Discussion Question 1

Step 1 In your initial post, due Wednesday at 11:59 pm Mountain Time,respond to the following prompts.

• Describe a client using certain characteristics such as age, social supports, and type of community.
• Describe the social determinants to health promotion for a specific client in your community with whom you are familiar.
• Describe the role of social support in health promotion for this client.
• Describe the relationship between social support and social determinants in accessing health promotion for this client.

Cite any sources in APA format.

Step 2 Read other students' posts and respond to at least two of them

In your responses, choose one of the social determinants your peers wrote about. Explain why you agree with their explanations of the relationship between social support and social determinants.

Your initial post should be 2-3 paragraphs long and follow the requirements outlined in the discussion rubric. Please add to the discussion in your peer responses with informative responses, instead of posts similar to “great idea! I really agree with you.” The initial post and the peer responses have different deadlines. Make sure that your discussion adheres to these deadlines.

APA guidelines and plagiarism prevention matter in discussion posts just like with other scholarly assignments. Cite all references appropriately using APA format.

Discussion 1 Donna

A 64-year-old female lives in rural areas in the country just outside a small town in Ohio. She gets very little support from her family. She has two daughters, one of who she hasn't spoken to in over 3 years, and the other daughter is involved in her life., but not as much as she would like to be. This female sees a psychiatrist every week to help with the emotional struggles that she has going on. She also has a dog that she loves very much.

Social determinants of this individual are she is on a fixed income, social security disability due to her medical conditions, a high school diploma, lived in the same rural area for 36 years, and an abusive alcoholic mother growing up. Her father passed away when she was very young. She is not very active due to her health conditions and is very depressed because she can't get around and do the things she used to and that she hasn't spoken to her daughter in a couple of years.

Social support in health promotion for her has a family to provide a positive support system. Continue to see the therapist can lead to positive outcomes. If she could find coping strategies like relaxation activities, talking to family and therapist to express her emotions, and going out and meeting new people, her age group. Hence, she is not just sitting in the house, making her more depressed.

The relationship between social support and social determinants is that if you have greater social support, less isolation, and greater interpersonal trust, you live longer and healthier lives than socially isolated (Family and Social Support, 2020). If you lack adequate social support, you are particularly vulnerable to stress, leading to cardiovascular disease and unhealthy behaviors (Family and Social Support, 2020).

Reference

Family and Social Support. (2020). County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. Retrieved on October 26, 2020, from https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/explore-health-rankings/measures-data-sources/county-health-rankings-model/health-factors/social-and-economic-factors/family-and-social-support.

Discussion Question 2

Respond to the following question based on this weeks lesson and, if it's relevant, include your own personal experience

• Describe two examples of patient safety improvement through the use of health care informatics. Specifically, how did health care Informatics improve patient safety in each example?

Read other students' posts and respond to at least two of them.

Discussion 1 Rebecca

The two examples of improved patient safety through informatics I will use for this week’s discussion are monitoring systems and pharmacy systems. I was recently floated to the ICU for a day where all the patients are constantly monitored for heart rate, blood pressure, and 02 saturation which allows the nurse or doctor, at a glance, to see how the patient is doing. All these systems are also set to alarm if a vital sign is out of range, either too high or too low. In this way the, “tracking enables trending and recognition of potentially reassuring or concerning patterns that require further intervention” (Information, n.d., Topic 1, para. 9). The pharmacy systems add to patient safety by ensuring the five rights are followed every step of the way when dispensing a medication, administering a medication, and when the doctor is prescribing a medication. “The dispensing portion of a pharmacy system can dispense the proper dose of medication, including labeling that tracks the patient's name and other necessary demographic information” (Information, n.d., Topic 1, para. 14). The dispensing aspect also provides safety to patients when the medication is being removed by a nurse by ensuring one is pulling the right medication and the right dose. This safety is continued to bedside where the patients barcoded bracelet is scanned and each medication is scanned, which will alert if the medication, dose, or time of administration are wrong. Another example of pharmacy systems providing patients safety is through e-scribing, “This system improves patient safety with reduction of errors related to handwriting or omissions and prevents tampering with handwritten prescriptions given to patients” (Information, n.d., Topic 1, para. 16).

Reference

Information Systems. (n.d.). https://dcn.instructure.com/courses/32725/pages/we...

Discussion 2 Mark

There are many different examples of patient safety that has been implemented over the years. Numerous places now have pictures of residents to help ensure that the right patient is being given the proper medication, along with making sure that you have the right patient. Some patients have dementia and will say yes to anything that you ask them. Having a form of identification allows nurses to keep from making this error.

