NURS 6053 Week 1 Discussion: Review Of Current Healthcare Issues

NURS 6053 Week 1 Discussion: Review Of Current Healthcare Issues – Completed Sample Paper Included

NURS 6053: Discussion 1 Review of Current Healthcare Issues

Student’s Name:

Institutional Affiliation:

Healthcare Challenge

One of the most significant national healthcare issues in the US today is burnout and stress among health care workers. Although health care is an inherently high-stress field due to witnessing patients’ agony and loss of life, there is a worsening rate of stress and burn out. Studies show that nearly half of the US healthcare workers report at least one symptom of burnout, such as emotional and physical exhaustion, low job satisfaction, and depersonalization (Dyrbye, Shanafelt, Sinsky, Cipriano, Bhatt, Ommaya & Meyers, 2017). The healthcare issue may impact the healthcare work setting. It can impair the ability of health workers to connect with patients in meaningful ways and fully concentrate on patient care, resulting in reduced productivity, increased nurse turnover, and risk of suicide among caregivers. This can compromise the quality and safety of care. It can also increase the risk of medical errors and hospital-acquired infections (Jacobs, McGovern, Heinmiller & Drenkard, 2018).

The healthcare challenge can be attributed to various factors. The most significant factor is the rising pressures to produce better outcomes at lower costs in the U.S. health care system. As a result, care providers take the most significant role in implementing the value-based care system. Due to the pressure from the Centre of Medicare Services, healthcare organizations are putting pressure on their employees to change the method of practice. Although the shift is suitable for patients, health workers bear the most significant burden (Park, Gold, Bazemore & Liaw, 2018). In my health system work setting, several initiatives have been implemented to address the issue. Shorter work shifts have been designed to allow health workers time for personal life. Implementing an electronic health record system and employing administrators to handle clerical duties has reduced the care providers’ workload (Shanafelt & Noseworthy, 2017). To improve job satisfaction, participatory decision making where health workers’ views are considered in decision making has been adopted. Additionally, counseling and stress management programs are offered to healthcare workers in the work environment.

References

Dyrbye, L. N., Shanafelt, T. D., Sinsky, C. A., Cipriano, P. F., Bhatt, J., Ommaya, A., … & Meyers, D. (2017). Burnout among health care professionals: a call to explore and address this underrecognized threat to safe, high-quality care. NAM perspectives.

Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging employees in well-being: moving from the triple aim to the quadruple aim. Nursing administration quarterly, 42(3), 231-245.

Park, B., Gold, S. B., Bazemore, A., & Liaw, W. (2018). How evolving United States payment models influence primary care and its impact on the quadruple aim. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 31(4), 588-604.

Shanafelt, T. D., & Noseworthy, J. H. (2017, January). Executive leadership and physician well-being: nine organizational strategies to promote engagement and reduce burnout. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 129-146). Elsevier.

NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Upskilling of the Healthcare Workforce: A Pertinent National Healthcare Issue Affecting Healthcare Organizations in the United States

There are many national healthcare stressors or issues affecting and impacting healthcare organizations all over the United States. All of them require addressing, although some are more urgent than others. The healthcare issue chosen in this case and one of the most significant stressors at the moment is the issue of upskilling of healthcare professionals. In this context, these would be the nurses working within the healthcare organization. According to Ross (2019), upskilling is the process of retraining employees so that they can acquire new skills for them to continue practicing in their field with ease NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue. Recent developments (particularly technological) within and around healthcare have necessitated the requirement that workers such as nurses possess skillsets that are upgraded. As a matter of fact, upskilling was identified as one of the six important healthcare issues in 2019 by PwC Health Research Institute (Ross, 2019). Currently, whole healthcare workforces are threatened with redundancy by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) if they do not upskill. This includes nurses, who have traditionally not been involved with technology in the course of delivering nursing care (Teague, 2019). NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The impact to my healthcare organization of upskilling as a healthcare issue is immense. This is because emerging healthcare technologies are becoming more and more mandatory in diagnostics, therapeutics, and nursing care. Nurses are therefore finding themselves short of skills to deliver quality patient care. This makes the organization set aside resources to retrain and upgrade the skills of its nurses so that they can cope with the emerging technological changes. This, however, is an inevitably resource-intensive undertaking fir the organization. In my organization, for instance, the policy makers have already had to set aside funds for training of the nurses and other healthcare staff on the use of the recently introduced EHR. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue. Already, upskilling is happening in the healthcare sector with the now standard requirement for electronic health records or EHR. That said, the hallmark of upskilling in healthcare is predicted to be artificial intelligence-assisted telehealth interventions (Teague, 2019).

