NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection

Sample Answer for NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection Included After Question

NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection

NR 506 Week 2 Discussion Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection

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Week 2: Policy-Priority Selection

Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection. Describe the model of policy making that you feel would be best applied to your policy issue and the rationale for selecting this model.

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A Sample Answer For the Assignment:  NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection

Title: NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection

I have been having a difficult time choosing my healthcare policy priority, mainly because I am worried that it is one that is being talked about by everyone lately. However, with that being said, I have chosen the Opioid Epidemic or the Opioid Overdose Crisis. I have chosen this  topic because it specifically has been a problem I have witnessed with patients, and people within surrounding communities.  It also is something that could be reduced if laws were different.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2018),  Each day 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses, which means nearly 42,000 people die annually from a preventable cause.  I grew up in a town of 1,000 people, so for me to see this amount of people die annually is baffling.

The estimated total “economic burden” for the US each year is $78.5 billion a year, as per The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (2017). This is said to include the misuse of opioid prescriptions, cost of healthcare, loss of productivity, addiction alone, and the involvement of criminal justice (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018).

I think that as far as sources of healthcare policy, this policy would be at the Organizational level, because it would be required to meet FDA requirements, and have multiple organizations involved in decision making as  well as including  multiple organizations’ data. This would be a public policy.

This topic is important to me, because as nurses we all have a few patients that we say we will never forget. One of these patients for me was a 21 year old. He was admitted for altered mental status and was on a Narcan drip.  Once he began to wake up he told us that he had just tried a pill and this is what happened to him.  He stated it was his first time, and he had no previous history of drug abuse.  The doctor then decided to discharge him this day, and everyone chalked it up to a young college kid making a stupid choice and trying a pill that was given to him.”  Not 12 hours later the same young 21 year old ended up in the ER. He was being coded en route to the hospital, and after a long attempt at resuscitation, he did not make it.  This patient had access to Fentanyl patches and was apparently cutting them open and eating them.  This was a definite eye opening experience for me.  There are also been newspaper reports in a surrounding community about five to 10 Narcan kits being used each weekend.  It just amazes me that this situation has gotten so out of control over the last several years.

NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection References:

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Opioid overdose crisis. Retrieved from: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). National Vitals Statistics System, Mortality. Retrieved from: https://wonder.cdc.gov

Andrea, you have identified some very good reasons for choosing the opioid crisis as a topic.  However, could you clarify what specifically you would want a policy maker to do – you have topic, but the policy is not clear.  You said it could be addressed if the laws were different – how? Also, which legislature would you approach and why?

I think that there should be required follow up between the provider and patient once opiods are prescribed.  All too often a patient is discharged from the hospital with narcotics and the provider does not do any type of follow up other than refer them to follow up with their primary care provider. I think all providers whether it be inpatient/hospital setting or primary care providers, should be required to follow up with all of their patients who are on prescribed opioids. I  also think there should be documented non-opioid treatment attempts on all chronic opioid users as well.

With this being said, I do not think that opioids should not be used for acute patients. For example, if I came into the my physician’s office with a kidney stone or after I threw my back out, I would not expect them to attempt non-pharmacological treatment.  In instances like these, a small amount of narcotics should be able to be prescribed, but then the physician should be required to follow up within a given time frame, whether it be 24 hours or a week.  I think because the FDA is a federal agency, this should be done by everyone and not just by certain states. Of course, to make a change it’s not easily done at that level, so I think it would have to start slowly. I think I would first propose it to all hospital employed providers at my hospital. After that change was implemented and there was time for adequate data to be obtained, i would branch out to other facilities, and then eventually to the state level.

Many physicians will prescribe a patient a narcotic for an acute pain, but then continue to refill the medication for years “just because.” This contributes to the problem. I worked with a nurse years ago who had back pain and went to her PCP and was prescribed Norco. She became dependent on the Norco, and eventually  stole Dilaudid, Morphine, Norco, and many other drugs from the hospital. Of course she was caught and her license was disciplined, but the point is, this prescription started innocent, but due to a lack of follow up from her physician, the medication was continued to feed a habit, which could have been avoided had there been stricter follow up.

If the physicians were required to follow up and have documentation that was supportive of their reason for continuing the prescription, the numbers may decrease.  At a certain point, the physician could then potentially refer the patient to a pain specialist for some sort of treatment that was not an opioid.

Andrea, if you start with the hospital, this would become a hospital based policy. This takes some research to see what is being done but how about limiting how many opioids can be prescribed at a time so that the patient needs to be seen again before more can be prescribed?

