Good morning/afternoon/Evening, esteemed nursing colleagues. For today’s topic, I am eager to explore care coordination in detail, which, as of today, is an essential part of our nursing career. From a very practical perspective, care coordination involves a lot of patients’ health and care experience improvement. This significantly influences the quality of care. This implies that the basics of care coordination are so that our common goal of providing top-quality, patient-oriented care is served impeccably at the community care center.
Collaboration with Patients and Families
The main tool for providing proper care coordination is the development of partnerships with patients and their families based on collaboration. Patients are being involved and encouraged to take active participation in the decision-making process throughout their healing, which consequently gives them the power to be responsible for their treatment plan and every other element that makes their care journey complete. Here, we see not only the patient authority being augmented but also the involvement in the outcomes of their health, improving their sense of ownership and responsibility. A core part of this strategy is to create other interventions, detailing the properties of diverse medications and designing them in a way that meets the needs of individual patients. Such would include thorough medication regimen instructions with accompanying warnings on the side effects and emphasizing the need for strict compliance to treatment (Abu et al., 2023). Patients are able to understand the easy-to-reach information that ensures they make informed decisions about their health and actively participate in self-management practices by providing such kind of information.
Additionally, it is of great significance to impart cultural competence mindsets so as to successfully establish effective coordination efforts that are open to all perspectives. By recognizing and encouraging cultural variations in our community, we create a trustworthy relationship with those under our care. Abu et al. (2023) argue that patients have better outcomes and are more satisfied when their healthcare has the cultural backdrop of their own culture. These interventions not only take into language, culture, and preferred methods in patients’ perspectives but also give a better understanding of how patients are different from other people.
Change Management and Patient Experience
Applications of change management are crucially important in the context of the general framework of the patient experience in our care facility. Being mindful of the main factors of the management of change that are impacting the care of patients helps us to move through periods of turbulence smoothly, securing the continuity and consistency of the delivery of care (Harrison et al., 2021). By providing a transparent communication platform, involving stakeholders as well as proactively taking care of unavoidable difficulties that may come up, we will have satisfied patients, and the quality of care will improve. By applying a strategic change management model, the health sector promotes an atmosphere of trust and reliability among patients and their relatives, as they are ready to agree that the new management changes are a priority in the organization as the existing conditions remain the same. According to Harrison (2021), the implementation of a successful change management strategy yields improved results in the patient experience metrics: that is, higher ratings in patient satisfaction and care quality. Also, to ensure upholding a patient-centered care model within our care center, the change processes need to have much reliability that is capable of withstanding a closely guarded defense.
Ethical Decision-Making in Coordinated Care Plans
Ethical concerns should be at the center of care coordination efforts directly, or else the result may be a deficient and ineffective care plan. With respect to ethical principles like the right of the patient to make their own decisions, goodwill, and fairness throughout the process of care, coordination is an integral part of treatment. Open-access communication structure, an outline for patients and their families about the various choices for treatment, risks, and benefits, builds up alliance and mutual respect that leads to a collaborative care environment (McKeown, 2023). Furthermore, preserving patient privacy and confidentiality constitutes a central issue as this is the place where a secure therapeutic relationship flourishes, and patient autonomy is ensured.
When it comes to the involvement of ethics, healthcare does not lack complex landscapes, and care coordination can also be one of these situations that need careful consideration through the application of ethical frameworks. Let us reiterate this: Summing up, the application of ethical principles allows us to maintain patient-centered care at the forefront of our practice, which in turn facilitates optimal well-being and respect for every individual under our supervision. Nursing ethics theory and ethical decision-making models give us appropriate structures to walk through all these complex ethical situations that we have to face in the course of our work (Smith, 2023). This helps us weigh our actions and decisions in order to ensure that they are aligned with our ethical values and code of conduct, as well as those that enhance our patients’ well-being.
