Healthcare Program Design and Implementation

Answer

The Role of the Nurse in the Design and Implementation of Healthcare Programs

Nurses' role as primary care providers make them uniquely qualified to provide insightful ideas when developing new programs in health care. Their basic understanding of the most effective healthcare environment, the model of care in different scenarios, and the desire to act as advocates for patients, put them in a critical position to be knowledgeable in health issues, thereby enhancing their chances of participating in policymaking and health program designs (Short, 2017). Despite such roles, there remains a need to develop a sophisticated understanding of health policies and programs to cover the rapidly changing healthcare environment. This forms the need for nurses to spearhead programs within their institutions that target a specific population, while also assisting in improving the quality of the outcome. This context forms the interview that aimed at assessing the role of nurses in the design of such programs and their ultimate implementation.

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

Interviewee: The program within my practice is the reduction or possible elimination of the use of inappropriate antibiotics. In most cases, especially with patients diagnosed with urinary tract infection, facilities often get challenges concerning the right treatment with the most effective antibiotics. Organizations with multiple facilities can be very challenging to manage and ensure quality across the board. Therefore, in most cases, some aspects of quality get compromised, which then creates controversial situations and difficulty in maintaining the quality of care. However, this is no excuse to compromise quality and do nothing about correcting the situation. Since I have been in the facility for a significant period, the initiative to reduce cases of wrong treatment through administration of wrong antibiotics is a program necessary to push the institution to the next level.

The program aims to reduce the cases of urinary tract infections by ensuring that the patients get the right treatment (Williams & Craig, 2019). There are substantial costs that the facilities must incur, including travel costs to all the facilities, training and facilitation fees, training materials, and improvement of the available infrastructure to help in achieving these objectives.

Interviewer: Who is your target population?

Interviewee: The program targets elderly patients who are, in most cases, more vulnerable to urinary tract infections. This is often a result of the reduced levels of hygiene and reduced self-immunity, making it so easy for them to suffer these infections. Therefore, they will be the primary target for the program.

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

Interviewee: Although the first step in handling this infection usually involves the use of antibiotics, the nurses need to up their game and ensure proper diagnosis and treatment of the patient. This can be possible through the use of Situation, Background, Assessment, and Request (SBAR) for suspected urinary tract infections (Short, 2017). In many situations, physicians ask patients for urinalysis, which, although is essential in diagnosis, may lead to lapses in treatment, especially where the right antibiotics are not administered. Therefore, this program improves the understanding of the diagnosis process and enhances the nurses' role in the analysis process. The nurses should then work alongside other health practitioners to ensure that they receive the right medication for their condition. The reality remains that despite the patients both suffering from urinary tract infection, the level and nature of the disease will be different, thereby demanding the right medication for every condition.

An example of a feasible design would entail the nurses familiarizing themselves with the classic signs and symptoms of the infections, which could include a burning sensation when urinating, urine that appears cloudy, pain in the pelvic joints, especially for women, high fever, and strong-smelling urine, among others. With this background, I can then coordinate the nursing team to ensure the diagnosis meets the set criteria before engaging other clinicians and making prescriptions for the patients. It will lead to the eradication of inappropriate antibiotics from the organization and the prescription of the most necessary drugs.

Interviewer: 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?

Interviewee: As an advocate, my role is to speak for the voiceless. I have to speak and act on behalf of individuals who may not find justice, possibly because of their ignorance about the situation or the possibility of making a difference. Therefore, the elderly is a priority because even within the facilities, there usually are common breeding grounds of an antibiotic strain resistant, a situation that could be detrimental to the patients. The first step would then be to eliminate all that is not required in the facility. This allows the hospital to remain with useful antibiotics, which can help the patients in recovery.

The need for a centralized position where the cases can go through is setting up a strategy that involves every tool kit form coming to me for discussions and follow-up with the respective practitioners. This will make me an integral part of the design and implementation since it will allow for the assessment and correction of every suspected infection case. Administration of antibiotics in situations that do not require such treatment can be very harmful to the body. Antibiotics are often very powerful and should only be used when necessary. Therefore, this process will help a thorough assessment of every suspected case with the required stakeholders. However, these efforts can only be successful with the inclusion of all the practitioners.

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

Interviewee: Programs are only as good as how far they go into the implementation. Having practical and relevant plans without subsequent implementation will prove futile with no course for their initiation in the first place. This forms the reason why the implementation of the program remains an essential aspect of my responsibility. The nurses' advocacy claims can only be fruitful if they embrace the implementation plans and become part of the team geared toward making the institution better and improving the quality of the outcome (Saint et al., 2016). The nurses should then make proper use of the hospital visitations while ensuring that the operations are within the limits of law and ethical practice. The advocacy roles while implementing such programs will significantly tend to vary because of the differences in leadership and management of institutions.

Notwithstanding, the nurses will primarily follow the toolkit used during the diagnosis process and follow to the point of implementing the outcomes of the analysis. For instance, the nurse will be able to differentiate the intensity of the various conditions, including identifying patients with indwelling catheter signs and symptoms and those who express none, thereby making it possible to know when the antibiotics can be resistant.

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

Interviewee: There is a need to pull together when implementing this program. Every stakeholder has a role to play in realizing the best out of the program. However, the practitioners become the primary focus because they have direct involvement in the prescription of antibiotics. The nurses then come in handy to assist in the decision-making process and utilizing the hospital resources to make a difference and speed the recovery of the patients with urinary tract infection. Furthermore, this should go to the extent of limiting the chances of readmission, which makes it paramount to avoid the administration of wrong antibiotics. Therefore, this process will have to use the evidence-based approach to practice with massive patient-centeredness.

Conclusion

In every healthcare facility, the goal is always to deliver the best services to the clients. Nonetheless, some mistakes often arise that complicates such quests, ultimately making it difficult to remain successful in offering credible services. There is always room to make adjustments and formulate policies and programs that the state of affairs. This is where the nurse comes in to help in designing and implementation programs that can improve the quality of care and outcome. As in the interview above, the quest to minimize misdiagnosis and the administration of inappropriate antibiotics can be successful when the nurses (Chu & Lowder, 2018), alongside other healthcare practitioners, hold together and support it.