NURS 6050 Assignment: Advocating for the Nursing Role in Program Design and Implementation

As their names imply, the honeyguide bird and the honey badger both share an affinity for honey. Honeyguide birds specialize in finding beehives but struggle to access the honey within. Honey badgers are well-equipped to raid beehives but cannot always find them. However, these two honey-loving species have learned to collaborate on an effective means to meet their objectives. The honeyguide bird guides honey badgers to newly discovered hives. Once the honey badger has ransacked the hive, the honey guide bird safely enters to enjoy the leftover honey.

Much like honeyguide birds and honey badgers, nurses and health professionals from other specialty areas can—and should—collaborate to design effective programs. Nurses bring specialties to the table that make them natural partners to professionals with different specialties. When nurses take the requisite leadership in becoming involved throughout the healthcare system, these partnerships can better design and deliver highly effective programs that meet objectives.

In this Assignment, you will practice this type of leadership by advocating for a healthcare program. Equally as important, you will advocate for a collaborative role of the nurse in the design and implementation of this program. To do this, assume you are preparing to be interviewed by a professional organization/publication regarding your thoughts on the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and reflect on your thinking regarding the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs.
  • Select a healthcare program within your practice and consider the design and implementation of this program.
  • Reflect on advocacy efforts and the role of the nurse in relation to healthcare program design and implementation.

The Assignment: (2–4 pages)

In a 2- to 4-page paper, create an interview transcript of your responses to the following interview questions:

  • Tell us about a healthcare program, within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program?
  • Who is your target population?
  • What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples?
  • What is your role as an advocate for your target population for this healthcare program? Do you have input into design decisions? How else do you impact design?
  • What is the role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation? How does this role vary between design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you provide examples?
  • Who are the members of a healthcare team that you believe are most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why?

By Day 7 of Week 8

Submit your interview transcript. Submission and Grading Information

Advocating for the Nursing Role in Program Design and Implementation Sample Paper

Interaction between nurses and other professionals requires appropriate interprofessional collaboration skills. Nurses have essential roles in designing and implementing health programs in a health organization. Below are my responses to an interview with a professional regarding the collaborative input and roles of nurses.

Tell us about a healthcare program, within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program?

My practice facility is a primary care facility that deals with the elderly, primarily handling chronic illnesses in geriatric patients. Due to the need for regular follow-up, the facility has initiated a program that would incorporate technology inpatient care. Most of the clients are hypertensive and diabetics who need monitoring and follow-up.

The program intends to use healthcare information technology to monitor patients at their homes and only those with critical conditions are admitted and taken care of as inpatients. The ultimate goal is to detect health complications of long-term illnesses and treat them promptly. The patients would then self-monitor at home and follow up through telecommunication technologies including phones.

Who is your target population?

The target population is geriatric patients of both genders who are attended to in the facility. These patients have long term illnesses such as hypertension, asthma, and diabetes that require follow up in the facility. In their follow up, some parameters such as blood oxygen saturation must be monitored. For effective monitoring of important parameters such as blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation level, and blood glucose levels, personal wearable devices can be implemented (Greiwe, & Nyenhuis, 2020).

The technology to be adopted is applicable for this population as it will help in the early detection of illnesses and help in the prompt management to prevent complications associated with late diagnosis of the conditions and their exacerbations.

What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples?

The nurses are constantly involved in patient management including in the collection of data such as vital signs (blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiratory rate) of the patient. The knowledge of this data is essential in the design and implementation of a health program. The role of the nurse may be advisory; they suggest the best wearable for a specific patient. The Nurse informaticist is involved in designing the program and analyzing the collected data to improve clinical outcomes (Kassam, Nagle & Strudwick 2017; Collins et al., 2017). Nurse input is required in the running of the program.

What is your role as an advocate for your target population for this healthcare program? Do you have input into design decisions? How else do you impact design?

My advocacy role in patient management involves ensuring the patient receives timely quality care at an affordable cost. In the implementation of personal wearables to monitor long term illnesses, I’ll be recommending the most efficient method using evidence-based data. The method will be patient-specific in a bid to tailor health interventions to suit the patient’s needs. The other way of contributing to this program is ensuring the personal wearables used are compatible with the available resources in the facility.

Also, in this designing stage, I’ll highlight anticipated complications of the procedure; educate the other nurses and health workers on how to overcome the complications as well as research on the best method to be adopted (Milstead & Short, 2019). The involvement of nurses in the design of a healthcare program is essential and should not be underrated.

What is the role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation? How does this role vary between the design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you provide examples?

Implementation of healthcare programs needs the involvement of different healthcare workers and these individuals work together to ensure that the program succeeds. The nurses are included due to their expertise in the management of in-patient and out-patients. The nurse ensures that the program is working as planned and the set objectives are achieved. 

This may include by coordination of the different personnel involved; reminding them of their roles and evaluating their contributions towards achieving the set goals (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). The role played in implementation is different from that in design because, in implementation, coordination will be required among different personnel as well as monitoring of multiple patients. This may lead to an increase in the cost of the program.

Who are the members of a healthcare team that you believe is most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why?

Implementing the program will require the participation of different stakeholders in the healthcare sector. The health professionals, nursing team, and the hospital administration are all part of the team that is required in establishing the program. Each of the three entities plays a vital role in the project accomplishment and each has to communicate and cooperate. The role of each is required thus no participant is more important than the other.

Conclusion

The design and implementation of a program to manage the complication of long term illnesses is an interdisciplinary project where a nurse’s action is central. The healthcare program in my practice facility concerns an electronic method of long-term monitoring of geriatric patients with chronic illnesses. Coordination of the participants and advocacy of the patient’s needs is needed. The implementation stage is a costly stage than the designing stage but in the long run, the program saves cost on monitoring long term illnesses in geriatric patients.

References

  • Greiwe, J., & Nyenhuis, S. M. (2020). Wearable Technology and How This Can Be Implemented into Clinical Practice. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports, 20(8), 36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-020-00927-3
  • Collins, S., Yen, P-Y., Phillips, A., & Kennedy, M. K., (2017). Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment for the Nurse Leader. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(4), 212-218. doi:10.1097/NNA.0000000000000467
  • Kassam, I., Nagle, L., & Strudwick, G. (2017). Informatics competencies for nurse leaders: protocol for a scoping review. BMJ Open, 7(12), e018855. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018855
  • Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing Roles for Nursing. Orthopedic Nursing, 36(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308