Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
My capstone is on the flu vaccine and getting employees and high-risk patients to take it.
Students are required to submit weekly reflective narratives throughout the course that will culminate in a final, course-long reflective journal due in Topic 10. The narratives help students integrate leadership and inquiry into current practice.Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
This reflection journal also allows students to outline what they have discovered about their professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses, and additional resources that could be introduced in a given situation to influence optimal outcomes. Each week students should also explain how they met a course competency or course objective(s).
In each week\’s entry, students should reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained throughout the course. Journal entries should address one or more of the areas stated below. In the Topic 10 graded submission, each of the areas below should be addressed as part of the summary submission.
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New practice approaches
Inter professional collaboration
Health care delivery and clinical systems
Ethical considerations in health care
Practices of culturally sensitive care
Ensuring the integrity of human dignity in the care of all patients
Population health concerns
The role of technology in improving health care outcomes
Health policy
Leadership and economic models
Health disparities
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Week 1
New practice approaches
The capstone on the flu vaccine, acquiring employees, and high-risk patients to take it is a vast topic of interest that requires a comprehensive approach. While undertaking my professional experience, I discovered some of the professional approaches, personal strengths as well as weaknesses. For instance, I was able to instil and apply my medical background where applicable to caring for patients and employees. In week 1, I learned the technique of administering the vaccine on the upper arm’s deltoid muscle for persons aged 19 years and above (Hesse et al., 2020). This is the most effective site for the injection of the drug. I also engaged in new practice approaches with the best preventive measures such as effective vaccine prescription while alleviating signs and symptoms of flu.
More so, through my interaction with patients and employees, I was able to discover the complexity and sensitivity of different cases since each issue demanded special attention. My good communication skills were a major boost since I was able to solve some of the upcoming drawbacks in the process as well as obtaining significant information concerning various groups of clients. My increased bonding with patients created personal attachments. This affected me from time to time when patients complained of pain and thus, I consider this as my weakness that I need to pay attention to overcome. Besides, I have discovered the essence of improving my clinical knowledge experience while applying a new evidence-based approach in tackling flu cases and how to handle employees during dilemmatic instances and also consulting from my preceptor on issues requiring further clarification. Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
Week 2
Interprofessional collaboration
Effective management approach of the use of flu vaccine and employee relationship requires support and diversified expertise. During week 2, the application of interprofessional collaboration was an important aspect since it created a platform to interact with different medics from unlike backgrounds, caregivers, families, and the community playing various roles in the provision of quality medical care (Cockrell, 2017). In this phase, my desire to learn and accommodate new things assisted me in actively engaging myself in team building activities as well as formulating appropriate treatment strategies that suited client with different age groups. Even though, my increased yearn to learn made me sensitive to issues that I considered as a catalyst to patients with flu although designated to improve patient’s conditions. More so, I learned the importance of working as a team makes it easy to achieve common goals and objectives since this helps in solving internal and external problems within the healthcare setting. Also, interprofessional collaboration help in respecting other individuals as well as allowing multiple disciplines to join hands in a healthcare unit. To achieve an optimal outcome, I intended to mingle with more professionals to learn the basics of how to become open-minded in health issues. Besides, while undertaking the capstone, I revealed that I was discouraged and not cooperative with employees who were dragging back normal working schedules during flu vaccination sessions. However, I also learned problem-solving approaches while faced with a dilemma since I would share the idea with the rest of the team while noting down probable solutions that could be applicable.
Week 3
Health care delivery and clinical systems
In week 3, I was able to learn more about healthcare delivery and clinical systems. This involved incorporation of management and provision of healthcare matters through processes such as the exchange of information and making crucial judgments in a health organization. In my capstone preparation, the process involved making an informed decision that involved various stakeholders in the healthcare facility that included the administration, patient’s representative, and the members of staff. In this week, my strengths included excellent communication and good leadership skills. However, this gave me a chance to raise patient’s grievances to the administration such as neglect and abuse while seeking healthcare. By so doing, the management was able to maintain optimal services while administering flu vaccines to patients in the hospital. Even though, in my project, I faced procrastination problems making me consume more time to complete most of my clinical and health care delivery duties. I always dragged my working plans without considering probable lengthy durations involved from the introduction and implementation of a clinical change. Consequently, I am thinking of improving my knowledge on health care delivery and clinical system that revolves around flu vaccine as well as organizational structure models and their functions to implement a significant change in a healthcare setting.
