NRS 465 Evidence-Based Patient-Centered Needs Assessment Project
NRS-465: Applied Evidence-Based Project and Practicum is the final course in the Rn to BSN Degree program program. This writing-intensive integrates the academic and practical knowledge students have acquired throughout the program’s curriculum. Students participate in planned clinical experiences that refine professional competencies at the baccalaureate level and enable them to integrate new knowledge and enhanced skills to advance nursing practice. Clinical practice hours are dedicated to learning objectives in leadership and community health.
The evidence-based project provides students an opportunity to identify a clinical nursing practice issue and propose a possible solution. Students, under the guidance of faculty and approved preceptors, identify and analyze a nurse practice issue, develop a change project, and propose an evidence-based solution that reflects synthesis and integration of course content and professional practice. The evidence-based project development is guided by the baccalaureate program learning outcomes. Clinical hours: 100. 50 hours in leadership and 50 hours in community health. Prerequisite: NRS-415, NRS-420, NRS-425, HLT-362V, NRS-445, PHI-413V, NRS-450, NRS-455, NRS-460.
Evidence-Based Patient-Centered Needs Assessment Essay
This paper’s identified population is people addicted to alcohol and other substances. Despite the numerous efforts that different governmental and non-governmental institutions have implemented, the addiction problem still haunts many people. Addicted persons continuously abuse substances despite the adverse effects that are associated with them. There are apparent effects on a person’s social, mental, and physical well-being. Some addiction-related factors include personal preferences, environmental factors, and genetic predisposition (Nawi et al., 2021).
Addiction to substances can lead to psychological and physical symptoms such as withdrawal symptoms of discontinuation of abusing the substance. The different approaches to managing addiction include support groups and behavioral and pharmacological therapies. To prevent addiction, diverse populations need to be educated about the risks associated with the substances abused. It is also vital for healthcare givers to address the underlying mental health issues that may predispose these individuals to addiction.
In managing addiction, healthcare workers must address the addicts’ health, economic and cultural needs. This approach must be based on the best available evidence and prioritize the fact that addiction influences an individual’s health differently. When engaging patients, healthcare providers collaboratively develop individualized treatment plans considering the patient’s unique cultural, economic, and health circumstances. Involving patients in their care empowers them to make informed decisions concerning their treatment.
Patient involvement in care has been shown to reduce the healthcare costs associated with addiction. Engaging patients in self-care can lead to more adherence to treatment protocols, decreasing the rates of hospital admissions and the likelihood of relapsing (Abdisa et al., 2020). Cultural factors can influence their understanding of addiction and willingness to seek health care. The involvement of cultural factors in the plan of care can help healthcare professionals to come up with strategies that are appropriate and culturally sensitive for each individual.
The Importance of Addressing Patient Engagement
Patient engagement is essential to help patients manage their health conditions. When patients are engaged in the plan of their care, they are more likely to comprehend their situation, adhere to treatment, and attain informed decision-making concerning their care. A study by Kuipers et al. (2019) notes that when healthcare workers involve patients in developing personalized care plans, they will likely consider their goals, needs, values, and preferences. Understanding the patient’s condition can help them achieve enhanced self-management, which may entail managing their symptoms and making necessary lifestyle adjustments to impact their health positively and adherence to treatment plans.
Involving patients in their care plan has been shown to help healthcare workers manage the conditions better, resulting in fewer complications and an overall improvement in the quality of life achieved by the patients. An improvement in the quality of life can help to achieve a reduction in the burden of disease observed. The patient’s satisfaction and care received at the health care organization can be increased when they are engaged in their care.
Client satisfaction in healthcare increases the chances that they are likely to utilize the services again, which can lead to improved outcomes concerning their health. Similarly, when patients are involved in managing their conditions, the healthcare givers can have a deeper understanding of their needs and come up with preferences and goals, which can be taken into account to improve the overall experience. In addition, they can be provided with individualized management plans that are likely to be successful when adhered to consistently.
Evidence that Supports the Benefits of Patient Engagement
Studies by Marzban et al. (2022) and Aboumatar et al. (2022) have indicated that interventions aimed at patient engagement, such as patient activation and decision-making involvement, are associated with improved health outcomes in patients with chronic health conditions. There are also reduced costs associated with healthcare and an overall improvement in patient satisfaction.
Another study by Kichloo et al. (2020) indicated that the utilization of telehealth and patient portals was associated with an enhancement in adherence to medication and an overall reduction in the number of hospitalizations. There was an overall increase in healthcare utilization in patients who utilize this technology. Similarly, remote healthcare coaching and promotion of self-management in persons who have an addiction were associated with enhanced health outcomes.
The Potential Use and Impact of the Information and Communication Technology
For people with an addiction, applying information and communication technology tools may significantly improve their health literacy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022), health literacy refers to the ability of patients to access, comprehend, and utilize information and services and make informed decisions about their health. The improvement of health literacy in people with an addiction can help them manage their conditions and other resulting health-related issues.
Utilizing mobile health applications can also help improve consumer health literacy. This application helps with the need to access information and other resources to help them manage their challenges. They can help with medication adherence, have a range of support groups to choose from, and track their symptoms resulting from drug abuse.
