Centered Care
There are growing numbers of older people and people living with long-term conditions and disabilities. At the same time, health and social care budgets are under increasing pressure. If we are to provide high quality care that affords people the best possible quality of life, we need to rethink the relationship between people and the services that provide their care. In person-centered care, health and social care professionals work collaboratively with people who use services. Person-centered care supports people to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need, to more effectively manage and make informed decisions about their own health and health care. It is coordinated and tailored to the needs of the individual and also ensures that people are always treated with dignity, compassion and respect. Although this may seem as everyday knowledge person centered care is not standard practice. Often, healthcare professional finds it difficult to include people in decisions, and views people’s goals only in terms of particular clinical outcomes. If the principles of client-centered care are employed, patient satisfaction with health care services will increase, increasing confidence in health care providers which would have the secondary effects of more person seeking health care services before the illness has advanced. This impact can be beneficial for the entire population.
6. Critical thinking
Critical thinking has many uses and can be applied to any setting. Critical thinking forces managers and employees to resist the temptation of categorizing problems that occur into categories of problems which have already occurred in the pass. The concept demands that employee avoid making assumptions and to look beyond conventional solutions to problems to identify new problem solving approaches. Critical thinking can lead to many viable solutions to the same problem and therefore a range of solution can be offered to clients. This allows the company to implement solutions that uses resources that are available as appose to purchasing other material. Therefore it promotes cost effective goods and services. The concepts also is beneficial in that it promotes and fosters team work. When more people are involve in the critical thinking process it encourages team work by giving employee a chance to impact on the future of the organization. When members of the organization think critically about one problem this can reveal information that can be applied to many other situation and impact positively on solving other problems in the workplace.
7. Patient Advocacy
Some healthcare professionals may view patient advocacy as simply acting on behalf of patients. While this is an important aspect of the concept and is evident throughout the literature, advocacy entails much more as nurses and other healthcare professionals care for culturally diverse patients with individual needs. All healthcare providers must understand the importance of informing the patient about available healthcare options and advocating for the patient’s decisions rather than acting only on what the healthcare professional may believe is best for the patient. Providing patient advocacy will continue to enhance healthcare encounters and outcomes and the effects will be evident in all areas of the health care system. The need for patient advocacy will continue to grow as healthcare consumers from diverse populations will require more information and control about the healthcare they receive.
President Barack Obama signed the public law 111 – 148: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March, 23, 2010, which allows quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans. This an example of advocacy because the legislation will provide numerous healthcare benefits such as reasonable health insurance rates, no lifetime or annual limits, coverage of preventive health services and immediate access to insurance for those with pre-existing conditions. As a result of this legislation, patient populations from diverse backgrounds including 6.8 million uninsured African Americans, 10.2 million uninsured Latinos, and 2 million uninsured Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders now have new healthcare opportunities. In the past, these patient populations may not have had these opportunities because of high health insurance costs or other socio-economic concerns.
8. Delegating
Nurses have been delegating tasks to health aides, including administering a feeding tube, but many nurses aren’t aware of this, according to experts familiar with the issue. And while nurses have been able to delegate a full range of tasks to patients’ families, these relatives often find it difficult to be available to help. For example, family members may have to make a trip home during lunch to give a relative a bath or administer medication, but the need for the trip could be eliminated if the home health aide was able to take care of the task.
Many nurses are stretched to the limit in the current healthcare environment. Increasing numbers of people needing healthcare combined with increasing complexity of therapies create a tremendous demand for nursing care. More than ever, nurses need to work effectively with assistive personnel. The abilities to delegate, assign, and supervise are critical competencies needed in this arena.
To assist and ensure effective delegation, the health care organization must allocate resources to ensure sufficient staffing so that the nurse can delegate appropriately. Documentation of staff competencies involve in providing direct patient care must be readily available to ensure that the nurse has access to competency information for staff to whom she is delegating patient care. Organizational policies on delegation should be developed with the active participation of all nurses (staff, managers and administrators).The organization must also ensure that the education needs of nursing assistive personnel are met through the implementation of a system that allows for nurses’ input.
9. Wellness
The concept of “wellness” is being introduced into Center for Disease Control (CDC) public health lexicon as CDC strives to meet its overarching health protection goal of ensuring that “all people…will achieve their optimal lifespan with the best possible quality of health in every stage of life”. This emphasis on wellness reflects CDC’s belief that the mere absence of disease is not synonymous with the best possible quality of health. To help people achieve wellness throughout their lives, CDC is adopting a public health model that makes life stages the framework for its programs (Steinberg 2007 CDC).
The health model of wellness through the life stages is sometimes described as a holistic approach to public health. This life stages approach aims to help people maintain good mental and physical health throughout their lives rather than focusing on specific diseases or conditions. CDC has renewed its emphasis on external reviews of its programs to ensure a rigorous accounting of progress toward program goals based on explicit criteria for success (Steinberg 2007 CDC).
Factors that will increase the need for services to promote the concept of wellness include a growing aging population with increased longevity; an increased focus on health care disparities affecting treatment and services; the health effects of rising rates of obesity; and factors that challenge the quality and pace of life, including technology and imbalances in life roles.
10. Pain
The importance of addressing chronic pain as a multi- dimensional phenomenon has been stressed, along with the need to consider the interrelation between biological aspects, psychological factors and social context in order to understand an individual’s perception of pain and illness. There is evidence to suggest that the interaction between chronic pain and negative emotional factors triggers psychological effects and reciprocal behavioral in the illness process, influencing the expression and adaptation of individuals with regard to the pain. Patients with moderate to severe chronic pain associated to sensory and affective components exhibited a higher degree of disability and depression. The results suggest that the chronic process of pain and its functional consequences vary between individuals and are influenced by emotional factors (Alcantara, Sampaio, Souza, Silva, and Kirkwood, 2013). Pain as have been found to be the number one reason why individual seek medical services. To effectively manage pain healthcare providers must understand the multidimensional effects pain has on individual, families, work and societies.