Reply 1

Classmate 1:

Community engagement is an integral part of nursing. Various levels of community engagement in health care help understand people’s goals and aspirations. A nurse can provide two effective types of involvement to improve patients’ health in the community context. Those types are planning and decision-making and development.

Planning and decision-making comprise the level of community involvement whereby a nurse can develop a plan to improve the overall health of the community. To successfully achieve that goal, nurses need to identify all the pertinent characteristics of the community currently involved in planning (PennState College of Agricultural Sciences, n.d.). In this way, nurses can recognize problems and analyze them. People, appreciating an opportunity to participate in the process, will help find a solution to problems or an alternative to it. Patients can contribute to the plan sharing their goals, resources, and steps to achieve health improvement. For example, nurses can create a treatment plan for people who are overweight and develop a healthy diet relying on the community’s habitual lifestyle. Thus, nurses will be able to improve the quality of service and learn information about patients.

It is important to develop citizens so that they are knowledgeable and interested in health issues. As part of community development, nurses can hold educational talks and teach people important issues about their health. It is also essential to develop knowledge about health among children. For example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Child Survival and Health Grants Program (CSHGP) provide guidelines for such initiatives (Ohio University, 2021). These programs are responsible for enhancing health literacy among children. Due to this level of community involvement, people will become more aware of health issues.

Thus, interaction with communities can be fruitful. Through the two most effective levels of community engagement, nurses can both learn more about patients and educate the latter about health issues. Such ways of interacting with the community are productive for nurses, medical institutions, and people.

 

 References

Ohio University. (2021). Community engagement strategies in health care. https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/community-engagement-strategies/

PennState College of Agricultural Sciences. (n.d.) What is community engagement? https://aese.psu.edu/research/centers/cecd/engagement-toolbox/engagement/what-is-community-engagement

Reply 2

Classmate 2:

Nurse’s engagement level in the community

Nurses undertake activities in community engagement as part of professional development. Such engagements mutually benefit the nurses and the community when the goals are set right, producing a valuable outcome. For a successful community engagement, various principles must be adhered to, which include understanding the specific community, the members should be made the central star, the engagement should be simple for people to participate, and the nurses should participate in the activities being carried out by the other community members and the activities should be carried consistently. Community engagement, a critical element of health programs to attain set goals, significantly improves a community’s health status. There are various levels of community engagement, including planning, consultation, action, and information sharing (Allen, 2022).

First and foremost, planning is the first and critical level that determines how the rest of the engagement process will cascade. In the planning stage, the nurses must come together to plan the activities using a particular community or population group. The latter must ensure that the goals are included for maximum achievement. In the planning stage, the well-known community persons such as the elders are involved because they are conversant with the population.

Consultation level is essential in the engagement process because it involves the community enquiring about various conditions they have been experiencing. When the population consults about various issues, it makes it easier for the nurses to know the exact health issues affecting a specific area; it makes enables the necessary weight to be put on the area with the adverse effects nevertheless the other minor issues, and cases are also given the necessary attention to prevent them from spreading and causing more damage to the community. In this stage, the population is already familiar with the nurses; hence, they are not scared to share their critical and personal health problems with them. The other preceding levels determine the action stage. At the action level, the community members are involved in the activities individually without being represented by their leaders. Some of the activities in this stage involve taking samples and testing, health talks, teaching the importance of hygiene, and building the community necessities such as proper water points and toilets (Deweese, 2022). The final level of community engagement is the information-sharing stage. In this stage, the data and information collected are analyzed, and various conclusions are reached. The outcome is shared with the community, for example, the prevalence of a particular disease in the area. The population is educated on how to manage it through regular seminars, administering proper medication to the affected people, and sensitizing them through social media, televisions, and radios. 

 

References

  Allen, J., Yack, M., & Hart, S. (2022). Community Engagement at Academic Health Centers: An Introduction to this Special Issue. Metropolitan Universities, 33(3), 3-9.

Deweese, S. (2022). Advancing Global Health: An Introduction to International Service Learning for Nurses.

Reply 3

Classmate 3:

 Many hospitals have begun re-engineering their delivery systems to reduce costs and improve quality. Some hospitals have gone so far as to completely restructure their business models and redesign their procedures according to new care theories. These efforts are often called “bundling” or “integrated delivery networks.”

The idea behind these changes is that combining services into packages can provide better care at a lower cost (Anyanwu & Okeke, 2021). However, there are several problems with this approach. For one thing, it is difficult for consumers to know what services are included in each package. Moreover, many patients do not want services from multiple providers mixed; they prefer having separate care from each provider. The focus on healthcare delivery is a big issue. It is not just a problem that the government faces but also affects the citizens. As with any other public good, the focus on healthcare delivery has to be sustainable and efficient. The following are some ways healthcare focus can be used to enhance sustainable healthcare delivery.