Some of the Areas of Concern

Healthcare organizations must invest in the abilities of their workforce if they are to have a competitive advantage over their peers. Not doing so will of course render the organization unable to compete effectively in an ever-changing healthcare marketplace. For instance, AI is more and more used in healthcare at the moment. What this means is that rising sophistication of emerging medical technologies is driving the need for upskilled health workers (Ross, 2019). The advent of digital therapeutics is the other area of concern. This is the treatment of disease using healthcare technologies to complement or replace traditional methods in disease management. The reality is that the clinical validation of these digital therapeutics products and connected medical devices is already being done by the Food and Drug Administration or FDA (Siwicki, 2019). This is an indicator of the urgency with which upskilling of healthcare staff like nurses should be treated. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.

Two Articles on the Upskilling of Healthcare Workers as a Healthcare Issue of Concern

Rimmer (2018) has posited that doctors have to undergo additional training in order to be successful at using emerging healthcare technologies. This particular article addresses doctors as the healthcare workers of concern, but it has been chosen because the very same situation is true for the nurses. This article talks of a report that states that training is needed by doctors in areas such as artificial intelligence algorithms, genomics, and digital literacy. As mentioned above, that is the same treatment that nurse practitioners should also receive. The article goes ahead to stress that training is a must for healthcare staff in order to cope with emerging healthcare technologies. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Fralic (2013) on her part observes that the American healthcare system is undergoing change that is radical and monumental. She states, correctly, that with change there is need to re-strategise and re-organize to deliver quality healthcare. To do this, upskilling is a must to keep up with healthcare technologies. In other organizations in the healthcare sector, the same situation portends. They, too, are adopting the same approach of retraining to upskill nurses, doctors, and other health workers so that they can cope with the recent technological changes and continue to offer quality and safe patient care.

Strategies to Address the Organizational Impact of Upskilling

Since the reality of upskilling in healthcare organizations is inevitable, it is essential to develop strategies that aim at addressing the organizational impact of this issue. Three strategies are especially helpful. First, the organization needs to introduce new technologies gradually to allow for adaptation and training. Second, upskilling should be made a policy initiative that features in the organization’s goals. Third and last, upskilling should be properly budgeted for like any other expense if it is to succeed (Fralic, 2013; Rimmer, 2018; Teague, 2019). Under no circumstances should upskilling be considered as an afterthought. These strategies impact my organization positively in that they are geared towards giving the organization a competitive advantage. On the negative side, however, budgeting means that this strategy will consume resources that the organization must set aside.

References

Fralic, M.F. (2013). Upskilling for new-era healthcare: Lessons from high impact readings. Nurse Leader, 11(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2013.05.008

Rimmer, A. (2018). Upskill doctors to make the most of new medical technologies, report says. BMJ, 361(k2861). Doi: 10.1136/bmj.k2861

Ross, J.R. (2019). Upskilling could be an ideal treatment for healthcare’s employment woes. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/healthcare-economics/upskilling-could-be-ideal-rx-healthcares-employment-woes

Siwicki, B. (2019). Here are 6 major issues facing healthcare in 2019, according to PwC. Healthcare ITNews. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/here-are-6-major-issues-facing-healthcare-2019-according-pwc

Teague, T. (2019). Will healthcare employees need to be upskilled or reskilled as technology advances? Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.whatisbluesky.com/blog/will-healthcare-employees-need-to-be-upskilled-or-reskilled-as-technology-advances

NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.

In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

To Prepare:

Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (3-4 Pages):

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:

Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

NURS 6053 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

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 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.

Discussion Week One

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. I can’t think of better wisdom while in the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. This healthcare crisis has, for better or worse, brought out a side of healthcare that no one could have ever imagined. Everything from massive amounts of casualties all over the world to shortages on equipment, that just months ago were in abundant excess. Healthcare workers around the globe are learning new and creative ways to evaluate and treat patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020), the death toll in the United States as of this week is 88,243 people (Table 2).

In my work setting the dealing of this virus has been like receiving a slow-motion form of whip lash for the last three months. The initial shock of the virus instilled fear and out of fear came administrative decisions of great impact. With resources immediately being used and unavailable for reorder, special equipment had to be purchased to protect the staff. After shelter in place orders went out, people stopped coming into the hospitals and therefore the problems began. With outpatient day surgery being canceled, limited census on hospital floors, and spending what’s left of the budget on PPE stockpiles, money ran out quickly. Last week at my organization laid off 22 employees permanently and another 57 furloughed for a month.