Thank you for your input. Instead of a policy on following up after prescribing the medications, you think I should write on limiting the number of pills the provider prescribes, which would require the patient to follow up if they wanted/needed more?

I will begin to research whether or not there are current laws/policies in place.

Thank you for your feedback.

Andrea, yes that is what I was thinking.  It would also be interesting to know if there is any research that looks into average time it

takes to become addicted – I know that is difficult because there are many other factors involved.  I have never looked into this research but it should be interesting.

Henny

I just read Richelle’s response – be sure to look at her response as she provided some great information.

Edited by Henny Breen on Mar 10 at 10:39pm

 

Click here to ORDER an A++ paper from our Verified MASTERS and DOCTORATE WRITERS: NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection 

The case study depicts Mrs. Smith, who comes for an annual physical exam with an empty bottle of amoxicillin and requests a refill. She had a refill a week ago, and the FNP’s name is indicated on the label as the prescriber. The patient mentioned that she had talked with Stephanie, the medical assistant. However, the medical assistant did not discuss it with the FNP or other NPs. This paper will discuss the ethical and legal implications for each member and how to prevent similar illegal behavior in the future.

Potential ethical and legal implications for each of the following practice members:

Medical assistant

All medical assistants must have some degree of physician supervision when prescribing medications. Some states also have limitations on the medications that medical assistants can prescribe (Figueroa Gray et al., 2021). The medical assistant faces legal implications for prescribing a drug without supervision from a physician or NP and writing another practitioner’s name when prescribing without their knowledge. Stephanie faces the risk of losing her practicing license or being fined if she prescribed a drug that is restricted for medical assistants.

Nurse Practitioner

An NP has an ethical duty in prescribing, selecting an appropriate medication, providing patients with information, warnings, and instructions about their medication, and monitoring the patient regularly. The NP may face ethical implications if the drug prescribed with the FNP’s name harms the patient. In prescribing, the NP has a moral duty to do good (beneficence) and avoid harm to the patient (nonmaleficence) (Vaismoradi et al., 2021). Thus, the NP may face fines or lose his license if the Amoxicillin causes adverse drug reactions.

Medical Director

The medical director may also face ethical consequences for failing to ensure that employees in the organization adhere to their prescriptive duties. The director may face fines for failing to supervise the employees’ conduct when attending to patients. Besides, the director failed to ensure that medical assistants were working as per their scope of practice.

Practice

            The practice risks facing legal actions for healthcare providers failing to adhere to their scope of practice when providing patient care. The practice may face ethical consequences for corporate negligence since providers prescribe patients medications without prescriptive authority and supervision (Vaismoradi et al., 2021). Legal consequences include fines, temporarily losing the operating license, or being closed permanently.

What strategies would you implement to prevent further episodes of potentially illegal behavior? 

The first strategy will be to organize continuous medical education (CME) to educate the healthcare providers on their scope of practice. It will be crucial for each profession to fully understand their scope of practice and that of the other professions. In addition, I would develop a policy to guide the employees in the practices on the actions that will be taken if they do not adhere to their scope of practice.

What leadership qualities would you apply to effect a positive change in the practice?

The leadership qualities that I will apply to create positive change in the practice include communication, coaching, and decision-making. Communication is a vital leadership skill of conveying information to individuals in a manner they can understand and also involves listening to employees (Walk, 2023). Coaching is the ability of the leader to guide others to improve. I would apply coaching skills to empower the employees and improve their engagement and accountability in patient care. Furthermore, I will need to employ strong decision-making skills that entail evaluating options, assessing the advantages of each, and committing to the option that can provide the most value to patients, providers, and practice.

 

NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection References

Figueroa Gray, M., Coleman, K., Walsh-Bailey, C., Girard, S., & Lozano, P. (2021). An Expanded Role for the Medical Assistant in Primary Care: Evaluating a Training Pilot. The Permanente journal, 25, 20.091. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/20.091

Vaismoradi, M., Jordan, S., Logan, P. A., Amaniyan, S., & Glarcher, M. (2021). A Systematic Review of the Legal Considerations Surrounding Medicines Management. Medicine (Kaunas, Lithuania), 57(1), 65. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57010065

Walk, M. (2023). Leaders as change executors: the impact of leader attitudes to change and change-specific support on followers. European Management Journal, 41(1), 154-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.01.002

NR 506 Week 2 Discussion: Identify your selected healthcare policy priority and discuss the rationale for your selection Grading Rubric Guidelines

Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
Scholarliness Demonstrates achievement of scholarly inquiry for professional and academic decisions.	Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry clearly stating how the evidence informed or changed professional or academic decisions Evaluates literature resources to develop a comprehensive analysis or synthesis. Uses valid, relevant, and reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion	Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry but does not clearly state how the evidence informed or changed professional or academic decisions. Evaluates information from source(s) to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis. Uses some valid, relevant, reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion.	Discusses using scholarly inquiry but does not state how scholarly inquiry informed or changed professional or academic decisions. Information is taken from source(s) with some interpretation/evaluation, but not enough to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis. Little valid, relevant, or reliable outside sources are used to contribute to the threaded discussion. Demonstrates little or no understanding of the topic.	Discusses using scholarly inquiry but does not state how scholarly inquiry informed or changed professional or academic decisions. Information is taken from source(s) without any interpretation/evaluation. The posting uses information that is not valid, relevant, or reliable	No evidence of the use of scholarly inquiry to inform or change professional or academic decisions. Information is not valid, relevant, or reliable
Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
Application of Course Knowledge – Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and/or apply principles and concepts learned in the course lesson and outside readings and relate them to real-life professional situations	Posts make direct reference to concepts discussed in the lesson or drawn from relevant outside sources; Applies concepts to personal experience in the professional setting and or relevant application to real life.	Posts make direct reference to concepts discussed in the lesson or drawn from relevant outside sources. Applies concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real life Interactions with classmates are relevant to the discussion topic but do not make direct reference to lesson content	Posts are generally on topic but do not build knowledge by incorporating concepts and principles from the lesson. Does not attempt to apply lesson concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real life Does not demonstrate a solid understanding of the principles and concepts presented in the lesson	Posts do not adequately address the question posed either by the discussion prompt or the instructor’s launch post. Posts are superficial and do not reflect an understanding of the lesson content Does not attempt to apply lesson concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real life	Posts are not related to the topics provided by the discussion prompt or by the instructor; attempts by the instructor to redirect the student are ignored No discussion of lesson concepts to personal experience in the professional setting and or relevant application to real life
Performance Category	5	4	3	2	0
Interactive Dialogue Replies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts a minimum of two times in each graded thread, on separate days. (5 points possible per graded thread)	Exceeds minimum post requirements Replies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts three or more times in each graded thread, over three separate days. Replies to a post posed by faculty and to a peer Summarizes what was learned from the lesson, readings, and other student posts for the week.	Replies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts a minimum of two times in each graded thread, on separate days Replies to a question posed by a peer Summarizes what was learned from the lesson, readings, and other student posts for the week.	Meets expectations of 2 posts on 2 different days. The main post is not made by the Wednesday deadline Does not reply to a question posed by a peer or faculty	Has only one post for the week Discussion posts contain few, if any, new ideas or applications; often are a rehashing or summary of other students’ comments	Does not post to the thread No connections are made to the topic
	Minus 1 Point	Minus 2 Point	Minus 3 Point	Minus 4 Point	Minus 5 Point
Grammar, Syntax, APA Note: if there are only a few errors in these criteria, please note this for the student in as an area for improvement. If the student does not make the needed corrections in upcoming weeks, then points should be deducted. Points deducted for improper grammar, syntax and APA style of writing. The source of information is the APA Manual 6th Edition	2-3 errors in APA format. Written responses have 2-3 grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Writing style is generally clear, focused, and facilitates communication.	4-5 errors in APA format. Writing responses have 4-5 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. Writing style is somewhat focused.	6-7 errors in APA format. Writing responses have 6-7 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. Writing style is slightly focused making discussion difficult to understand.	8-10 errors in APA format. Writing responses have 8-10 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. Writing style is not focused, making discussion difficult to understand.	Post contains greater than 10 errors in APA format. Written responses have more than 10 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. Writing style does not facilitate communication. The student continues to make repeated mistakes in any of the above areas after written correction by the instructor
	0 points lost				-5 points lost
Total Participation Requirements per discussion thread	The student answers the threaded discussion question or topic on one day and posts a second response on another day.				The student does not meet the minimum requirement of two postings on two different days
Early Participation Requirement per discussion thread	The student must provide a substantive answer to the graded discussion question(s) or topic(s), posted by the course instructor (not a response to a peer), by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT of each week.				The student does not meet the requirement of a substantive response to the stated question or topic by Wednesday at 11:59 pm MT.

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