The management of hospitals and clinics should be improved to make them more efficient and effective in delivering services to their clients. There should be no waste or unnecessary expenditure in any stage of the process, from procurement of drugs to dispensing of medicines. There should be a better system for monitoring quality improvement in all aspects of care, from administration to patient satisfaction. This would help improve patient outcomes through better coordination between different stakeholders involved in delivering services like patients, doctors, nurses, etc. There should be an integrated approach towards improving the quality of care through better integration between different stakeholders like doctors, nurses, etc., which can lead to better patient outcomes at the end of the treatment process (Boykin et al., 2021).

 In a nutshell, some measures can be put in place to ensure sustainable healthcare delivery. First, they can Develop a population health focus to guide the design and implementation of health care delivery reforms. Use a population health focus to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Promote population health through disease prevention, surveillance, and management efforts.

Besides, increase evidence-based decision-making in health care delivery and reimbursement policymaking. In addition, it supports public health agencies in their efforts to promote population-based approaches to chronic disease prevention and control through training, research, and technical assistance. Encourage greater use of integrated care models that integrate primary care and acute care services at the patient level by developing additional capacity for integrated medical home programs at both the community and clinical site levels.

 References

Anyanwu, F. C., & Okeke, S. R. (2021). Health care, care provider and client satisfaction: Transforming the delivery system for improved healthcare-seeking behavior. Journal of Modern Education Review, 4(10), 846-853. https://doi.org/10.15341/jmer(2155-7993)/10.04.2014/014

Boykin, A., Schoenhofer, S. O., & Valentine, K. L. (2021). Health care system transformation for nursing and health care leaders: Implementing a culture of caring. Springer Publishing Company.

Champy, J., & Greenspun, H. (2021). Re-engineering health care: A manifesto for radically rethinking health care delivery. FT Press.

Reply 4

Classmate 4:

A population health model concentrates on interconnected conditions as well as factors that affect a public’s health over the life course, characterizes systematic differences in these trends of incidence, and then utilizes the knowledge gained to create and put into practice policies and other measures that will improve the population’s wellbeing and health. For efficiency, higher quality, and lower costs, it is becoming crucial to close the gap between population health as well as healthcare delivery (Shahzad et al., 2019). By categorizing patient groups, recognizing risk factors, leveraging primary care home delivery systems, applying evidence-based diagnosis and prevention, and switching to value-based treatment, a population health focus could be used to enhance healthcare delivery systems.

Employing risk stratification to divide patient populations seems to be a crucial first step toward creating an effective population health plan. Low-risk, rising-risk, as well as high-risk subgroups are typical risk categories (Hibbard et al., 2017). The first way to decrease the exorbitant costs of chronic illnesses is to segregate people into subgroups of apparent risk (Hibbard et al., 2017). To help people lead healthy lifestyles; this unlocks up the prospect of dropping stoppable readmissions and linking subgroups to community-grounded options.

Most chronic diseases are partially attributed to some risk factors. Notably, a poor nourishment, inactivity, and smoking are a few of these. The first-degree predisposing factors that can be changed are those listed above. These risk determinants add to a group of intermediate risk variables, including obesity, elevated blood lipids, elevated glucose concentrations, and hypertension (Hibbard et al., 2017). Risk variables commonly prompt chronic sicknesses. As a consequence, chronic illness can be decreased by risk factor assessment and prevention.

Primary care health homes represent primary care delivery models that seem to be patient-centered, thorough, team-based, integrated, accessible, as well as quality- and safety-focused (Shahzad et al., 2019). Besides, they entail various healthcare professionals from diverse specialties who work as an inter-qualified group to deliver holistic and individualized care. The patient’s interaction with their primary care physician seems to be the cornerstone of the medical home (Shahzad et al., 2019). This medical home supports a community health strategy that encourages wellness and aids patients in staying healthy.

Long-term cost control for healthcare would be hampered by focusing mainly on sick individuals or patients with preexisting risk factors. More preventative healthcare is required since the expensive management of severe diseases is the leading cause of rising healthcare expenditures (Shahzad et al., 2019). To contain rising healthcare expenditures, it is crucial to prevent infection in patient populations that are at risk of contracting it (Hibbard et al., 2017). Healthcare professionals worldwide have resources for evidence-based precautionary advice that may be used to treat healthy or low-risk groups at all stages of life.

