Capella 5003 Assessment 2

Interview of Healthcare Professional

Name:

Capella University

School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Capella University

NURS-FPX 5003 Assessment 2:

Health Assessment and Promotion for Disease Prevention in Population-Focused Health

Prof. Name:

Date

Interview of Healthcare Professional

Healthcare workers need to have a wealth of knowledge in order to give quality care to their patients. They must take care of all of the patient’s needs without judgment or bias. In today’s society, there are more people of different races, religions, gender preferences, and beliefs who need to be cared for in a safe environment by providers who treat the whole person, not just their physical problems. With the growing variety of patient concerns, it becomes more difficult to address all the needs of the patient.   

Healthcare Professional Point of View

Hannah Linenberger is an advanced practice registered nurse that treats patients at Kansas’s Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita, KS. She takes care of a wide variety of patients, from those with mental health issues to those who need to be cleared for an upcoming surgery. Hannah is from Connecticut, but she has lived in different places in the US during her time in healthcare. She started her career as a nurse in Intensive Care, taking care of patients with critical illnesses that required 1:1 care from nursing staff. She also has a good idea of what is expected of a healthcare provider not only from different cultural and religious aspect, but also from her personal experience as a bedside nurse. In our interview, we discuss the positive changes in VA health care, as well as the gaps in care and projects that are still in the planning stages.

Hannah described the changes she has witnessed in veterans’ health care since the beginning of the pandemic. The difficulties providers have faced when providing telehealth visits to patients in certain areas have proven difficult while trying to perform a thorough assessment of their physical and mental health. She explained that verbalizing issues and having open communication has become more important in telehealth visits because you are not able to read body language or physical signs as easily with only seeing the patient’s upper half or face during their appointment. Hannah is very passionate about providing the best patient care possible to her patients at the VA Medical Center. To her, communication is very important because that is how you are able treat a patient when not.

Veteran Healthcare Area of Concern

Hyper-masculinity and weak coping skills are two of the particular characteristics that Hannah mentions in relation to the veteran community. Masculinity, especially the culture of ‘Military Masculinity,’ is frequently defined as a barrier to military personnel expressing emotion. NURS-FPX 5003 Assessment 2. This kind of masculine construction, it is argued, makes emotion inherently troublesome in the military, exacerbates mental health problems, and serves as a barrier to the expression of anxiety, depression, and other challenging emotions (Olenick, Flowers & Diaz, 2015). This has a negative effect on people seeking support. The task for military mental health programs is not only to provide assistance, but also to make the support appropriate and available to soldiers.

            Veterans’ difficulties in learning coping skills can be due to their sensitivity to hyper-masculinity and the horrors of war. Increased masculinity built by war, combined with psychological and emotional wounds, makes it extremely difficult for veterans to transition into a non-violent culture. In his interview, Hannah claims that certain veterans who served in wars or conflicts, such as Vietnam, were not treated kindly and were not given the recognition they deserved. This was due to the stigma associated with the war/conflict. As a result, he emphasizes the importance of assisting veterans in developing effective and safe coping skills.

Barriers to Treating Patients

Eliminating the red tape that every veteran has to go through just to get the treatment they need and deserve is one of the aspects of veterans’ healthcare that Hannah said he would improve if he could. To respect and care for the men and women who fought in war, the VA was promoted to federal administration status in 1930 (Price et al., 2018). Despite its good intentions, the department has been plagued with issues for years. Elevated and contradictory expenditure, complaints of insufficient healthcare services, a large backlog of compensation claims, and a top leadership position that no one seems to be able to keep down have all been reported against the VA.

            As a result, many veterans are enduring months, if not years, of waiting for an appointment at their VA treatment center. According to Price et al. (2018), the issue of appointment delay stems from physician and nurse shortages, which are entirely due to insufficient budgets. Veterans have died as a result of delayed treatment, with some being put on “hidden lists” designed to falsify patient wait times at VA facilities. According to Hannah, these issues have become so pervasive that VA services now only support stable veterans who live long lives. It is important for the government to raise budgetary allocations to the VA in order to remove these red tapes. The government may also choose to privatize the agency to improve its performance and transparency to the citizens it represents.

