The National Health Services in UK - Term Paper Example

Cognitive domain The National Health Services is considered to be the best and the topmost provider of health care service for several years. However, this recognition and stability in terms of providing the number one quality of health services to the people, NHS decided to make changes with their structure, policies and procedures in order to keep up with the changing time. (Davies, 2007) The approach of NHS are now client-centered wherein the evaluations, interventions and treatments are catered to addressing the needs of the patients making sure that their concerns are being looked into and that their opinions are also considered in decision making processes. This patient-centered structure for primary and secondary care promotes patient participation by increasing their awareness as to what the health services are doing for them to help them in their medical problems and that their satisfaction is one of the main priorities of the NHS. In this way, the patients will become cooperative and motivated in undergoing the treatments necessary for their overall development. NHS devised several programs to address the needs of the patients from elderly care. They have created the Older People's National Service Framework and Champions Toolkit in which there will be the "champions" who will represent the elderly patients by making their presence identified and valued. This way, the champions will be the voice of the patients from old age and will also serve as the medium of communication from these elderly patients to the higher committees of NHS. Suggestions for improvement of elderly care will also be addressed and brought up by the champions to have these ideas considered and implemented after further studies and researches. As previously stated, the stereotypes and the minority group status of the elderly are being addressed by the NHS. The elderly patients are kept well-informed about their involvement and that their welfare is being taken into utmost consideration. NHS created plans to eliminate the stereotype and discrimination that the elderly people are experiencing as well as implementation of primary care and general hospital care which are well-suitable for patients in old age. The NHS plan has a time frame of ten years and there is an annual evaluation being done to ensure that the milestones of the program are being achieved in a timely, cohesive and accurate manner. There are numerous physical and health hazards facing the elderly. These medical conditions should be taken care of regardless of the elderly patients' economic and social status. The NHS made programs which will help the elderly adjust to the medical and hospital settings by providing them the comforts of patient care in a holistic approach. This means that specialists, occupational therapists and other medical professionals will work together toward helping the elderly recover from sickness. Aside from this there are also programs which ensure effective transfer of care from the hospital setting to the home of the patient. Once the patient is discharged from the hospital, the Luton Community Trust will help the patients recover and function independently once they are out of the hospital by having a rehabilitation staff support the elderly patient cope with the physical challenges in the patient's home. During the past decades or so, doctors and other health professionals have become increasingly active in their campaign to encourage the elderly people to become more involved in recreational or vocational activities to help them regain their sense of productivity which they had during their younger years when they were still working. The Rotherham Active in later Life of NHS enables the elderly patients find other ways of making use of their time like line dancing sessions. In this way, they will be able to decrease their feeling guilt of being "worthless" and feel happy about their current state since they have done their share of hard work when they were much stronger and capable a few years back. Aging is an inevitable process that everyone will have to go through. The changes are drastic and unstable. The ability of the NHs to adapt to the changing needs of the elderly will help facilitate aging in a stable and comforting process. Affective domain It is possible that watching television can attribute to obesity. A correlation study may show a high degree of association between the two variables. They may move in the same direction at the same rate but it is not right to conclude at once that one is the cause of the other unless confirmed so by other studies. In no case does correlation show causal relationship. When children watch television often, the risk of obesity is also increased. We cannot conclude immediately that5 the increase in the frequency of watching television is the sole cause of the heightened risk of obesity. There are still other causes to be considered such as the nutrition of the children, heredity, lifestyle and others. To be able to make a conclusive statement as to what is or what are the real causes of the increase in the risk of obesity in children, an intensive investigation is necessary. Malnourishment is defined as a medical condition resulting from inadequate and disproportionate nutritional regime. Overnutrition is considered as a form of malnourishment which is caused by extreme absorption of nutrients in comparison to the standard amount of nutrients that the body can process for optimum function of the body as a system. Overnutrition can lead to obesity which is linked to overeating which increases the body's food intake and absorption of too much calories and nutrients. This can cause the malfunctioning of the metabolic processes making it hard for the body to breakdown complex nutrients. Political and social factors are attributed in the growing concern about overnutrition It is a misconception that first world countries or economically-progressive countries are capable of having luxurious ways of living and as a result this leads to the citizens having poor diets and exercise deficiency. America is considered as the fast-food nation. The reasons are very much obvious. Statistics show that every twenty four hours, there is at least one American out of four who eats fast food. Their main reason is that fast food eating is very convenient and a cheap option. (Levinstein, 2003) The overnutrition rates in the second and third world countries are almost at the same levels as the rates of the developed countries. Economic stability has nothing to do with the prevalence of o overnutrition. The second and third world countries show the presence of malnourished citizens but they also have cases of obesity or overnutrition. Changes in the rates of overnutrition in different countries can be due to several factors. This may be due to societal changes such as greater food consumption and genetic adaptations that impact metabolism. Therefore, lifestyle and technological changes have adverse effects with the nutrition of the people. Government agencies have established programs to combat the increasing prevalence of obesity in their respective countries to ensure that the citizens live healthy and lengthy lives. The Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health are government agencies that are greatly involved in the cause of keeping citizens aware of the possible complications that result from obesity as well as ways to prevent obesity. Psychomotor Skills CPD is necessary to ensure that health professiona; are performing at a par with the constantly developing standards of their chosen profession. Commission of Continuing Competence and Professional Development (CCCPD) provides seminars and training to provide health professionals with updates with the trends in their profession as well as specialty certification. (Depoy, 1994) Research is considered as one way to enhance a health professional's understanding and skills in treatment. Research is absolutely essential in the field for several reasons. For one, all health care professionals are currently being pressured by the economic market to "prove" the effectiveness of their techniques and interventions. While the need for outcome or efficacy studies is indisputable, health professions also need to continue developing its philosophical and theoretical basis, which usually implies a need for more exploratory methodologies. Both kinds of research should be encouraged in the field, and both have relevance to clinicians. Payton concurred: REFERENCES: Davies, Peter, April 2007," The New NHS in the UK 2007/08: A Pocket Guide", NHS Confederation. Depoy, E., & Gitlin, L. N. 1994, Introduction to research: Multiple strategies for health and human services. St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book. Higgs J and Jones M. 2000, Clinical reasoning in the health professions. 2nd ed. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann Ltd. Levinstein, H (2003). Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America. Berkeley: University of California. Polkinghorne, D. 1998, Narrative knowing and the human sciences: Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Talbot, Alison, April 2006, "The New NHS: A Guide to its Funding, Organisation, and Accountability", Routledge, UK Weiss-Lambrou, R. 1989, The health professional's guide to writing for publication. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Read More