Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
Write a 4 -page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications.
Introduction
In your health care career, you will be confronted with many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills, you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real-world problem.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care.
Use scholarly information to describe and explain a health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.
Analyze a health care problem or issue by describing the context, explaining why it is important and identifying populations affected by it.
Discuss potential solutions for a health care problem or issue and describe what would be required to implement a solution.
Competency 3: Apply ethical principles and academic standards to the study of health care.
Analyze the ethical implications if a potential solution to a health care problem or issue was implemented.
Competency 4: Write for a specific audience, in appropriate tone and style, in accordance with Capella's writing standards.
Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.
Instructions
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
Describe the health care problem or issue you selected for use in Assessment 2 (from the Assessment Topic Areas | Transcript media piece) and provide details about it.
Explore your chosen topic. For this, you should use the first four steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking. This approach was introduced in Assessment 2.
Identify possible causes for the problem or issue.
Use scholarly information to describe and explain the health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
Identify at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles about the topic.
You may find the How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles? library guide helpful in locating appropriate references.
You may use articles you found while working on Assessment 2 or you may search the Capella library for other articles.
You may find the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide helpful in your search.
Review the Think Critically About Source Quality to help you complete the following:
Assess the credibility of the information sources.
Assess the relevance of the information sources.
Analyze the health care problem or issue.
Describe the setting or context for the problems or issues.
Describe why the problem or issue is important to you.
Identify groups of people affected by the problem or issue.
Provide examples that support your analysis of the problem or issue.
Discuss potential solutions for the health care problem or issue.
Describe what would be required to implement a solution.
Describe potential consequences of ignoring the problem or issue.
Provide the pros and cons for one of the solutions you are proposing.
Analyze the ethical implications if the potential solution (the one for which you provide pros and cons) were to be implemented.
Provide examples from the literature to support the points you are making.
Discuss the pros and cons of implementing the proposed solution from an ethical principle point of view.
Describe what would be required to implement the proposed solution.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Length: 5 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
APA template: Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX] as the paper format and the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOC] for guidance.
Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Using outside sources: Integrate information from outside sources into academic writing by appropriately quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, following APA style.
References: Integrate information from outside sources to include at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles and three in-text citations within the paper.
APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citations of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.
Organize your paper using the following structure and headings:
Title page. A separate page.
Introduction. A brief one-paragraph statement about the purpose of the paper.
Elements of the problem/issue. Identify the elements of the problem or issue or question.
Analysis. Analyze, define, and frame the problem or issue.
Considering options. Consider solutions, responses, or answers.
Solution. Choose a solution, response, or answer.
Ethical implications. Ethical implications of implementing the solution.
Implementation. Implementation of the potential solution.
Conclusion. One paragraph.
If you would like assistance in organizing your assessment, or if you simply have a question about your assessment, do not hesitate to ask faculty or the teaching assistants in the NHS Learner Success Lab for guidance and suggestions.
In health care, research is important. It helps you see what has worked and what has not worked effectively for wellness and patient care. It is important for you to explore research about evidenced-based practices in your areas of interest. This research will help you develop and demonstrate a professional health care perspective and expand your organizational, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Following resources provide information about evidence-based practice.
Macias, C. G., Loveless, J. N., Jackson, A. N., & Srinivasan, S. (2017). Delivering value through evidence-based practice. Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 18(2), 89–97.
Thomas, S. J. (2016). Does evidence-based health care have room for the self? Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 22(4), 502–508.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). EPC evidence-based reports. Retrieved from http://www(dot)ahrq(dot)gov/research/findings/evidence-based-reports/index.html
How do you approach a situation within your organization and apply critical thinking skills to analyze it? What are the important skills you need for critical thinking?
The following resources provide insights into critical thinking:
Arli, S. K., Bakan, A. B., Ozturk, S., Erisik, E., & Yildirim, Z. (2017). Critical thinking and caring in nursing students. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 10(1), 471–478.
Building Skills for Critical Thinking.
Critical Thinking.
Following media and Campus resources provide information and assistance for building your writing skills.
APA Citation: Citing a Book.
APA Citation: Citing a Journal Article.
APA Citation: Citing a Website.
APA Module.
APA Style and Format.
NHS Learner Success Lab.
Each of the following research guides is written with a specific program in mind. The one for your program can provide insights about researching topics related to your field.
BSN Program Library Research Guide.
Public Health Undergraduate Library Research Guide.
Health Care Administration Undergraduate Library Research Guide.
Medication Errors
Name
Affiliation
Course
Tutor
Medication Errors
Introduction
The effectiveness of outcomes of the medical procedures carried out on patients depends on the quality and extent of healthcare professionals' care. The occurrence of errors in the process can greatly detriment patients' health even more than the disease under treatment, resulting in severe consequences like death. Therefore, critical evaluation of patients is essential throughout all the medication steps to ensure desirable care delivery. Physicians and pharmacists should ensure counterchecking of all prescribed medicines to ensure the recommendation matches the treatment of the diagnosed issue before nurses administer them to patients. Assessing the origin of medication errors is critical to determine the best action in their prevention.
Elements of the problem
The event of medication errors engages various people and points in the medication process. A mere deviated involvement in the process can alter everything, resulting in the ultimate prescription of medications that cannot treat the pathological issue in question and can eventually harm the patient's body. The problem's primary cause involves; physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and the management system in the specific healthcare setting at multiple points, including and not limited to prescribing, documenting, transcribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring (Tariq, Vashisht, & Scherbak, 2020). The possible errors in the identified departments lead to wrong prescriptions and the ultimate administration of wrong drugs.
Analysis
Humans tend to work well and to the maximum required levels under standard workloads. Healthcare professionals have many duties and roles, including ordering laboratory and imaging studies, examining patients, rounding on patients, and speaking to consultants in their working environment (Tariq, Vashisht, & Scherbak, 2020). Accommodating the duties becomes tedious for physicians, leading to distractions, the primary cause of medication errors. Besides, physicians have to write drug orders and prescriptions and the other duties they carry out in healthcare. Thus, they mostly work in a hurry, and an incidence like the lapse of judgment in the process when writing drug orders can easily result in a medication error.
The fatigue due to high workloads is a primary trigger of medication errors. According to Yaghoobi et al. (2015), increased numbers of patients lead to approximately 80.3% of the medication errors in healthcare. On other occasions, some physicians miss accuracy while multitasking. For instance, they might be on the phone while scribbling an order and would eventually not pay attention to the accuracy of the required dose or other issues surrounding the drug, like frequency of intake (Tariq, Vashisht, & Scherbak, 2020). Also, most physicians have distorted and unreadable handwriting that sequence up to pharmacists not giving the right medications but what they can read from the presented scripts (Yaghoobi et al., 2015). Although healthcare professionals may not acknowledge the impact of the distractions to their work, they are significant in causing medication errors.
Populations affected
Wrong medication impacts affected patients. A study by Gracia, Serrano & Garrido (2019) reveals that the greatest populations affected by the problem involve patients in intensive care units. These individuals experience severe health problems that require critical pharmacotherapy programs, which could engage confusion during administrations, especially by training nurses. Also, older adults are major demographics affected by medication errors, considering the need for intensive care in their multiple health problems. Although medication errors are bound to affect all patients visiting any healthcare, people in ICU and the aged populations are the most ...