References

Hibbard, J. H., Greene, J., Sacks, R. M., Overton, V., & Parrotta, C. (2017). Improving population health management strategies: identifying patients more likely to be users of avoidable costly care and those more likely to develop a new chronic disease. Health services research, 52(4), 1297-1309.

Shahzad, M., Upshur, R., Donnelly, P., Bharmal, A., Wei, X., Feng, P., & Brown, A. D. (2019). A population-based approach to integrated healthcare delivery: a scoping review of clinical care and public health collaboration. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-15.

Reply 5

Classmate 5:

Reflection  

When it comes to healthcare policy and politics, I had very little information. However, the topics we have covered over the last 15 weeks opened my mind regarding healthcare policy and politics. For me, the most significant ideas about healthcare policy and politics were the importance of healthcare policy and the role of politics in public health. Healthcare policy is crucial since it contributes to instituting guidelines that are valuable to patients, providers, and the overall healthcare system as a whole. Having procedures in place may assist with communication issues and avoid human error in healthcare decisions. Health could be considerably impacted by healthcare policy (Mason et al., 2020). The most meaningful learning resulted from the fact that public health experts might implement population-wide and long-lasting systemic transformation via the political system. Additionally, from a political standpoint, the strength and economic sustainability of any state are directly related to the population’s health and the efficiency of its healthcare services. Healthcare practitioners may conduct more precise research and assessments, better anticipate opportunities and barriers for governmental action and develop more effective programs and policies through understanding the political dimensions of health policy. I have developed my understanding of how politics has an impact on economic, social, and environmental factors, which in turn have an impact on population health. Politics has a crucial role in millions of people’s health, from fiscal policy to pollution control. Having learned healthcare policy, I now realize that it could be of great importance, especially in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, ensuring health safety, providing education for health practices and choices as well as enhancing the quality of life.    

Mentors had a significant impact on my academic performance during the course. Mentors assisted me in integrating classroom learning into real-world situations and in turning life experiences into educational opportunities. By assisting with school projects and promoting the use of libraries and local resources, they enhanced my academic abilities. What I already knew about mentors is that in a variety of academic and social subjects, they advised and coached students. Academic mentorship programs frequently serve as a forum for dialogic education, where academics and students talk about the research and how it relates to current lives and current events (Fallatah et al., 2018). My problem-solving skills improved with a mentor. Initially, I did not feel that having a mentor would offer me advice that helps me build academic qualities as well as problem-solving and confidence abilities.

References

Fallatah, H. I., Soo Park, Y., Farsi, J., & Tekian, A. (2018). Mentoring clinical-year medical students: factors contributing to effective mentoring. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 5, 2382120518757717.

Mason, D. J., Perez, A., McLemore, M. R., & Dickson, E. (2020). Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.   

 

Reply 6

Classmate 6:

Politics are considered to be having more significance in the healthcare policy formulation and also tend to be having major effects on the healthcare industry and thus remaining a concept of consideration. The political system is considered to be a very important vehicle in the public health environment whereby the politicians help on the making of laws and rules which would govern the activities being conducted in the health sector (Schulte, 2017). Politicians normally budget the finances which would be allocated to the health sector and thus helping on achieving a population-wide and also lasting system that would be guided by the policies which have been made. Public health professionals should be able to have an understanding of the different dimensions of the health policies by carrying out different research on how politics in affecting the health policies and thus helping on developing the solution of the interaction between the concepts (Eneanya, 2018).

Mentors have been of great importance during the studies which I have done in the course whereby they have helped on having the expansion of my career mindset and also encouraging on the various ways in which one would take that would help on having the goals in the career which one has pursued to be achieved easily (Schulte, 2017). Mentors have also brought the impact of having improved self-esteem and minimized stress levels which learners ta times tend to be undergoing through which might be related to the work overloads from the schools or even having external influence such as the influence from families and finances changes and thus having the more defined focus on the studies. Mentoring has also improved self-confidence, improved attitude to school, high graduation rates because of improved studies whereby leaners are motivated into carrying out more studies and ensuring that they finish their studies which mean that many would qualify to graduate. Also, mentorship helps the learners on having good behaviors while they are at school whereby this would contribute into having effective learning processes whereby this would lead into having high attainments in school (Scoggins et al., 2018).

References

Eneanya, A. (2018). Human rights, public values, and leadership in healthcare policy. IGI Global.

Schulte, M. F. (2017). Healthcare delivery in the U.S.A.: An introduction (2nd ed.). CRC Press.

Scoggins, C. R., Pollock, R. E., & Pawlik, T. M. (2018). Surgical mentorship and leadership: Building for success in academic surgery. Springer.