Week 4
Ethical considerations in health care
In a hospital setting, ethical consideration is a fundamental aspect that governs medics to act within professional boundaries. During week 4, I practically expounded my ethical knowledge while nursing patients with a flu vaccine. Like, I learned ethical considerations that govern the use and development of vaccines (Poland et al., 2018). In this case, ethical issues involved in my capstone included the distribution of vaccines, testing, and development of a vaccine, vaccination requirement as per the law, and risk and benefits of vaccines. Also, in my project, I was able to distinguish and apply four main ethical principles such as non-maleficence, justice, autonomy, and beneficence. Besides, in my practice, I encountered various scenarios that required professional ethical approaches that primarily aimed at optimizing patient outcomes. For example, I handled 50 years old male patients who reported having the flu but completely declined the vaccine claiming that it would worsen his condition rather than healing. In this case, it required a professional persuasive approach that could loosen his thoughts. After spending more time persuading the client, he later complied with the flu management and treatment to help stop the suffering. Even though I managed to resolve the elderly case, I revealed my weakness in resolving dilemmatic instances of considering other people’s issues too much while this limited my consultation as well as engaging my supervisors while approaching such an ethical instance. Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
Week 5
Practices of culturally sensitive care
During week 5, I learned practices of culturally sensitive care and its importance. In this phase, dealing with flu-related issues involved the incorporation of appropriate responses such as feelings, attitudes, national, linguistic, religious, and cultural heritage (Skidmore, 2016). While working on my capstone I met various patients from different geographical areas. More so, most of the clients who visited the hospital were illiterate thus affecting the nurse-patient relationship. For instance, most of the patients did not use chemist drugs but they preferred traditional medicines. This turned out to be a barrier since most of the patients declined medication and were not willing to go against their cultural belief.
Due to my communication excellence skills, it made me interact with patients in cultural terms trying to make them change their minds. Most of the patients accepted taking the drug in the prevention of flu. More so, increased concern to know more about the community we developed a personal attachment there after affecting me when patients got discharged from the healthcare facility. Besides, it was revealed that I had developed a personal weakness developing an increased curiosity about patient way of life thus consuming a lot of time. This almost raised my supervisor’s attention since it went against my prescribed duties. To achieve clinical excellence, I need to improve and adjust my personal views with patients. Therefore, I have decided to stick to apply evidence-based practices in approaching these issues.
Week 6
Ensuring the integrity of human dignity in the care of all patients
In week 6, the capstone project enabled me to learn the reasons o ensure the integrity of human dignity while offering patients with flu-related cases. I learned how to speak respectfully to all patients. For instance, I approached patients with empathy and not making jokes about the patient’s condition. Still, I learned how to answer the patient’s queries with honesty to build trust while taking time to listen to their concerns. Patients and employees demand dignified treatment and this was easily practical to me since I appreciate the use of etiquette and respect to others. Therefore, I was treating patients with dignity the way I would like my case to be treated. More so, when a patient is handled with respect and dignity it is easy to cooperate since their values such as culture and beliefs are not intimidated. In my practice, I faced high numbers of patients in the facility waiting to be assisted this resulted in burnouts. For example, the patient who demanded vaccines is threatened with high levels of poverty thus sometimes dying from flu thereby denying them dignity and health. I consider this as my weak point need to understand the community is not by the will to experience high levels of flu issues. Also, I have learned the importance of employing evidence-based solutions while approaching patients and employees.
Week 7
Population health concerns
The population health concern is the positive health approach involved in focusing on public health in ways that decrease problems accelerating poor health conditions to the public. During week 7, I learned more about population health concerns and some of the drawbacks that put the population at risk from contracting flu. In my practice, I was able to figure out the cultural aspects that challenged the health sector. For instance, the administration of the flu vaccine was influenced by beliefs about the causative nature of the flu, how to express pain and illness to an outsider, where the patient would acquire medicine and preferred type of treatment.Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
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While continuing with my capstone, I realized that the cultural population concern was the main root cause of patients with flu. By applying my cultural knowledge strengths, I was able to approach a diverse population with confidence thus enabling me to offer clinical care without discrimination. While attending most of the patients, I noticed that the language barrier was my major problem. Thereby, we could not mingle with the patient compelling me to find a personal translator. To overcome this problem, I am planning to enroll in a linguistic class that will make me understand the patient’s language to offer optimal health services.
Week 8
The role of technology in improving health care outcomes
In the recent past, technology has improved the performance of health sector activities. This intervention has made service delivery more effective, convenient, and speedy. During week 8, I understood some of the importance of technology in areas such as facilitating effective communication between clinicians, reduction of probable medical error, increased accessibility of medical information, predicting flu outbreak, better treatment equipment, and encouraging patients in a medical care setting (Brown et al., 2020). In my capstone practice, I practiced and learned the use of telehealth and electronic health recording. More so, in this phase, I was able to learn the reason to apply these technological advancements and their related impacts within a health context. While offering service I was privileged to have prior acquired information technology in my studies thus making it possible to navigate using a computer.