The American Hospital Association (2020), stated hospitals and health systems all over are facing catastrophic financial challenges in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (para 3). The impact of the virus has had a full circle effect; impacting every person sick and every person caring for the sick in different horrible ways. My organization guaranteed our pay from May 1^st, 2020 to June 8^th, 2020. After June 8^th, the furloughs will begin. Another wonderful thing my organization did was protect us. Not one staff member from my hospital got the virus and I believe it is because they went over and above to protect the staff. I know the layoffs and furloughs are necessary for survival but seeing coworkers and friends being sent home is painful; opening my mind to the survival aspect of healthcare is necessary for my future in it. NURS 6053 week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

References

American Hospital Association. (2020). Hospital and health systems face unprecedented

financial pressures due to COVID-19. Retrieved June 2, 2020 from

https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due

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

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Leading in Healthcare Organizations of the Future

[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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.NURS 6053 week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

It is unfortunate how much impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on every single person in this country and across the world. it has been very scary for health care providers especially nurse to provide direct care to patients. with limited PPEs and personnel, nurses risk their lives each day when they step out to care for their patients. Despite all these dedications, health care workers are laid off as a result of low patient Census. I believe that there must be a system where jobs are protected for health care workers in any crisis. the federal government needs to work with each state to ensure job protection for our health care workers. Another important issue to address is that, there must be federal. state and local regulations that will mandate hospitals and other health care institutions to have surplus PPEs in stock to be used in times of crisis-at least 3 months supply of PPEs. The federal and state government need to make provision of these PPEs to the various institutions. Job security and availability of PPEs for health care workers is important especially during this time of uncertainties.

thank you for your post

Reference

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in Nursing: From Expert Clinician to Influential Leader (2^nd ed). New York, NY: Springer

True to your statement, the COV:ID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone, especially the healthcare workers. The healthcare settings are faced with increased exposure, stress and patient load. In addition to their human toll, epidemics and pandemics can have enormous social and economic consequences in a closely interconnected and interdependent world.

In a novel virus outbreak such as COVID-19, there is no existing antiviral drugs nor vaccine available. Police departments, local utility companies and mass transit authorities experience significant personnel shortages that result in severe disruption of routine services. Several major airports close because of high absenteeism among air traffic controllers and risk of passengers contracting the disease. Health and other essential community services deteriorate further as the pandemic sweeps across the world. NURS 6053 week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

As what you have stated, hospitals and outpatient clinics are critically short-staffed as doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers themselves become ill or are afraid to come to work. Intensive care units at local hospitals are overwhelmed, and soon there are insufficient ventilators for the treatment of viral complications such as pneumonia patients.

Fearing infection, elderly patients with chronic medical conditions do not dare to leave home. Parents are distraught when their healthy young adult sons and daughters die within days of first becoming ill.

Pandemics, whether mild, moderate or severe, affect a large proportion of the population and require a multisectoral response over several months or even years. For this reason, plans need to be developed by healthcare organizations describing strategies for responding to a pandemic supported by operational plans at the local, national and subnational levels. Great post!

Response.

I can totally relate to the feeling of uncertainty during COVID-19 early staffing days in the ICU. I am cath lab nurse that frequently rotates in and out of the ED or ICU. Being sent back to the ICU while outpatient procedures were on hold and taking a team of med-surg nurses helping for the day was an overwhelming feeling. 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 non-ICU trained RNs helping was a blessing and a curse, but all the while knowing that it was vital to the care of these patients. Now that we are on this side of COVID -19 I also feel, as you stated, more comfortable for the future should we be put in this position again, but the learning process was hard, and involved an extensive learning curve of trial and error. The stressors you talked about on nurses directly effecting patient care is now the situation we have found ourselves in at my organization. Everyone is exhaling a bit now that the virus is seeming to be on the decline. The scary and stress filled portion of that is nurses are now losing their jobs due to poor organizational leadership of organizations or that there just aren’t enough people to be taken care of right now coming into the hospital. I think it is safe to say that there is not one aspect of patient care or one healthcare worker around the globe that hasn’t been touched by this virus! Thanks for sharing your post, it was a great read!

-Kelly

References

American Hospital Association. (2020). Hospital and health systems face unprecedented

financial pressures due to COVID-19. Retrieved June 6, 2020 from

https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Leading in Healthcare Organizations of the Future

[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. NURS 6053 week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

Module 1: Healthcare Environment (Weeks 1-2)

Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). The Healthcare Environment [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Analyze current national healthcare issues/stressors
Analyze the impact of national healthcare issues/stressors on healthcare organizations
Analyze strategies for addressing national healthcare issues/stressors

Due By	Assignment
Week 1, Days 1–2	Read the Learning Resources. Compose your initial Discussion post.
Week 1, Day 3	Post your initial Discussion post. Begin to compose your Assignment.
Week 1, Days 4-5	Review peer Discussion posts. Compose your peer Discussion responses. Continue to compose your Assignment.
Week 1, Day 6	Post two peer Discussion responses.
Week 2, Days 1–6	Continue to compose your Assignment.
Week 2, Day 7	Deadline to submit your Assignment.

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Chapter 2, “Understanding Contexts for Transformational Leadership: Complexity, Change, and Strategic Planning” (pp. 37–62)
Chapter 3, “Current Challenges in Complex Health Care Organizations: The Triple Aim” (pp. 63–86)

Read any TWO of the following (plus TWO additional readings on your selected issue):

Auerbach, D. I., Staiger, D. O., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2018). Growing ranks of advanced practice clinicians—Implications for the physician workforce. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(25), 2358–2360. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1801869