Nurses are well positioned for reforming health care in ways that promote a healthier public and reduce healthcare cost. Discuss the role nurse plays in COVID vaccination mandate, telemedicine, and prescription drug pricing as advocates in the healthcare system.

The discussion must address the topic.

Rationale must be provided

May use examples from your nursing practice

150 words minimum (excluding the reference)

Minimum of two references in APA format within the last five years published

The student should respond to two other classmates, at least 1 reference each reply.

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Lauren Hahn

Lauren Hahn

Yesterday Sep 4 at 1:08pm

Technology is an ever-changing and advancing phenomenon that can be tricky to navigate. “Society has moved from a world dominated by paper and face-to-face interactions, to an online presence and way of communicating that is in a constant state of evolution” (Knox, 2019, p. 1). Whether the nurse be young or older, I believe that navigating technology can come with growing pains for everyone. Technology is constantly updating and progressing into programs that aid in essential parts of nursing informatics. “Informatics knowledge and skills provide the tools to understand and use technology to work more efficiently and effectively, and to work smarter, not harder” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2020). The nurse must be able to use technology effectively in order to provide safe and efficient patient care. Clicking around the EHR can be overwhelming to some, as there are a lot of different ends and outs of different health care programs. It is essential for the nurse to not only be able to chart on their patient, but to be able to obtain proper data and information on their patients in order to perform interventions appropriately. Nursing informatics involves the DIKW theory– which is collecting and applying data, information, knowledge, and wisdom through technology. Through nursing informatics, I believe I am going to be learning a lot about how to connect the dots through patient care in a way that benefits communication in nursing and patient safety using technology. For seasoned nurses this may be less intimidating, but I feel that there is always going to be room to grow and learn when it comes to informatics no matter the skill set. Although I feel confident in using technology I scored myself a 32 overall. I believe that I could use further education on a few categories as I scored myself “good”, but was reassured to see myself as “very good” in others. I am excited to be improving on things like recognizing the role of information technology in improving patient care outcomes and creating a safe care environment throughout this course. I don't believe that I have any additional questions at this time as I feel that the lessons and readings have provided me with great context of what this course has to offer so far. I will utilize my teacher, and the Q&A forum if I do end up having any questions. 

Resources 

Chamberlain College of Nursing (2020).
NR361 Information Systems in Healthcare: Week 1 Lesson. Downers Grove, IL: Online Publication. 

Knox, A. (2019). Informatics in Nursing Education: What Do We Do Next?
 Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 14(4). https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Finformatics-nursing-education-what-do-we-next%2Fdocview%2F2560299629%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D147674

Respond using APA, at least 2 scholarly references

Leadership and a Healthy Work Environment

    Leadership involves the relationship between a leader and followers with the behaviors or attributes of the leader influencing whether employees consider a work environment to be healthy. Various theories exist about the way leaders and followers construct a social order in organizations leading to a healthy work environment (Vidman & Stromberg, 2020). My perception of a healthy work environment is one in which employees are satisfied with their work, work towards a common goal, and there is no conflict with managers or other employees. Leadership is the single most important factor influencing the employee’s work environment in an organization.

    One insight from the literature about leadership is that managers who inspire workers to do their best contribute to a healthy work environment. Transformational leadership theory proposes that the way leaders use a positive relationship with followers can inspire others to adopt a common goal and voluntarily work towards achieving the goal (Pourbarkhordari et al., 2016). An element of transformational leadership is inspirational motivation by the leader that involves encouraging and motivating employees. The concept of transformational literature gave me insight into the way a manager at a part time job where I worked was able to motivate employees. The manager was always optimistic about the future even when the job we were assigned seemed impossible to do in the time allowed. The manager helped us understand that if the staff worked together as an efficient team, we could meet the deadline even though it seemed difficult. The manager also showed us how to perform tasks more rapidly. Because of these behaviors, we felt like a team and were always focused on helping each other. Even though the work was difficult, the work environment seemed positive and friendly.

    I gained another insight about leadership from literature focusing on authentic leadership theory. The theory defines authentic leadership as altruistic and transparent behaviors, which also has an association with a healthy work environment (Giordano-Mulligan & Eckhardt, 2019). Authentic leaders consistently act on their values and beliefs and demonstrate integrity. The leadership approach also involves followers in decision-making about the best approach to perform tasks. On another part-time job that I once had, the manager was responsible for a group of employees that work her floor. A rule set by the manager was that all employees should be on time for work to avoid unfairly burdening the other employees. One of the employees, however, was always late. The manager terminated the employee and took the employees place until a replacement could be hired. The manager created a healthy work environment by fairly addressing a personnel problem consistent with stated values and beliefs while minimizing the burden of the decision on other employees.   

References

Giordano-Mulligan, M., & Eckhardt, S. (2019). Authentic nurse leadership conceptual framework. Nurse Administration, 43(2), 164-174. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000344    

Pourbarkhordari, A., Zhou, E., & Poukarimi, J. (2016). Role of transformational leadership in creating a healthy work environment in business setting. European Journal of Business and Management, 8(3), 57-70. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234627054.pdf 

Vidman, A., & Stromberg, A. (2020).  Leadership for a healthy work environment- a question of who, what, and how. Leadership in health Services, 34(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-06-2020-0041       

Collegiality how to

Respond using at least two scholarly references/ APA format

Current National Healthcare Issue and its Impact on the Work Setting

            One of the most significant healthcare issues to date is the lack of insurance coverage for patients and the continued high costs of healthcare.  As a whole society needs healthcare, but fewer can afford it even with working full-time jobs. Here in the U.S., our method for paying for healthcare is where patients pay a fee for the services provided. When doing this, it devalues the primary care aspect of healthcare and supports a more volumed-based system so that the providers can increase the monetary gain for a payment model system (Park et al., 2018). There is no consistent way to make things perfect across the board, but there are ways to help such as bundling care and treatments and implementing monthly payments (Park et al., 2018). The social determinant that most affects this issue is the ability to have access to quality healthcare. Multiple inequalities affect patients in healthcare such as ethnic groups, social status, and economic (Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S.,2021). In 2020, the United States healthcare costs reached 4.1 trillion dollars (AAMC, 2023). “Nearly one in five Americans has medical debt, and affordability is still an issue for a large proportion of the population, whether uninsured or insured, which suggests that policymakers should focus on patients’ costs.” (Association of American Medical Colleagues, 2023). With that number of Americans being in debt due to healthcare, we need to focus on how to change the way we are billing our services as providers, offering insurance to the public as a country, and a way to offer more affordable services.

How the National Healthcare Issue Affects the Work Setting

In the clinic where I work our patients often must reschedule the procedures that they are scheduled for their pain management treatments due to insurance denying them. They will either pay out of pocket or reschedule. This impacts the practice as a whole: the nursing staff must rearrange the whole schedule, and change the documentation, and the patients will miss their much-needed treatments. Our case manager then works closely with the insurance companies to see what we can do to get the patient’s procedures approved. It has often taken up to 6 months to get just one injection approved. This process often makes the patient feel depressed and angered and leaves the staff feeling hopeless.