therefore, this lesson will examine a few contemporary trends and issues in healthcare that affect nursing practice. A Changing Healthcare Landscape Today, with our evolving healthcare infrastructure and unstable healthcare reform, nurses are left to create a service delivery design to meet the challenges facing hospitals of the future (McClelland, 2017)Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion.
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Healthcare reform is changing the way healthcare services are delivered and financed, which greatly impacts how nurses provide care to clients. Furthermore, projections show that by 2030 more than 70 million Americans will be over the age of 65 (McClelland, 2017). What is unique about this set of healthcare consumers is they are choosing to receive home-based care over hospital services. Therefore, this is affecting nursing practice as many traditional nursing hospital roles are now playing out in community-based nursing roles. Rather than bedside care on a medical-surgical unit, many nurses are finding themselves in the patients’ home fully integrating into their patients’ care. Nurses are a huge part of leading this healthcare change and will continue playing a pivotal role in leading and developing client care plans with a communitybased focus (McClelland, 2017). In addition to community-based care, many additional factors continue to be driving forces changing the healthcare landscape and greatly impacting nursing practice to include: National policy, regulatory requirements, benchmark standards, economic forces, technology and innovation, a resource-constrained healthcare delivery system, and cultural and social challenges. Innovation and Technological Advances Today, clients are plagued with rising healthcare costs and less reimbursement for services posing risk to accessing essential services. Therefore, innovation is playing a key role in providing affordable services to clients in the comfort of their own homes. Telehealth and telemedicine have grown in popularity and continues to be a driving factor in accessibility of healthcare services regardless of key demographic factors. In addition, technology is advancing client care while also driving down costs. One example of a technology that can significantly drive down costs is three-dimensional printing devices. Three-dimensional printing provides customized medical technology tailored to meet the needs of individual patients but disrupts the cost implications of current medical procedures as the technology is costefficient when compared to traditional approaches. For example, according to the National Foundation of Transplants, a typical kidney transplant costs over 300,000 dollars. A three-dimensional kidney would cost around 10,000 dollars (Hippen, Ross and Sade, 2009). Reference Hippen, B., Ross, L. F., & Sade, R. M. (2009)Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion.
Saving lives is more important than abstract moral concerns: financial incentives should be used to increase organ donation. The Annals of thoracic surgery, 88(4), 1053-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2009.06.087 Holland, C. (2015). Higher learning. Investing in our nursing workforce. Nursing Management, 46(9), 810. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000470775.02484.c0 McClelland, M. (2017). Nurse led reform: Is it time to rethink the nursing unit? Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(2), 9. http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/lo gin.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=128687778&site=eds-live Generation In Nursing As nurses it is important we are appraised of the latest contemporary trends and issues in healthcare affecting nursing practice. Let’s take a look at a couple currently trending in nursing. Intergenerational Nursing Workforce The nursing workforce is currently comprised of five generations (Mokoka, 2016). This generational span is looked to as a contemporary trend that impacts healthcare, and nursing practice alike. Each of these “generations are defined not only by a span of birth years, but by shared events and circumstances that shaped attitudes, values, expectations, and motivations” (Caple and Karakashian, 2018, p. 1). Therefore, as healthcare employees they present with a wide range of needs posing the necessity for a very diverse and flexible healthcare environment. The issue of retaining the current diverse workforce of nurses is further compounded by the fact that the current nursing shortage is estimated to peak by 2050 by 250,000 nurses (Caple and Karakashian, 2018). According to Mokoko (2016) the current nursing workforce is comprised of 75% of baby boomers and 20% are generation Y, or those under the age of 30. This alone presents a scarce gap as 5% of the current workforce is between the ages of 30 and 60. When the baby boomer generation retires there will be a severe gap of experienced nurses to fill in for this generation which has shown to be the most productive of generations (Mokoko, 2016). The future workforce gap also has significant financial ramifications according to Caple and Karakashian (2018) that project the loss of turnover could be as high as “$300,000 USD, and as high as $82,000 for each highly specialized nurse who retires or resigns. A 14% turnover rate can potentially lead to a $4.4 million cost to a 300-bed Hospital” (p. 2). Opioid Epidemic It is estimated that almost 100 lives are lost every day in American to opioid overdose (Pinot and Kornusky, 2018). According to Seth, Scholl, Rudd, and Bacon (2018) “opioids were implicated in 66.4% of the 63,632 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2016” (p. 350). These statistics are shocking, frightening, and have a direct impact on the nursing profession for a multitude of reasons. First, nurses have easy access to prescription opioids which places them at a higher risk for misuse. In combination of stressful roles, long hours and easy access to opioids, nurses are amongst the prevalent populations known to abuse prescription opioids Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion.
