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- QUESTION
Instructions for Assessment Task 3: Communication Briefs
Purpose of the Task
The purpose of this task is to create two (2) written communication briefs to advocate for the support or adoption of your ‘Changing Settings’ approach. This is based on your setting and proposed change approach in Task 2b. This is an individual task.
Submission requirements
- Word limit: 350 words +/- 10% per communication brief (Total: 700 words +/- 10%)
- You are required to submit your written communication briefs via SafeAssign on Blackboard by 2pm Monday of Week 15
Instructions for Task
- You are required to complete two (2) communication briefs:
- A media release targeting the general public (eg. people outside of your setting)
- A letter to a Member of Parliament (this should be the local Member for your setting or equivalent)
- The aim of each communication brief is to capture the attention of your audience and convince them that your ‘Changing Settings’ approach should be supported and adopted in the setting.
- Templates are available on Blackboard for both the media release and letter to politician. Follow the template instructions and formatting for each individual communication brief.
- Provide the word count at the end of each communication brief.
- Any figures or images presented in the communication briefs must refer to the source, and be appropriately titled.
- This task does not need to be referenced.
- For the purpose of this Assessment Task, you will not be speaking to real people, so you will need to make up your quotes. You also need to make up a person who has said them and identify them in your brief.
| Subject | Nursing | Pages | 4 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Algester Lodge Nursing Home to Screen Patients for Dementia, Depression and Hearing and Vision Loss.
The screening programs represent the healthcare facility’s commitment to promote heathy living among the elderly.
Queensland, November 3, 2018.
Algester Lodge Nursing Home will early next month begin screening all patients for dementia, depression and hearing and vision loss as part of its commitment to provide high-quality aged care. This healthcare practice is aimed at improving the facility’s health promotion efforts by enhancing timely detection, diagnosis and treatment of age and lifestyle-related diseases.
The head of nursing staff stated that the facility is shifting the focus of its health promotion activities from treatment interventions to prevention. “Currently the care we provide to our patients ranging from secure dementia care, special needs care, bariatric care and respite care seems to focus on the already developed disorders” he noted. “With dementia, depression and hearing and vision loss screening in place, however, we can prevent development of these disorders altogether and ultimately promote healthy living among the elderly, which is the core objective of the Department of Healthy ageing and aged care”, the nursing staff head added.
Nursing home patients will be screened for the above stated conditions when they report at the facility. Because many of them enroll in the nursing home for long-term care, screening will be done on a monthly basis so that nurses can detect the conditions in advance and implement interventions to prevent their development. Besides screening activities, the facility will implement drug evaluation exercises as parts of its longstanding efforts to help patients quit smoking and limit alcohol use.
Dementia, depression and vision and hearing loss screening exercises are increasingly adopted as evidence-based practices in many nursing home facilities in Australia and other countries across the world. “Evidently, this is a crucial moment to join the bandwagon in order to not only remain relevant in this field, but also to help our nurses provide care aimed at preventing the development of numerous diseases as well as prevent loss of functional capacity among our patients”, the head of nursing staff commented.
Your name
Address line 1
Address line 2
Hon Dr Steven Miles,
1/15 Goodfellows Road,
KALLANGUR QLD 4503.
November 3, 2018.
Dear Hon. Miles,
As my local MP for Murrumba and Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services, you are well aware of the government’s efforts to promote healthy ageing and care for the aged in the country. I am, therefore, writing as one of your constituents, and as a nursing staff member at Algester Lodge Nursing Home to urge you to lobby Queensland’s department of health to fund our proposed dementia, depression and hearing loss screening program.
While the government has expressed its support for health promotion for the elderly through such initiatives as affordable medical cover, I would wish to draw your attention to the challenges we face in our endeavours to provide the patients with high-quality care in nursing homes. Most patients are enrolled at the facility for long-term care that may span a few years to more than five years or even the rest of their lives. This means the patients are at risk of developing numerous ageing-related disorders during their care. As a result, this will not only increase their care costs, but can also compromise their health outcomes, make them overdependence and above all thwart government’s initiatives to promote healthy ageing and aged care.
I am undoubtedly convinced that you do believe in the idea that prevention is better than cure. Guided by this same idea, our new focus at Algester Lodge Nursing Home is to prevent the development of conditions that can increase patients’ dependence on care givers and family members or deteriorate their ageing lives. We can only achieve this objective when our dementia, depression and hearing and vision loss screening programs receive full government support and funding. For instance, with a fully funded vision loss screening program, nurses at the facility can identify the onset of potential eyesight impairment among patients and take proactive measures to prevent its related problems such as falls.
I hope you can find some time to visit Algester Lodge Nursing Home to have a personal experience with our health promotion activities including drug use evaluations and self-care training. Your willingness to lobby the department of health to fund our proposed screening programs will evidently demonstrate your support for the government’s efforts to enhance aged care as well as our facility’s commitment to promoting healthy ageing and positive lifestyles.
I look forward to hearing from you concerning your views on the issue and what you can do to help. Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Name
Head of Nursing Staff, Algester Lodge Nursing Home.