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- QUESTION
—Benjamin Franklin
The purpose of health policy is to improve the health of individuals and populations. As discussed in Week 2, health care reform efforts seek to improve access to quality health care for all individuals. Yet, as noted in Week 3, continued rising health care costs are not resulting in improved health outcomes. How can the United States improve its health status in a cost-efficient manner, and what is the role of the nurse in moving this agenda forward? Many believe the answer lies in focusing on preventive care and population health.
While nursing care has traditionally been centered on individuals, the emerging focus of population health allows nurses to take a broader view for improving health outcomes. This wider perspective means that nurses may now examine a range of factors that influence populations as a whole, rather than focus solely on individual patients.
This week, you will evaluate factors that impact population health, and thus, the health care system. These factors include access to health care, individual behavior, the social and physical environment, and genetics. You will also consider the role of epidemiologic data in the process of evaluating the health of a population.
Reference:
U.S. History.org. (2010). The electric Ben Franklin. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze factors that influence a population health issue
Apply the use of epidemiologic data to the design of population health measures and policy initiatives
Photo Credit: [Plume Creative]/[DigitalVision]/Getty Images
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Chapter 5, “Population Health” (pp. 79–97)This chapter introduces the concept of population health, which views health issues at the population level rather than at an individual level.
Kindig, D. (2007). Understanding population health terminology. The Milbank Quarterly, 85(1), 139–161.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.This article provides a valuable foundation in understanding the terminology of population health. Although written in 2007, the information in this article is very pertinent to the topics discussed this week.
Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state health goals. JAMA, 299(17), 2081–2083.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.Using a framework to craft policy and programs can help ensure that outcomes are measurable. The authors of this article note how some of the overarching goals of Healthy People 2010 were not measurable. They suggest a framework for developing more measurable goals for Healthy People 2020.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Morbidity and mortality weekly report (MMWR). State health statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/StateHealth/index.htmlThe CDC website provides health statistics gathered using epidemiologic methods. Explore the health statistics for your state or for a health problem of interest to you.
HealthyPeople.gov. (2010). Foundation health measures. Retrieved from http://healthypeople.gov/2020/about/tracking.aspxHealthy People 2020 uses the four foundational measures presented at this website to monitor the health of the American population.
State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Communities and Charles Sturt University. (2012). Core 1: Health priorities in Australia: How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified? Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/MsRatusau/hsc-pdhpe-core-1-health-priorities-in-australiaAustralia uses epidemiologic data to establish its health priorities. Review the information presented at this website, and consider how the United States sets its health priorities.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/sites/default/files/HP2020_brochure_with_LHI_508_FNL.pdfThis overview of Healthy People 2020 provides a description of goals of this program, along with indicators used to assess the health of the United States.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Healthy People 2020 – Improving the health of Americans. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspxThis site contains a wide variety of information and resources dealing with the Healthy People 2020 goals, as well as information on how to implement the objectives.
University of Wisconsin Department of Population Health Sciences. (n.d.). What is population health? Retrieved from http://www.improvingpopulationhealth.org/blog/what-is-population-health.htmlThis website provides a definition of population health and health determinants. It also examines how health policy can influence determinants of health.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2012h). Population health. Baltimore, MD: Author.Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 13 minutes.
A
this is policy week 4Discussion: Key Health Determinants
Did you know that the United States has a higher rate of infant mortality than Japan (CIA, n.d.)? Or, as Dr. Beilenson states in this week’s media presentation, that “your zip code that you live in makes more difference in your health and well-being than the genetic code that you’re born with?” What causes these differences in health outcomes?To effectively develop policies and programs to improve population health, it is useful to use a framework to guide the process. Different organizations and governmental agencies (for example, Healthy People 2020) have created a variety of such frameworks, which establish measures for assessing population health. These measures frequently are derived from the examination of epidemiologic data, which include key measures of population health such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, etc. Within each measure are a variety of progress indicators that use epidemiologic data to assess improvement or change.
For this Discussion, you will apply a framework developed by Kindig, Asada, and Booske (2008) to a population health issue of interest to you. This framework includes five key health determinants that should be considered when developing policies and programs to improve population health: access to health care, individual behavior, social environment, physical environment, and genetics.
To prepare:
Review the article “A Population Health Framework for Setting National and State Health Goals,” focusing on population health determinants.
Review the information in the blog post “What Is Population Health?”
With this information in mind, elect a population health issue that is of interest to you.
Using this week’s Learning Resources, the Walden Library, and other relevant resources, conduct a search to locate current data on your population health issue.
Consider how epidemiologic data has been used to design population health measures and policy initiatives in addressing this issue.
please make sure they read TO. PREPARE on all these discussion
Subject | Nursing | Pages | 5 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Week 4: Population Health – Part 1
Population health encompasses health outcomes of a group of people or individuals, including the distribution of those outcomes/consequences within the group. These outcomes include mean mortality in terms of ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, geography, and gender. Health-associated quality of life is another outcome which can also be measured in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity/race, gender, and geography. Determinants of population health include healthcare, social environment, genetics, physical environment and individual behavior (Kindig, Asada, & Booske, 2008). This paper presents shortage of nurses as a population health issue since it determines access to health care and services.
Epidemiologic data provides a framework for development of evidence-based strategies for solving nurse shortages. Shortage of nurses is a health care determinant that can affect access to health care services and even result in poor healthcare outcomes. There are about 29 million nurses globally of which 3.9 million are working in the US. About 1 million additional nurses will be required globally by the year 2020. Populations data informs establishment of cost-effective staffing ratios. Population data is used for making decisions on what entails acceptable nurse-patient ratios, which will lead to higher retention rates, improved level of job satisfaction and less desire to quit one’s profession. Appropriate staffing levels will increase patient satisfaction, decrease errors and improve nurse retention rates (Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2018). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al. (2017) uses the population data to identify nurse demand and supply issues. States with high supply of nurse supply are identified to help redistribute the surplus to states that face shortages at a given point in time (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 2017). Population data is important for informing decisions aim to resolve nurse shortages.
References
Haddad, L.M., & Toney-Butler, T.J. (2018). Nursing, Shortage. [Updated 2018 Oct 27]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2018 Jan-. Retrieved on Dec 18, 2018 from, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/ Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state health goals. JAMA, 299(17), 2081–2083. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, & National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. (2017). National and Regional Supply and Demand Projections of the Nursing Workforce: 2014-2030. Rockville, Maryland: HRSA.
Appendix
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