Improving Communication between Patients and Providers

Hannah’s plan for taking care of her patients is to have open communication between providers, community outreach programs, and, most importantly, the patient. This makes sure that everyone is accountable and also improves patient care. Patients also have the right to have their communication needs met based on how well they understand, what language they speak, or any disability they may have. (Patak, 2009) This is one example of providing CLAS standards. By providing services that are respectful of the individuals beliefs, practices, languages, and communication needs the provider is following the Culturally and linguistically appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. This outline helps the provider aim for improving health care quality, which includes the delivery of care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. (Office of Minority Health) quality healthcare Hannah uses a lot of different avenues to meet her patient’s needs. Many healthcare sites use telehealth, translators, language line options, clergy of different faiths, and things like dry-erase boards to help patients who have trouble speaking communicate. There are a lot of choices, and they all depend on what the patient needs. (Coiera, 2006). This meets the CLAS standards, shows that care is respectful and high-quality, and gives access to many ways to talk and help with language. (CLAS National Standards, 2021) Hannah prefers for her patient to repeat back information and instructions so she can verify the patient understands the subject matter. This helps her determine how well the provider and patient communicate to each other. At the moment, the VA medical center gives patients written information in several different languages and offers translation services when they need them. They can also send reminders by email, text message, phone call, or to a physical address if a patient prefers a different way to get in touch. Hannah agrees that most of her patients over 40 have high blood pressure, and that this is becoming a bigger worry for her patients’ long-term health. Hannah says that this is caused by a general lack of control over diet, stress, level of activity, and genetics. Due to the increasing severity and number of cases of hypertension in the veterans she cares for, she has sent a few of her patients to doctors who can give them better care than she can.

NURS-FPX 5003 Assessment 2

During our talks, many different examples were given of how the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center is aligning with CLAS standards and how this has or will improve the health of their patients. By meeting and going above and beyond the CLAS standards, a health care facility will be able to give its patients good, detailed care. They can meet the CLAS expectations by giving patients different avenues for communication and keeping in touch with them, as well as by creating a way for staff to learn about and provide care that meets the standards and is always getting better. The VA medical centers seem to be very good at getting people to talk to each other and getting rid of barriers so that patients can get the best care possible. They offer many ways to get information and follow up with patients who are scheduled. Patients get reminders in a few different ways, and in some places, they can get help getting to their appointments (LaVela SL 2012).

Hundreds of thousands of organizations have donated billions of dollars to help veterans and their families, and millions of volunteers have donated countless hours. (Nonprofits Source, 2022) The government has made an even greater commitment, offering a variety of benefits to those returning from war, including schooling, health care, and job-training programs, as well as home loans. The willingness to assist veterans expresses appropriate appreciation for the support provided and the sacrifices made. Since we know we owe our veterans a great debt, Olenick, Flowers, and Diaz (2015) argue that we don’t doubt how our government goes about supporting them. As a result, we devote far less attention to whether these actions are potentially harming rather than helping. However, Hannah believes that working closely with veterans to develop a policy that works for them is the most effective way to address some of the persistent issues that veterans face in the United States.

Veterans represent a wealth of knowledge, experience and ideas, but they are often underutilized. Veterans’ participation in the decision-making process not only helps them to contribute to the progress of implementing solutions to their long-standing issues, but it also allows them to express their views, concerns, and experience with others. Veterans’ perspectives open a dialogue that has the ability to strengthen veterans’ interactions with the general public. Aside from that, fostering an inclusive atmosphere in which veterans can easily address some of the perennial issues they face helps them create a sense of belonging, which allows them to bring their unique perspectives to the table (Inclusion Equals Innovation: How Our Diverse Workforce Offers Better Care, 2022).

Final Thoughts on Improvement Initiatives

All forms of healthcare can encounter obstacles when treating patients. The VA is no different. Hannah described the struggles she faces getting resources to the veterans in Kansas’s rural areas. Hannah as well as the facility staff try to coordinate assistance for each patient equally. Overall, the Robert J. Dole VA medical center is making headway when treating their patients inclusively. Even with all of the obstacles faced in healthcare, there are always avenues of improvement to be found. The providers and nursing staff are spearheading the innovation and changes in healthcare, but without the patients that need care none of these things would be possible.  

References

Patak, L., Wilson-Stronks, A., Costello, J., Kleinpell, R. M., Henneman, E. A., Person, C., & Happ, M. B. (2009). Improving patient-provider communication: a call to action. The Journal of nursing administration, 39(9), 372–376. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0b013e3181b414ca          

 Olenick, M., Flowers, M., & Diaz, V. J. (2015). US veterans and their unique issues: enhancing health care professional awareness. Advances in medical education and practice, 6, 635.

Coiera E. (2006). Communication systems in healthcare. The Clinical biochemist.             Reviews, 27(2), 89–98.

Inclusion equals innovation: How our diverse workforce offers better care. (2022, September 23). VA News. https://news.va.gov/107876/inclusion-equals-innovation-diverse-workforce/

LaVela, S. L., Schectman, G., Gering, J., Locatelli, S. M., Gawron, A., & Weaver, F. M. (2012). Understanding health care communication preferences of veteran primary care users. Patient education and counseling, 88(3), 420–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2012.06.004

National CLAS Standards

National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care

National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards. (2021). Think Cultural Health. https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas/standards

Nonprofits Source. (2022, December 14). 2022 Charitable Giving Statistics, Trends & Data: The Ultimate List of Charity Giving Stats. https://nonprofitssource.com/online-giving-statistics/

Office of Minority Health

            https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53

Price, R. A., Sloss, E. M., Cefalu, M., Farmer, C. M., & Hussey, P. S. (2018). Comparing quality of care in Veterans Affairs and non-Veterans Affairs settings. Journal of general internal medicine, 33(10), 1631-1638.