Similarly, telehealth can help these individuals remotely access beneficial information, which can help reduce transportation and time constraints challenges (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2020). Individuals will likely face stigma or other barriers that hinder them from accessing quality health care and benefit from this approach.
The use of social media services can help this individual access other beneficial education resources and support groups where they can share their experiences with individuals suffering from the same condition. Healthcare givers can use electronic health records to help them enhance consumer health literacy for these individuals. The use of electronic health records can increase patients’ accessibility to their health information and help them communicate efficiently with their healthcare providers.
Tools to Facilitate Improvement in Patient Care
There are other mobile applications and telehealth features that can help to facilitate an improvement in patient care. Mobile applications enable patients to access health information remotely, access resources they need to manage their condition and get support from other individuals or organizations (Haleem et al., 2021). Some of the features these applications can offer include tracking symptoms, educational materials, and medication reminders to help them adhere to treatment.
Accessibility to remote healthcare services has also been enhanced through telehealth features. For instance, individuals living far away from healthcare facilities can use telehealth to remove transportation barriers. They can schedule video visits with their healthcare professionals and benefit from remote monitoring of their symptoms and accessibility to virtual support groups (Jin et al., 2020). Electronic health records facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers and enable them to access their health information. Patient confidentiality can be promoted by using secure systems, which help promote coordination between different healthcare professionals as they allow easy information sharing.
Value and Relevance of the Technology Modalities
It is crucial to promptly address the needs of those with an addiction so they can enjoy quality health outcomes and lead no more lives. The use of telehealth and other health applications cannot be overlooked. With such modalities, patients can access quality and reliable information that can help them make informed decisions about their health and adopt different lifestyle adjustments that can help them improve their lives.
Accessibility to healthcare workers remotely can enable addicts to share information in real-time and get feedback from healthcare givers (El-Sherif et al., 2022). Therefore, healthcare providers are encouraged to adopt such technology that can help them monitor their patients closely and ensure that collaboration among different healthcare workers is achieved to promote quality health outcomes. These modalities have also helped increase patient confidentiality by ensuring that only individuals can access patient information.
Encouragement of Patient Engagement in Ethical, Culturally Sensitive, and Inclusive Ways
By considering ethics culture and inclusiveness, healthcare providers can ascertain that applying technology and managing different patient conditions respect their right to autonomy and enhance accessibility to equitable healthcare. Mobile healthcare applications provide tailored information to each individual and ensure addicts can access quality and reliable information (Kernebeck et al., 2020). For instance, providing information about a smoker’s different behavioral strategies to help them quit the habit will enable the individual to follow these guidelines and achieve the best outcomes.
Other individuals with visual impairments can also benefit from the use of mobile applications that have been designed to accommodate their disabilities. When telehealth is adopted, healthcare workers can promote culturally sensitive and ethical patient engagement, protecting their privacy and considering the right to autonomy. Before engaging in any intervention, patients are informed about the benefits and risks of engaging in that Intervention. Patients are likely to face stigmatization from different people protected through telehealth.
Conclusion
The engagement of patients in self-management is a vital component of delivering high-quality healthcare. The utilization of healthcare modalities such as electronic health records, telehealth, and mobile applications has been determined to increase the engagement of patients in their health care in an inclusive, culturally sensitive, and ethical manner. Recent literature has indicated that using these modalities can help reduce costs associated with health care, enhance patient satisfaction, and improve the health outcomes of these patients. All healthcare organizations are encouraged to adopt evidence-based technology that has been shown to promote individualized patient care.
References
Abdisa, E., Fekadu, G., Girma, S., Shibiru, T., Tilahun, T., Mohamed, H., Wakgari, A., Takele, A., Abebe, M., & Tsegaye, R. (2020). Self-stigma and medication adherence among patients with mental illness treated at Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-020-00391-6
Aboumatar, H., Pitts, S., Sharma, R., Das, A., Smith, M., Day, J., Holzhauer, K., Yang, S., Bass, B., & Bennett, W. L. (2022). Patient engagement strategies for adults with chronic conditions: An evidence map. Systematic Reviews, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-021-01873-5
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, February 2). What is health literacy? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Accessed on April 21st from https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/index.html
El-Sherif, M., Abouzid, M., Elzarif, T., Ahmed, A., Albakri, A., & Alshehri, M. (2022). Telehealth and artificial intelligence insights into healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare, 10(2), 385. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10020385
Gajarawala, S., & Pelkowski, J. (2020). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Singh, P., & Suman, R. (2021). Telemedicine for healthcare: Capabilities, features, barriers, and applications. Sensors International, 2(2), 100117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sintl.2021.100117
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Kernebeck, S., Busse, S., Böttcher, D., Weitz, J., Ehlers, J., & Bork, U. (2020). Impact of mobile health and medical applications on clinical practice in gastroenterology. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 26(29), 4182–4197. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v26.i29.4182
Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, C., Kanugula, K., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the future: A narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family Medicine and Community Health, 8(3), e000530. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2020-000530
Kuipers, J., Cramm, M., & Nieboer, P. (2019). The importance of patient-centered care and co-creation of care for satisfaction with care and physical and social well-being of patients with multi-morbidity in the primary care setting. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3818-y
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