According to Schub (2018), “researchers reported a total of 404 drug-related deaths between 2003-2013, with females making up two-thirds of the deceased, and nurses making up the highest number of cases at 62.8%” (p. 1). Second, the nursing profession is impacted by the opioid epidemic as it effects how we treat acute and chronic pain. Statistics, such as those reported by Pinto and Kornusky (2018) found “of 1,015,116 opioid-naïve patients undergoing surgery, researchers found that each refill of prescribed opioids was associated with a 44% increase in risk of opioid misuse and each additional week of opioid use was associated with a 20% increase in risk of opioid misuse” greatly impact how healthcare has approached pain management (p. 1). References Caple, C. R. B. M., & Karakashian, A. R. B. (2018). Nursing workforce: Intergenerational — Leading and managing. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.co m/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=T903032&site=eds-live Mokoka, E. (2016). Managing a multigenerational nursing workforce to strengthen staff retention. Professional Nursing Today, 19(4), 42-45. Pinto, S. M., & Kornusky, J. R. M. (2018). Substance abuse: Prescription drugs — Opioids. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.co m/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=T701578&site=eds-live Schub, T. B., & March, P. P. (2018). Substance abuse in healthcare professionals. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.co m/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=T701415&site=eds-live Seth, P., Scholl, L., Rudd, R. A., & Bacon, S. (2018). Overdose deaths involving opioids, cocaine, and psychostimulants — United States, 2015– 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(12), 349-358. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6712a1 Nurses Advocating for Changes Nurses have long stood as advocates on healthcare issues affecting patients, the nursing profession, and the healthcare system. Being a nurse advocate is an integral role to the nursing profession and influences others to take action causing a catapult effect forward. Advocacy has been defined as “seeing a need and finding a way to address it…An advocate builds support for a cause” (The ABCs of effective advocacy, 2016, p. 7). There are simple steps that provide a roadmap to successful advocacy to include: We all know how critical it is that nurses advocate for the future of the profession but let’s take a look at examples of how nurses can and have been advocating in healthcare Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion.
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A Changing Healthcare Landscape Although the changing healthcare landscape is out of nurses’ control, they can still have opportunities to lead within this hostile and uncertain healthcare landscape. As nurses we can look at ways to enhance our patient’s health outcomes when their access to care may change, as well as their affordability of care. Ensuring our patients are exposed to the multitude of ways healthcare can help them realize their best health is a critical advocacy role nurse’s play in the changing landscape. For example, ensuring rural and remote patients who have affordability and accessibility issues are setup for telehealth and community health services is a vital nurse advocacy role in ensuring patients can continue to promote optimal health regardless of the healthcare reform (Hall-Long, 2010). In analyzing the role of the nurse we have to look at the collaborative nature that drives the heart of advocacy. As advocates, it is important that nurses are utilizing professional organizations to support their advocacy initiatives. For example, the Institute of Healthcare Improvements has created an organizing framework, called Triple Aim. Triple aim combines the issues of better health, better care, and lower cost to support consumers regardless of the healthcare infrastructure (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2018). Utilizing tools from professional organizations will further leverage the nurses’ role as an advocate on a national level. For example, a nurse could use the Triple Aim framework to advocate for community resources and help people access resources and benefits that sometimes they don’t take advantage of, such as supplemental food programs, community clinics, and home health services. Nurses will have a vital advocacy role in safeguarding the health of the nation even in a hostile healthcare landscape. References Indiana State Nurses Association. (2016). The ABCs of effective advocacy: Attention, bipartisanship, & collaboration. ISNA Bulletin, 42(2), 7–14. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.co m/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=115227357&site=eds-live Hall-Long, B. (2010)Contemporary Healthcare Issues Homework Discussion