"EHRs ensure that patients receive the right medication the first time to prevent allergic reactions to antibiotics or other medicines. They even warn physicians before prescribing a specific drug if it shows dangerous interactions with a medication already in use by the patient." ("4 Ways Health Informatics Improves Patient Care | UIC Health Informatics", 2020)

"Many patients visit more than one health provider. Paper-based records make safely managing a patient’s prescriptions difficult as these medical records do not get consolidated across physicians, specialists, laboratories, and hospitals. Many patients visit more than one health provider. Paper-based records make safely managing a patient’s prescriptions difficult as these medical records do not get consolidated across physicians, specialists, laboratories, and hospitals." ("4 Ways Health Informatics Improves Patient Care | UIC Health Informatics", 2020)

You also have lab values. Having an EHR for lab values ensures that any labs that are not within a therapeutic range are called into the nurses so that they can let the doctors know so that the proper orders are given for the patient to remain safe while under the nurse's care.

These are just a few ways of patient safety and improvements, but electronic health records tend to make nurse's jobs more manageable and helpful. This allows us to spend more time making sure that our patients get the attention that they deserve and are safe while we care for them.

Reference

4 Ways Health Informatics Improves Patient Care | UIC Health Informatics. (2020). Retrieved 26 October 2020, from https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/4-ways-heal...

Discussion Question 3

The Future of Nursing According to the IOM Report

Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts .

Step 1 Download the handout and read.

• Download the following (you may need to down load it twice)
• https://www.nap.edu/read/12956/chapter/10 (Links to an external site.)
• Read chapter 5 (pp. 225-254 only) of the IOM report related to this key message: "Nurses should be full partners, with physicians and other health care professionals, in redesigning health care in the United States."

Step 2 Post a response to the discussion board.

In your post, respond to the following question and, if appropriate, include personal experience as part of your answer:

• How do you see this key message applying to your daily practice as a nurse?

Discussion 1 Richard

I see many aspects of this report being applied in my daily practice as a

nurse. I was, as are all of my colleagues, encouraged to be leaders,

collaborators, and caregivers. I was recently placed in a leadership

role over safety and compliance in my department which requires me to

earn at least a bachelor’s degree, so here I am. Also, nurses drive

care policy here at my hospital through committee. I sat on the policy

committee here for two years and most of it is safety driven.

For my practice as safety and compliance coordinator I am expected to mediate and collaborate. Our department has a practice committee that involves nurses, radiology technologists, and providers. We discuss procedural roles, new procedures, and issues that have arisen since the previous meeting. This is a committee that nursing asked for so all parties can be sure that they are performing in the safest way possible. This stemmed from an incident where a physician was going to begin a new procedure that no one was familiar with. Nursing said no, not until we see the evidence for treatment and alternatives as well as intra-procedural and post op care. As it turned out care was different than other similar cases and we didn’t start the procedures until everyone was truly ready.

TeamSTEPPS® is a tool used to promote collaboration and improve communication among our team members (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, n.d.). A proper TeamSTEPPS® approach was used when nursing held up the new procedure as described above. Our physicians, nurses, and technologists are required to have TeamSTEPPS® training. This empowers people to step up and speak up without fear of repercussions.

References

Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research. (2012). TeamSTEPPS 2.0. https://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/instructor/index.html (Links to an external site.)

Discussion 2 Lexina

Being a full partner transcends all levels of the nursing profession and requires leadership skills and competencies that must be applied within the profession and in collaboration with other health professionals (“The future”, 2011, pg. 222). Nurses play an essential role in providing optimal health care while implementing policy changes, nurses are the backbone of health care delivery. Although, nurses may not take on responsibilities of a full leadership role, I think leadership becomes fundamental when advancing your nursing career.

Working on a critical care unit I find exercising leadership competencies are very predominant in this specific collaborative environment. This type of leadership involves working with a critical care team while having mutual respect to complete emergent task on the floor. Strong leadership on the part of nurses, physicians, and others will be required to devise and implement the changes necessary to increase quality, access, and value and deliver patient-centered care (“The future”, 2011, pg. 251). As nurses we already adopt most leadership competencies, such as patient advocacy, knowledge of care delivery, safety and quality of care. All things considered, there’s always room for improvement to succeed in future leadership roles.

Reference

The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health at NAP. edu. (2011). National Academies Press: OpenBook. https://www.nap.edu/read/12956/chapter/10