NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

Posted: December 10th, 2022

NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

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.NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

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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.NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.
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. Hint: I work in the Emergency Department

NURS-6053N Module 1

The selected national healthcare issue is overcrowding within emergency departments (EDs). Overcrowding within EDs is a major public health and a national issue. Overcrowding of EDs refers to the situation where the function of the emergency department is impeded due to the extreme number of patients in the waiting line, and undergoing evaluation and treatment, in comparison to the staffing or physical capacity of the department (Morley, Unwin, Peterson, Stankovich & Kinsman, 2018). Overcrowding in the ED leads to adverse patient outcomes and is characterized by aspects such as reduced quality of care, longer waiting times, delays in treatment, increased healthcare costs, reduced patient satisfaction, and even avoidable patient death (Mentzoni, Bogstrand & Faiz, 2019).NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

In my workplace, overcrowding in the ED is a result of hospital-specific factors such as sometimes lack of available patient beds, repeated ED visits, and shortage of the nursing staff. The impact of overcrowding in my work setting includes an increased number of patients waiting to be seen, delays in patient assessment or evaluation, as well and obstacles to patients leaving the ED after completion of treatment. In addition, at times the overcrowding increases the likelihood of medical errors, reduced quality of care and patient satisfaction, as well as poorer patient outcomes. On the other hand, overcrowding leads to increased stress among the staff working in the ED department and non-adherence to the required practice guidelines during care provision. For example, sometimes it is common to see the nursing staff in the ED stressed up and looking very fatigued and this is attributable to the high number of patients the nursing staff has to handle.NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

Several strategies have been implemented to prevent and reduce overcrowding in the ED. One of the strategies used to reduce overcrowding in the ED is to stop boarding admitted patients in the ED. For example, before patients would be placed in hallways within the ED which could lead to significant congestion in the ED. As a result, a policy was implemented to have all admitted patients from hallways of the ED to the inpatient hallways in case there is no vacant bed. This makes it easy for the inpatient nursing staff to accommodate the patients in the hallways into the suitable inpatient beds as soon as an inpatient bed is available. Stopping the staying of patients within the ED hallways has been shown to reduce overcrowding (Yarmohammadian, Rezaei, Haghshenas & Tavakoli, 2017).NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.

Another strategy that was employed to reduce overcrowding in the emergency department was the having a nurse flow coordinator in the department. A senior nurse was introduced as the emergency journey coordinator whose role is to identify and resolve delays for patients who stay in the ED for more than 2 hours. The introduction of the nurse flow coordinator has been shown to significantly reduce crowding in EDs (Abir, Goldstick, Malsberger, R. et al., 2019).

Lastly, a policy was introduced that stipulated only patients with emergencies were to be provided care at the ED. Patients presenting with non-emergent medical issues are normally referred out. For example, after the triage nurse conducts a medical screening exam (MSE) and determines that a patient does not have an emergency medical issue, the patient is referred to an ambulatory clinic.NURS-6053N module 1, week 1 Discussion: Review of Current Healthcare Issues.