The primary focus on this level of care is to help ward off diseases through a healthier life. Patients can achieve this level of health through knowledge and understanding from education. Nurses can assist in the promotion of primary care by educating patients regarding the importance and benefits of vaccinations and avoiding risky behaviors that may lead to diseases, such as, smoking and unprotected sex. Nurses at the primary level may also educate patients regarding healthy eating and routine exercises to decrease risk factors. The secondary level of health promotion involves early diagnosis and rapid intervention to decrease the progress of any disease process.
They provide a rehabilitation center that works not only with the body but the mind, to treat the whole person. And, they have a Breast Care Center, which has earned a national accreditation and provides state-of-the-art screening and diagnostic tools (MCMC, 2009-2010). Being affiliated with the right organizations can help with strengthening your status in the community, which is why Mid-Columbia, became affiliated with the Planetree Alliance. Planetree is a non-profit organization that believes the same things that Mid-Columbia does and they help with continuing promotion of nurturing the body, mind and spirit. They believe that kindness and compassion helps minimize the stress that hinders healing (Planetree, 2009) and treating the patients like human beings rather than numbers, can go a long way.
The Public health system is founded on “prevention of disease and promotion of the health of a population” by means of evidence based and socially accepted methods as stated in the Community Health and Wellness edition 4. Public health care is based on principles of cultural sensitivity, accessibility, community participation and intersectional collaboration that threads in very well with practitioners of naturopathy’s manner towards health care. Naturopathy otherwise known, as complimentary medicine is a method of healing that employs various lifestyle changes to gain optimal health. A naturopath believes that “good health involves more than just a remedy”. If we want to live long, joyful, happy lives we must endeavour to re-establish the proper relationship between ourselves – The whole body and mind – and nature in order to empower an individual to reach their highest level of health (Dr H.C.A Vogel, 1990).
Health Promotion in Nursing Practice Health promotion education practiced in the communities can positively affect the communities’ health and nurses contribute to this result. “The International Council of Nurses (ICN) (2009) reported that health-promoting actions performed by nurses working in diverse settings provide ideal opportunities for health promotion with a goal of creating healthy homes, schools, cities and workplaces. Individually and through national associations, nurses, along with other healthcare providers, can be effective in paving the road for good health through health promotion.” (Jadelhack, 2012) Nurses’ can educate their patients on the important lifestyle changes that include smoking cessation, implementing an exercise regimen, vaccinations, dietary changes, etc all of which can contribute to the prevention of health problems such as obesity, hypertension, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. The General Nursing Directorate (GND) addressed the following goals for primary health care centers on behalf of the nursing profession 1.
Additionally, “The health belief model and social learning theory assist the nurse in formulating an action plan that meets the needs and capabilities of the individual making health behavior changes” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010, p. 248). This model states important points that serve as guidelines for nurses to help enable them to determine an individuals’’ willingness to change health behaviors and to understand the factors that contribute to their state of health (Edleman & Mandle, 2010). They are as follows: • Individual perceptions or readiness for change • The value of health to the individual compared with other aspects of living • Perceived susceptibility to a health problem, disease, or complications • Perceived seriousness of the disease level threatening the achievement of certain goals or aims • Risk factors to a disease attributed to heredity, race or culture, medical history, or other causes • Perceived benefits of health action • Perceived barriers to promotion action As nurses, we must always act on the opportunity to educate and recognize those opportunities as they arise. We must be able to evaluate the willingness of individuals to learn and to accept new ways that they can improve their health. We do have such a large amount of face-to-face contact with people that it is only in our benefit to take advantage of educational situations.
These are principles instilled in us throughout nursing school, and guide nurses in our practice. Nursing-sensitive indicators are formulated to allow for better patient outcomes. These guidelines identify specific practices nurses can utilize to achieve safer and optimal patient-centered care. According to Beth Ann Swan, author of the article Making Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators Real in Ambulatory Care (2008), “Leaders in ambulatory care nursing must articulate the value of nurses’ contributions, as has been accomplished through the development of indicators of quality patient care and nursing-sensitive outcomes for other venues where nursing care is delivered (1).” On the flip side however, these same indicators can also be used to identify issues that can interfere with or hinder the patient care process. Some of the specific indicators identified in this scenario that impede patient care include: 1) complications such as pressure ulcers, 2) restraint use leading to neglect and patient injury, 3) Patient falls related to or resulting from use of sedatives or narcotic administration, 4) safe patient transfer 5) use of urinal instead of ambulating, and 6) creating a situation for a negative patient/family member experience by not being culturally sensitive to the patient’s needs.
Hand washing and infection prevention is one of the most under stressed areas of healthcare. It is the job of Team A to guide and direct the learning and behavioral changes needed to be successful as a healthcare worker. As nurse educators we realize the basic understanding of critical thinking lies within the Socratic Method, this is the strategy we will use to present the information on infection prevention. According to DeYoung (2009) “In this method, all thoughts are treated as if they are in need of further development and refinement, regardless of how reflective they may be” (p. 226). Our purpose is for the students to have clarity about our topic and as instructors we will hold them accountable for the information presented.
Heritage assessment offers an affirmative holistic structure for measurement and provision for racially proficient care. Health tradition evaluation form visualizes health as “the state of equilibrium inside the body, mind, and spirit, and with the family, community, and the powers of the natural world (Spector, 2004b). It helps nurses detect one’s classification with hereditary traditions. At first, nurses need to understand their own beliefs in order to respect each individual’s wishes to facilitate communication that can lead to healing process. Nurses intermingle with people from diverse branch of the world with a mixture of civilizing practices, so cultural alertness seems essential in creating a patient-nurse relationship during the interview phase of the health assessment, initial step of the nursing process.
The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act has changed how women are been treated when it comes to utilizing health care services. Health care reform goal is to deliver quality services to help maintain and prevent women diseases. Policies produce successful outcomes while accomplishing effective change within the health care system for
A series of education training of documentation was implemented to help reduce episodes of Medicare payment denials and self-protection through adequate documentation. Thus, I will discuss the impact of inadequate nursing documentation that leads to malpractice lawsuits. Purpose of Medical Record Documentation Understanding the purpose of medical documentation was the first step in teaching how to prevent inadequate documentations that leads to liability and malpractice lawsuits. Monarch (2007) supports the purpose of Medical Record Documentation as the following: • Substantiating the health condition or illness or presented concern for the patient. • Effective communication among health care staff.