Impact of Healthcare Policy Provisions
Healthcare policy should have a referral function, making it possible to estimate and determine effects on patient outcomes and experiences. The ability to analyze particular provisions of policy rules enables us to develop the capacity to cope with requirements on regulatory actions and patient requirements and to represent them efficiently. The arrangements of coverage, service accessibility, and performance score act as patient-centered care enablers(Ercia, 2021). We can ensure that the policy changes we support, and the risks they may bring to our patient’s health are being seen early enough by following up on them closely. This will allow us to act proactively and support policies that put patient protection at the forefront. Ercia (2021) emphasizes that the role of policy advocacy in advancing healthcare quality and effective care for the underserved is crucial. Additionally, our management methods have improved as a result of the awareness of policy changes to correspond to the ever-changing rules and regulations.
The Nurse’s Vital Role in Care Coordination
Nurses act as the focal point of the supported network and the patients’ advocates in their unwavering devotion to each of their patients. By the empowerment of patients, nurses help people to demand their rights and allow their voices to be heard. Whether it is listening to their worries and fears, applauding their accomplishments, or advocating for their prompt access to care, nurses are committed to ensuring that patients’ needs are met. According to Karam et al., 2021 networking with multidisciplinary teams, engaging external collaborators, and making recommendations for policy adjustments are key areas of the nurses’ duty in care management. By discharging these duties fully, nurses can become advocates for better care and improve their patients’ outcomes and experiences.
Considerable effect of nurse-based care coordination programs exists obviously. According to past research results, these initiatives resulted in better outcomes for the patient, fewer hospital readmissions, and greater patient satisfaction. In addition, According to the American Nurses Association (2020), nurses’ holistic perspective and resolve on patient-centered care physicians them with a framework to advocate for improvements in the care coordination process. Being in an ideal position to know the patient’s medication history from their documentation, their diagnosis, their physiological responses to all these, and their general preferences and needs, nurses will coordinate care efforts excellently so that the patient’s health is not jeopardized in any way.
Conclusion
In essence, delivering patient-oriented care is the function of particularly effective care coordination while sustaining our neighborhood care facility. Through our establishment of the coalition, efficient management change-leading, ethical enactment, comprehension of healthcare policy provisions, and incorporation of our roles as nurses, we shall turn implications for patient satisfaction and success. With the voices of commitment to the highest standards of care coordination, we encourage providers to provide each patient with the individualized care they deserve.
References
Abu-Rish Blakeney, E., Baird, J., Beaird, G., Khan, A., Parente, V. M., O’Brien, K. D., Zierler, B. K., O’Leary, K. J., & Weiner, B. J. (2023). How and why might interprofessional patient- and family-centered rounds improve outcomes among healthcare teams and hospitalized patients? A conceptual framework informed by scoping and narrative literature review methods. Frontiers in medicine, p. 10, 1275480. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2023.127548
American Nurses Association (ANA). (2020, October 14). Care Coordination and the Essential Role of Nurses. Retrieved from ANA website: https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/health-policy/care-coordination/#:~:text=It%20is%20what%20nurses%20do
Ercia, A. (2021). The impact of the Affordable Care Act on patient coverage and access to care: perspectives from FQHC administrators in Arizona, California, and Texas. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06961-9
Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where Do Models for Change Management, Improvement, and Implementation Meet? A Systematic Review of the Applications of Change Management Models in Healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 13, 85–108. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S289176
Karam, M., Chouinard, M. C., Poitras, M. E., Couturier, Y., Vedel, I., Grgurevic, N., & Hudon, C. (2021). Nursing Care Coordination for Patients with Complex Needs in Primary Healthcare: A Scoping Review. International journal of integrated care, 21(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.5518
McKeown A. (2023). Ethical challenges and principles in integrated care. British Medical Bulletin, 146(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldac030
Smith, C. S. (2023). Applying a systems-oriented ethical decision-making framework to mitigating social and structural determinants of health. Frontiers in Oral Health, p. 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/froh.2023.1031574
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