covid 19 NURS 6053 national healthcare issue/stressor discussion

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Discussion – Week 1  –Main Question Post

Although there are many healthcare issues/stressors healthcare personnel is faced with, the Coronavirus pandemic is one current extreme health issue/stressor that has affected the world globally. COVID-19 has affected the entire healthcare industry, from patients to the administrators, financial teams, to the janitors, to name a few. Healthcare employees have worked harder than ever before without hazardous pay. “Health care providers face clinical and ethical issues that may arise when resources are scarce” (Marshall and Broome, 2017). Due to the extreme effects this virus may cause, it leaves organizations to either cut pay, spend more by paying overtime to employees and exceeding budgets.

While working in a long-term care facility, this pandemic has changed the work settings tremendously. Initially, the goal was to protect the population that is most vulnerable by implementing a No Visitor Policy, new infection control procedures for individuals that are required to enter the facility by checking temperatures and completing a questionnaire before entering. However, COVID -19 still managed to enter the facility. At the time, the facility did not have proper PPE in place, which has led to staff members contracting the virus and causing a rapid spread throughout the facility. Staff members that test positive are required to stay home for 14 days, which has created a staffing shortage in a 162-bed facility. More funds are spent purchasing the appropriate PPE and paying nursing agency companies to cover shifts. Sadly, the hospitalization and death rates for employees and patients have been increasingly high and are still rising. COVID -19 has had a significant impact on employees’ mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes secondary traumatic stress as “reactions and symptoms resulting from exposure to another individual’s traumatic experiences” (2019). The wellbeing of the nurses, as well as other healthcare disciplines, is essential during this time. Offering therapy services or incentives will be beneficial to employees who are suffering from burnout and mental overload (Jacobs et al., 2018). With the new changes that are in place, such as hiring agency staff, testing patients, and staff members weekly and monitoring temps daily, will help decrease the staffing shortage crisis and help promote quality care for nursing home patients.

 

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Coronavirus Disease 2019: Coping

with stress. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-

coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html

Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging employees in

well-being: Moving from the Triple Aim to the Quadruple Aim. Nursing Administration

Quarterly, 42(3), 231-245.Doi:10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000303.

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From

expert clinician to influential leader (2nded.). New York, NY: Springer

 

Response

Global pandemics have been reported for many hundreds of years. The best documented pandemics occurred in 1918 (H1N1, the Spanish flu), 1957 (H2N2, the Asian flu) and 1968 (H3N2, the Hong Kong flu).

True to what you have stated, consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are numerous such as causing millions of deaths, social disruption and profound economic losses worldwide.

Most health institution are caught unprepared. The government leadership did not work as expected. There is a pandemic plan but ignored completely. The agency for Pandemic Preparedness has been dissolved by the present administration.

The objective of pandemic planning is to enable to be prepared to recognize and manage a pandemic. Planning may help to reduce transmission of the pandemic virus strain, to decrease cases, hospitalizations and deaths, to maintain essential services and to reduce the economic and social impact of a pandemic.

In addition, blueprints for a pandemic preparedness plan can easily be used for broader contingency plans encompassing other disasters caused by the emergence of new, highly transmissible and/or severe communicable diseases.

Sad to say, the United States as a world power country is also caught unprepared or ignored the pandemic itself. It would be unrealistic for any country, unless it has a very small population with a centralized infrastructure and bureaucracy, to consider that it could prepare and implement a detailed and comprehensive pandemic plan in weeks, or even months, but that was happened in the previous months.

The specific characteristics of a future pandemic virus cannot be predicted. Nobody knows how pathogenic a new virus would be, and which age groups it would affect. The impact of improved nutrition and health care needs to be weighed against the effect of increased international travel or simultaneous health threats that weaken the immune system.

The level of preparedness will also influence the final death toll. There is a need for a multisectoral approach and that the community should be involved. A multisectoral approach means the involvement of many levels of government, and of people with various specialties including policy development, legislative review and drafting, animal health, public health, patient care, laboratory diagnosis, laboratory test development, communication expertise and disaster management.

Community involvement means making optimal use of local knowledge, expertise, resources and networks. It is a powerful way to engage people and to build the commitment needed for policy decisions. Great post!

Response

Thank you for your post! The Covid-19 has caused a major global pandemic threatening the lives of many and we have yet to see its full impact. It is rapidly spreading to 177 countries. Healthcare workers in the frontline fighting against this pandemic are the most vulnerable.  According to China’s National Health Commission, there are more than 3300 health-care workers infected since the beginning of March, 22 of which had lost their lives. This puts a lot of fear, stress, and anxiety for many healthcare workers. It has been a challenging time for HCWs specifically for those who are directly taking care of these COVID-19 patients. Nurses are overworked, which can increase errors due to vulnerability. This is a combination of fear and mental exhaustion from being overworked, death of patients, colleagues falling sick or dying from the infection, and their own safety (Christopher, Isaac, Rupali, Thangakunam, 2020).

Reference

Christopher, D.J., Isaac, B.T., Rupali, P., & Thangakunam, B. (2020). Health‐care preparedness and health‐care worker protection in COVID‐19

pandemic. Lung India, 37(3); 238-245.

 

Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues

If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption?

These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.

In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.
  • Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.

By Day 3 of Week 1

Post a description of the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for analysis, and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor may impact your work setting. Then, describe how your health system work setting has responded to the healthcare issue/stressor, including a description of what changes may have been implemented. Be specific and provide examples.

By Day 6 of Week 1

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days who chose a different national healthcare issue/stressor than you selected. Explain how their chosen national healthcare issue/stressor may also impact your work setting and what (if anything) is being done to address the national healthcare issue/stressor.

Response

Great post! COVID-19 has been a major cause of added stress in healthcare. Long-term care facilities have not only had stress from the new healthcare changes, but also financial stress. Many long-term health facilities were not equipped or prepared for a pandemic. As you said, more costs were needed to get the proper equipment. Long-term care facilities were continuing to cut costs wherever they could before COVID-19 even began. While federal investigators are beginning to look into the higher rate of COVID-19 in the long-term care facilities, providers are arguing that the long-term care facilities are more vulnerable due to a lack of investment (Kacik, 2020). COVID-19 is not only stressful to the healthcare team in a long-term care facility, but also the residents. Residents are being confined to their rooms for their own protection. This creates loneliness, which then can turn into depression, malnutrition, anxiety, increased dementia, and poorer health outcomes (Eghtesadi, 2020). Seeing this change in the residents also affects their healthcare providers. Eghtesadi (2020) suggested that incorporating a form of technology into their daily routine will allow them to connect to family members and friends, and therefore feel less lonely. Long-term care providers must take the time to focus on their well-being, before they can effectively address their resident’s. I think your idea of having therapy services and incentives is a great idea to address the providers mental health and general well-being, and hopefully give them the boost they need to continue to take care of their residents to the fullest during this pandemic.

References

Eghtesadi, M. (2020). Breaking social isolation amidst COVID‐19: A viewpoint on improving access to technology in long‐term care facilities. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(5), 949–950. Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jgs.16478

Kacik, A. (2020). Long-term care facilities face scrutiny over handling of COVID-19 cases. Modern Healthcare, 50(16), 6.