Patient Education and Cost Effective Health Care In Nursing Education
Healthcare Cost and Patient Economical Status
The growth of managed care has resulted in shifts in reimbursement for healthcare services. Greater emphasis is placed on outcome measures, many of which can be achieved primarily through the health education of clients.Health providers are recognizing the economic and social values of reaching out to communities, schools, and workplaces, all settings where nurses practice, to provide public education for disease prevention and health promotion.
Importance of Patient Health Education and Cost Effectiveness
Politicians and healthcare administrators alike recognize the importance of health education to achieve the economic goal of reducing the high costs of health services. Political emphasis is on productivity, competitiveness in the marketplace, and cost containment measures to restrain health service expenses.Health professionals are becoming increasingly concerned about malpractice claims and disciplinary action for incompetence.
Continuing education, either by legislative mandate or as a requirement of the employing institution, has come to the forefront in response to the challenge of ensuring the competence of practitioners. It is a means to transmit new knowledge and skills as well as to reinforce or refresh previously acquired knowledge and abilities for the continuing growth of staff. Nurses continue to define their professional role, body of knowledge, scope of practice, and expertise, with client education as central to the practice of nursing.
Health Education as Demand of Patient
Consumers are demanding increased knowledge and skills about how to care for themselves and how to prevent disease. As people are becoming more aware of their needs and desire a greater understanding of treatments and goals, the demand for health information is expected to intensify: The quest for consumer rights and responsibilities, which began in the 1960s, continues into the 21st century.
An increasing number of self help groups exist to support clients in meeting their physical and psycho social needs. The success of these support groups and behavioral change programs depends on the nurse's role as teacher and advocate.Demographic trends, particularly the aging of the population, require nurses to emphasize self-reliance and maintenance of a healthy status over an extended life span.
As the percentage of the US. population older than age 65 years rises dramatically in the next 20 to 30 years, the healthcare needs of the baby boom generation of the post World War II era will increase as this vast cohort deals with degenerative illnesses and other effects of the aging process.In addition, millions of incidents of medical harm occur every year in US hospitals. Clearly, it is imperative that clients, nursing staff, and nursing students be educated about preventive measures to reduce these incidents.
Health Care Cost for Chronic Diseases
The increased prevalence of chronic and incurable conditions requires that individuals and families become informed participants to manage their own illnesses. Patient teaching can facilitate an individual's adaptive responses to illness and disability. Advanced technology increases the complexity of care and treatment in home and community based settings. More rapid hospital discharge and more procedures done on an outpatient basis force patients to be more self-reliant in managing their own health.
Patient education assists the following min through with self management activities independently. Healthcare providers increasingly recognize client health literacy as an essential skill to improve health outcomes nationwide. Nurses must attend to the education needs of their patients and families to be sure that they adequately understand the information required for independence in self-care activities that promote, maintain, and restore their health.
Many healthcare providers believe and this belief is supported by research that client education improves compliance and, hence, health and well being. Better understanding by patients and their families of the recommended treatment plans can lead to increased cooperation, decision making, satisfaction, and independence with therapeutic regimens. Health education enables patients to solve problems. they encounter outside the protected care environments of hospitals, thereby increasing their independence.
Use of Technology for Patient Education
The use of online technologies in nursing education programs is increasing. Nurses are expected to have the critical thinking skills needed to identify problems, conduct research on problems encountered, and apply new knowledge to address these problems. Also, nurses are expected to have familiarity with computerized charting and electronic health) information records. Nursing informatics is becoming highly important in the paperless world of patient care, and nurse educators are beginning to address the gap in skills.
With respect to electronic data collection and analysis that nursing students and staff face in the practice settings.The fields of genetics and genomics, as included in the holistic approach of nursing practice, are providing patients with more options to consider for screenings, procedures, and therapies to obtain optimal health. The United States and Europe have established core competencies in genetics and genomics for nurses to support the development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes in the delivery of safe comprehensive care.
Nurses recognize the need to develop their expertise in teaching to keep pace with the demands of patient, staff, and student education. As they continue to define their role, body of knowledge, scope of practice, and professional expertise, they are realizing, more than ever before, the significance of their role as educators. Nurses have many opportunities to carry out health education.
They are the healthcare providers who have the most continuous contact with clients, are usually the most accessible source of information for the consumer, and are the most highly trusted of all health professionals. In Gallup polls conducted since 2001. Nurses have continued to be ranked number 1 for 15 consecutive years in honesty and ethical standards (McCafferty, 2002; Olshansky, 2011; Riffkin , 2014: Saad, 2008; Williamson, 2016).
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