Also, my enthusiastic nature enabled me to note my strength that added to my thirst to learn new ideas. On the other hand, I figured out my weakness was a loss of empathy between patient and nurses’ relationship. For instance, the relationship is mainly based on technological appliances such as telehealth was not sufficient since the outcome of nurse assessment, and diagnosis is based on direct communication as well as involving body language. However, I am planning to learn more and be accommodative to appreciate the present technology to increase flexibility. Lastly, this will help me appreciate the role of technology in optimizing healthcare services.
Week 9
During week 9, the objectives were aligned to health policy. From my academic background, I understood that health policies create conditions for equitable and good health among populations. They seek to end the inequalities and disparities in healthcare and promote positive outcomes. I also gained knowledge and skills regarding the larger scale policies and how they affect an organization on the global, national, state and local levels. Moreover, I learned the plans, actions and decisions conducted to achieve particular healthcare goals as well as ow policies are formulated and implemented in healthcare.
Health policy changes encountered in my place involved the mandatory vaccination against flu for workers and patients at high risk of infection. My department chose me for communication of the proposed change to the target population. here, I employed my good communication skills to have a collaborative session with patients and employees as well as the administration and created an environment for informed decision-making. This was a strength that helped prevent resistance and promote inclusivity among the stakeholders of the policy change.
On the other hand, I discovered a particular weakness during the formulation and communication of the health policy. As much as have good communication and social skills, I tended to exaggerate my talking to an extent of taking too much time of the discussion. This ended up denying some stakeholders a chance to air their views. In addition, I seemed to assimilate other participants opinions in mine which could be assumed to be ignorance. However, I have a plan of rectifying and improving my weakness in order to optimize a discussion’s point. I will therefore try to control my overly expressive nature so as to allow others opportunities to talk without influencing their opinions.
Week 10
During week 10, I learnt about health disparities. I discovered that they are elements of a disease that increases the burden of treatment and management. Contrary to my earlier understanding, I learnt that disparities differed from discrimination. In my practice field, I identified various health disparities which included gender, race, sexual orientation, economic and social statis. The less privileged persons in the community were denied access or discriminated against due to their financial status, education, social rank and ethnic background.Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients
In order to address the issue of disparities in the organization, I used my courageous weakness to call out the vices among the employs administering the flu vaccination to the staff and patients. I also threatened to report to the administration if they persisted with the same. I also employed cultural sensitivity to facilitate inclusivity, respect and promote dignity of every participant in the practice. A weakness that I identified related to disparity was the fact that I had knowledge of three languages only. This limited my communication with the employees and the patients selected for participation in the flu vaccination.
Lastly, I explored the leadership and economic models used in healthcare. I leant that these are guidelines to good governance and their importance in influencing the political, economic and social decisions as well as develop ideas that promote holistic care. I used my leadership skills to hold nurses accountable for their actions in order to enhance accountability in the organization. I also provided support when needed by generally acting as a servant leader. The strengths identified are good communication skills, discipline and being supportive. These helped us in administering the flu vaccinations successfully. On the other hand, my weakness during this practice was that I was too much demanding. As such, I would overwork myself at the expense of my staff with the aim of meeting the daily deadlines without fail. Through the involvement of other leaders, I was able to manage time and tasks successfully and understand that sometimes tasks can spill over the next day without overburdening oneself which could eventually lead to burnout.
References
Baicker, K., & Chandra, A. (2017). Evidence-based health policy. N Engl J Med, 377(25), 2413-5.
Brown, E., Gray, R., Monaco, S. L., O’Donoghue, B., Nelson, B., Thompson, A., … & McGorry, P. (2020). The potential impact of COVID-19 on psychosis: A rapid review of contemporary epidemic and pandemic research. Schizophrenia research.
Cockrell, K. R. (2017). Exploration of rural paramedics’ capacity for utilising a salutogenic approach to healthcare delivery: a mixed methods study.
Dunlop, W. C., Mason, N., Kenworthy, J., & Akehurst, R. L. (2017). Benefits, challenges and potential strategies of open source health economic models. Pharmacoeconomics, 35(1), 125-128.
Hesse, E. M., Navarro, R. A., Daley, M. F., Getahun, D., Henninger, M. L., Jackson, L. A., … & Duffy, J. (2020). Risk for subdeltoid bursitis after influenza vaccination: A population-based cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 173(4), 253-261.
Jones, N. L., Gilman, S. E., Cheng, T. L., Drury, S. S., Hill, C. V., & Geronimus, A. T. (2019). Life course approaches to the causes of health disparities. American journal of public health, 109(S1), S48-S55.
Poland, G. A., Kennedy, R. B., Ovsyannikova, I. G., Palacios, R., Ho, P. L., & Kalil, J. (2018). Development of vaccines against Zika virus. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 18(7), e211-e219.
Skidmore, M. J. (2016). Presidents, Pandemics, and Politics. Springer. Flu Vaccine and High-Risk Patients