5. Client Centered Care
There are growing numbers of older people and people living with long-term conditions and disabilities. However the health and social care budgets are very limited. To provide high quality care that provides people the best quality of life, we need to reconsider 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 increase their knowledge, and develop the skills and confidence required so they can effectively manage their health and also make informed decision in this regard. Client centered care must synchronized and personalized to the needs of the individual and must 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 permits quality, reasonably priced 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 signing this legislation, patient populations from sundry backgrounds including uninsured African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders now have new healthcare opportunities. Until now, patient from these populations could not access these opportunities because of the high health insurance costs and other socio-economic concerns.
8. Delegating
Nurses have been delegating tasks to assistive personnel for some time. However, many aren’t aware of this according to experts familiar with the issue. Although nurses have been able to delegate a number of tasks to patients’ families, these relatives often find it difficult to be available to help because of time constraints and interference of schedules of care with other activities such as jobs, household chores etc. For example, family members may have to make a trip home during lunch to give a relative a bath or administer medication. 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 and so the abilities to delegate, assign, and supervise care 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 central 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 CDC’s stress on wellness reflects the organization belief that the mere absence of disease is not synonymous with the best possible quality of health. To help people achieve wellness across the lifespan, CDC is embracing 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).
There are many factors that which will increase the need for services to promote the concept of wellness. These include a growing aging population, an increased focus on health care discrepancies affecting treatment and services, a rising rates of obesity, technology advances 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 how clients express and adapt 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.