Discussion Response : Quality Indicators in Specialty Areas of Interest

Respond to the discussion below using the following approach:
1. Explain how your colleague's topic is impacting your current role as a nurse or future role as a nurse educator.
2. Probing question.

My clinical practicum is based in one of the free clinics in Hampton Va. These Free clinics provide a safety net for the communities that they serve. These grassroots clinics establish a chronic disease management program for those without health insurance, and provides a means to keep them healthy. The "hot" topic for this clinic, and for others like it, are to prevent major health crises for these individuals and to save money for society when emergency care and high-tech interventions are avoided. One of the ways this is accomplished is in successfully dealing with the long term chronic noncancerous pain management status of these individuals.

Loeser (2012) noted that more than two thirds of physicians at an expert summit on pain, with participants from across Europe, cited under treatment of chronic pain to be a common problem in their countries. Severe chronic non-cancer pain is a considerable health issue in these free clinic settings, and it profoundly affects the quality of patients' lives. Many organizations, such a JCAHO, HCFA, & APS have outcome Measures, standards, and initiatives related to the management of long term pain, with many of the initiatives focusing on education. Treede (2012) noted that chronic pain treatment should address important social and psychological consequences of the pain as well as any physical pathology. Usually this entails a comprehensive approach that includes medication and functional rehabilitation, but at the free clinic we are not able to offer these individuals the rehabilitation part, so we lean heavily on self education.

The goal is that by educating the patients about their chronic pain, it will increase the patients knowledge and attitude regarding pain, and hopefully increase adherence to pain medication, increase patients' pain knowledge, and decrease the amount of analgesics used. In fact, Dye, Williams, & Evatt (2016) stated that patients who were involved in educational interventions resulted in higher levels of self-care, self-help, psychological adjustment, and confidence in cancer knowledge With this standard in mind, many of the initiatives at the free Clinic focus on providing the patients with pain management education as a patient quality standard. As such, North Carolina conducted a large outcomes study of their free clinic network. One area that they scored off the charts was patient satisfaction. Patients are saying, "This is where I need to go to get my healthcare." They believe that they are getting the time and the education they need from the care providers (McAdams, Carr, Jones, & Hill, 2015).

References

Dye, C. J., Williams, J. E., & Evatt, J. H. (2016). Activating Patients for Sustained Chronic Disease Self-Management: Thinking Beyond Clinical Outcomes. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 7(2), 107-112. doi:10.1177/2150131915626562

Loeser, J. D. (2012). Chronic Pain Is More Than a Peripheral Event. The Journal of Pain, 13(10), 930-931. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2012.07.002

McAdams, L. A., Carr, A., Jones, C., & Hill, L. (2015). Spotlight on the Safety Net: Use of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines at Matthews Free Medical Clinic. North Carolina Medical Journal, 76(4), 269-270. doi:10.18043/ncm.76.4.269

Treede, R. (2012). Peripheral and Central Mechanisms of Neuropathic Pain. Neuropathic Pain, 14-24. doi:10.1093/med/9780195394702.003.0002

Reminders:

1. 1 page only

2. Put Citations in APA format and at least 3 references... Articles must be 2011 to 2016.

Required Readings

Anderson, B. J., Manno, M., O'Connor, P., & Gallagher, E. (2010). Listening to nursing leaders: Using national database of nursing quality indicators data to study excellence in nursing leadership. Journal of Nursing Administration, 40(4), 182-187.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

This article examines how application of nursing quality indicators provides insight into what makes an excellent nurse leader. As you read, consider your leadership roles as an advanced nurse and a nurse educator and how you may use the nursing quality indicators in your practice as nurse and teacher.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http://qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/