Respond to two of your colleagues 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.
Peer 1
The Selected the National Healthcare Issue/Stressor: Technology and Caring
Technology is essential in healthcare because it enables healthcare providers to diagnose, treat, and manage the patient’s health. Medical technologies such as CT scanners and barcode technology have reduced the number of errors in health care by improving documentation and coordination of care (Kim et al., 2020). Consequently, they have not only improved the patient’s outcomes and quality of life, but they have also lengthened their lives. However, although medical technologies are beneficial in healthcare, they have hindered caring. Today, nurses spend too much time on technology and end up delivering impersonal care to patients (Cuchetti & Grace, 2020). The demand placed on the nurses when handling medical technologies diverts their attention. As they spend more time interacting with medical technologies, the likelihood of missing the majority of the symptoms that are not displayed by the electronic medical records is very high. Scholars have identified the disruption by medical technologies as one of the main reasons why nurses fail to deliver holistic care.
The disruption by medical technologies is a significant problem in my work setting. Most nurses rely on technologies rather than care and caring. Besides the nurses, most healthcare providers have disconnected from who our patients are. As a result, caring, the art of nursing, has been lost in science. Some nurses perform their tasks without interest in the patient under their care; their focus is on the machines at the bedside, patient volume, and flow (Sharma et al., 2020). The disruption by medical technologies is regrettable because, although essential, they should not compromise their ability to treat patients with compassion and dignity. To minimize the medical technologies' ability to get in the way of caring and compassion, my work setting is providing education to the nurses to ensure that they nurses are able to deliver high-tech, evidence-based care in a caring and compassionate manner. The facility has selected mentors to support new staff in reconciling technology and caring. The mentors encourage the new staff to ensure that the technologies do not overshadow the personhood of their patients. They are encouraged to develop practices such as touch and physical presence while utilizing technological tools and software. Also, to nurture compassion and competence, nurses who show compassion are rewarded.
References
Cuchetti, C., & Grace, P. J. (2020). Authentic intention: Tempering the dehumanizing aspects of technology on behalf of good nursing care. Nursing Philosophy, 21(1), e12255.
Kim, T., Howe, J., Franklin, E., Krevat, S., Jones, R., Adams, K., … & Ratwani, R. (2020). Health information technology–related wrong-patient errors: Context is critical. Patient Safety, 2(4), 40-57.
Sharma, S., Rafferty, A. M., & Boiko, O. (2020). The role and contribution of nurses to patient flow management in acute hospitals: A systematic review of mixed methods studies. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 110, 103709.
Peer 2
Week 1 Discussion- Leadership- Main Question Post
This discussion will focus on the stressor of quality in healthcare and how it impacts the hospice work setting. Early definitions of quality in healthcare were measured largely by healthcare workers. However, with the emergence of the quadruple aim, we see a shift to recognizing the preference and views of patients within our system and how quality is also perceived (Busse et al., 2019). Within my hospice work setting, quality is often the perception of patient and family, and it is of extreme importance that we meet their desirable objectives. While quality can be measured, it is often also subjective, making it different in each situation. This requires healthcare workers to adapt throughout a patient's treatment process.
The perception of quality in hospice care specifically, is affected by multiple social determinants. Home is often times chosen as the place of hospice care. “Home has a special meaning for each person, group, population, and is not necessarily confined to a domicile but may be perceived as a family, neighborhood, community, cultural or ethnic group, or nation” (Broome & Marshall, 2020, p. 79). This is often stressful due to the ever-changing environments a healthcare worker may encounter in just one day. Due to this, my company has made many changes over the years, largely focused on communication. Interdisciplinary team meetings to ensure patient and family goals of care are met. Medicare covers 100% of hospice services, so the industry is extremely monitored for quality. In recent years, technology has also played a large part in assisting providers with meeting quality benchmarks. Integrations of smart and connected healthcare programs to track goals of care, programs for monitoring vital signs and disease management, all allow for reduction in human error, more timely responses and autonomy in reporting and show an increase in quality outcomes (Li & Carayon, 2021). While hospice is no different in its struggles in healthcare, overall, I feel as though my company and staff do everything they can, to meet the quality standards set by the industry, along with the perceived standards of patients and families.
References
Broome, M. E., & Marshall, E. S. (2020). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Busse, R., Klazinga, N., Panteli, D., & Quentin, W. (2019). Improving healthcare quality in europe [op]: Characteristics, effectiveness and implementation of different strategies (health policy series, 53). World Health Organization.
Li, J., & Carayon, P. (2021). Health care 4.0: A vision for smart and connected health care. IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725579.2021.1884627Links to an external site.