Critical Thinking Questions - Assignment Example

NURSING Treatment and other clinical processes utilize resources and these resources have implications to the overall costs in the clinic. Moreover, understanding the working of clinical practices entails understanding the outcome of the practices as they are carried out often to address patient needs. The clinical practitioners design and implement strategies in management of resource use with the overall objective of monitoring and controlling costs. However, the evaluation of clinical effectiveness as well as cost effectiveness of the practices and strategies presents the basic concern in healthcare provision systems.

The overall analysis takes into perspective the different clinical practices in effective treatment practices as well as the actual establishment of what the clinical procedures can afford in terms of costs. It therefore follows that clinical practices entails the adoption of various strategies that are intended to address the concern of costs. The promotion of value in heath care leads to realization, of the highest possible returns in healthcare provision practices for each dollar used. Tools to be used in analyzing the outcome of the practices may vary with comparative-effectiveness research studies being instrumental in asserting the costs.

Through the method, a comparison of the effectiveness of various clinical practices is carried out alongside each other. Besides the comparison, the research establishes the relative value of medical services, drugs, medical devises in use, diagnostic tests as well as the diagnostic procedures that are adopted for strategic control of costs. The concept of value as used in the clinical services context brings together the costs and the clinical effectiveness. The cost effectiveness analysis is a basic tool that helps analysts evaluates and put the comparisons in perspective (Gluck, nd, 1-2).

The QAYL (quality adjusted year of life) provides such a tool through which this analysis would be done to evaluate the relative costs effectiveness of an adopted practices or health procedure as compared to a unit of health benefit (in this case an extra year of life). The essence of clinical service is to lender services that will produce satisfaction to the clients who are receiving them. Customer satisfaction may be required in order to assess the effectiveness of the practitioners’ services as well as the cost effectiveness implication by the practices.

The level of customer satisfaction within the health practice is a critical indicator of the quality of the health care accorded. Through customer satisfaction, the profit-making health practitioners are in a position to attract more customers and thus raise the profit marginIn the event that customers do not receive satisfactory services, the health practitioners are tasked to alter the management and practice mechanisms in order to promote customer satisfaction. Among other means through which customers show satisfaction is through direct appreciation to the practitioners, the willingness to pay higher costs for the services rendered or even reduced rates of recurrent cases within the extended system of health care.

The ways through which nurses influence customer satisfaction is through offering services to customers with respect and through personal touch to the patient by which they are in a position to understand the customer needs and in the process offer the required services accordingly. Privacy is a basic requirement for customers’ satisfaction and thus the provision of such by the nurses goes a long way in influencing customer satisfaction. Regular checkups also boost the customers’ confidence in the services being provided by the nurses and hence improve of their satisfaction.

Moreover, proper and effective communication as a basic tool for nursing practitioners results to customer satisfaction (Khan et al, 2007, 27-29). The intervention of nurses to patients in the process of attending to their needs have some associated outcomes. The nursing-sensitive outcomes therefore are the outcomes that come about because of the intervention by a nurse or they are somehow the resultant of the practice of the nurse in attending to the patient. The patient nursing-sensitive outcomes are those that improve with increased quantity/quality in attendance by a nurse and may be such as intravenous infiltration, falls as well as pressure ulcers.

There are however, other indicators such as the frequency of c-section, which are not related to nurses’ interventions and are such not classified under this category. In general view, certification of practicing nurses implies some general high level of expertise, skills as well as quality of nursing care. Our organization has been strategic in adopting means of tracking this improvement in the outcomes through hiring certified nurses. Highly skilled practicing nurses are very instrumental in recording and evaluation of the patient outcomes, which are associated to the nursing intervention.

Among other methods devised to improve on the ‘nursing-sensitive patient outcomes’ is by motivating practicing nurses through proper working environment to deliver high quality nursing services in friendliness. Through this, observable outcomes such as the rate of falls, the pressure ulcers and the intravenous infiltration lower as an indication of improved nursing performance (Krapohl et al 2010, 491) References . Gluck M.E. (nd). Incorporating Costs into Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Research insights. Retrieved from http://www.academyhealth.org/files/publications/ResearchInsightsCER.pdf Accessed on 19 June, 2013) Khan M. H. et al. (2007). Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care. Rawal MedicalJournal 32 (1), 27-29 Krapohl G.et al. (2010). NURSINGSPECIALTY CERTIFICATIONAND NURSING-SENSITIVE PATIENTOUTCOMESIN THEINTENSIVECAREUNIT. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRITICAL CARE, 19 (6), 491-498