Increasing the role of patients in providing the quality of care given to them.

Increasing the role of patients in providing the quality of care given to them.

 

PART ONE ! 2

Transitional nursing is very critical to patients that need prolonged attention. Various

factors may necessitate transitional nursing, but it must be noted that this is a very delicate stage

for the patient as much as it is for the caregiver. This is where the patient’s care is transferred

back home, to another facility or to a specialized care facility such as an assisted living center.

This requires a lot of attention and mentorship so as to help the patient adjust and quickly get

accustomed to the transition process. While many may view this as the duty of the caregiver to

look after the well-being of the patient, the patient can play an active role as well. It has

previously been established that increasing patient participation in their care increases the quality

of care that they have as well as improving their quality of life (Carman et al., 2013). There are

various ways that patient participation can happen and still accomplish the same result. There is

need, however; to continuously advocate for this involvement so as to continuously increase the

care quality and reduce the mortality rate that is associated with readmission and development of

complications after discharge from a health facility, nursing home or home.

Problem identification

While there is noted increase in the number of patient participation in their care, the

reverse is true in cases where the patients are either too elderly or have been rendered depended

on other people for their survival such as those in high dependency. There is also evidence that

there is still constant number of cases of readmission and development of complication arising

after the patient has been discharged and transferred home (Hibbard et al., 2013). A keen look at

the problem reveals that a good number of these could easily have been avoided with the help of

the patient if only they had been accorded the knowledge and skills to manage their conditions

PART ONE ! 3

while aware of a health care facility. This situation, therefore, calls for an increase in the

knowledge creation for the participation of patients in their won care.

Significance of topic to nursing

This issue is directly affected by the type of care and the duties of the nurse. It is the

nurse that cares for the patients while at the facility and it is also the responsibility of the

transition care nurse to facilitate the process of knowledge creation before the patients are

released from the medical facility. This implies that the nurses have the greater role to play in

this process of knowledge acquisition and patient involvement. They can actively teach the

patient some of the core competencies in care giving, how to take measurement of vitals that

may be used to assess a situation while it is still in manageable capacity as well as they can tutor

the patient on identification of red signs that need to be monitored and taken care of while it is

still early enough for intervention. The nurse plays the primary role in training and coaching the

patient in the transitional care knowledge delivery.

Purpose of the research

The purpose of this research is to establish the need for patient involvement in

transitional care and improvement of the quality of care given to the patients. The research

purposes to establish the various ways through which patients can further facilitate the different

ways through which the patient can actively participate in their care to improve care quality,

improve mortality and decrease the number of readmissions within less than two weeks after

discharge from a health care facility.

PART ONE ! 4

The research questions

i. What is the importance of patient participation?

ii. What is the effect of patient participation in their care delivery?

iii. How can patient participation be used to reduce mortality rates, readmission cases and

improve care quality delivery?

iv. What are the available forms of patient participation strategies?

v. What role does the nurse have in ensuring patient participation for transitional care

patients?

vi. What are the additional benefits of patient participation?

It is the duty of the nurse to give the quality care to the patient. Nurses play a very critical

role in the delivery of quality care (Carman et al., 2013). Through various strategies, the nurse is

set to ensure that the quality of care given to the patient is not only of good quality but also that

the patient has a role to play in the process. According to Hibbard et al. (2013), nurses can

collaborate with the facility to ensure that the patient is equipped with the necessary knowledge

of their role in their care and how they can actually use this knowledge to make sure that they are

safe from complications as well as reducing the risk of death and readmission soon after

discharge from the facility. In conclusion, this topic is an essential one in nursing care and

quality improvement for nurses and health care facilities at large.

PART ONE ! 5

References

Carman, K. L., Dardess, P., Maurer, M., Sofaer, S., Adams, K., Bechtel, C., & Sweeney, J.

(2013). Patient and family engagement: a framework for understanding the elements and

developing interventions and policies. Health Affairs, 32(2), 223-231.

Hibbard, J. H., & Greene, J. (2013). What the evidence shows about patient activation: better

health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health affairs, 32(2),

207-214.

Hibbard, J. H., Greene, J., & Overton, V. (2013). Patients with lower activation associated with

higher costs; delivery systems should know their patients’‘scores’. Health affairs, 32(2),

216-222.