Presentation: Healthcare policies assignment

Presentation: Healthcare policies assignment

Overview

Create a 15-minute oral presentation (3 pages) that examines the moral and ethical issues related to triaging patients in an emergency room.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

· Competency 1: Explain the effect of health care policies, legislation, and legal issues on health care delivery and patient outcomes.

. Explain the health care policies that can affect emergency care.

. Recommend evidence-based decision-making strategies nurses can use during triage.

· Competency 3: Apply professional nursing ethical standards and principles to the decision-making process.

. Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when following hospital policies and protocols.

. Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions.

· Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with expectations of nursing professionals.

. Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

. Correctly format citations and references using APA style.

Context

Working in an emergency room gives rise to ethical dilemmas. Due to time restraints and the patient’s cognitive impairment and lack of medical history, complications can and do occur. The nurse has very little time to get detailed patient information. He or she must make a quick assessment and take action based on hospital protocol. The organized chaos of the emergency room presents unique ethical challenge, which is why nurses are required to have knowledge of ethical concepts and principles.

Questions to consider

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.

· How does a triage nurse decide which patient gets seen first?

· How does health disparity affect the triage nurse’s decision making?

· What ethical and moral issues does the triage nurse take into account when making a decision?

· What are triage-level designations?

Resources

· Tingle, J., & Cribb, A. (Eds.). (2014).  (4th ed.). Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

· Cranmer, P., & Nhemachena, J. (2013). . Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

· Aacharya, R. P., Gastmans, C., & Denier, Y. (2011). . B MC Emergency Medicine, 11(1), 16–29.

· Guidet, B., Hejblum, G., & Joynt, G. (2013).  Intensive Care Medicine, 39(11), 2044–2046.

· Kangasniemi, M., & Haho, A. (2012). . Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 26(4), 803–810.

· Gastmans, C. (2013). . Nursing Ethics, 20(2), 142–149.

· Domagala, S. E., & Vets, J. (2015). . Journal of Emergency Nursing, 41(4), 313–316.

Internet Resources

Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

· American Nurses Association. (2015). . Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/

· American Nurses Association. (2016). . Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/official-position-statements/id/the-nurses-role-in-ethics-and-human-rights/

· Vigil, J. M., Alcock, J., Coulombe, P., McPherson, L., Parshall, M., Murata, A., & Brislen, H. (2015). . PLoS One, 10(5). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024515

Assessment instructions

Your supervisor has asked you to do a 15-minute oral presentation at a staff meeting about a recent issue that occurred at another hospital in town. Following an industrial accident, two patients arrived at the emergency room of that hospital at the same time, presenting with very similar inhalation injuries. The hospital received a great deal of negative press due to how the patients were triaged in the ER. Your supervisor would like you to use the specifics of this case to review triage procedures and best practices at your facility. Here are the details:

· One is a 32-year-old firefighter, Frank Jeffers, who is presenting with respiratory difficulties that he obtained while evacuating victims of an industrial accident. He is a married homeowner and father of two young boys. He has lived in the community all his life. He has full and comprehensive health insurance through his employer.

· The other is Brent Damascus, a 58-year-old man. Brent is presenting with respiratory difficulties with the same intensity as Mr. Jeffers above. He is well known at the hospital emergency room, as he is a frequent visitor with various complaints, including asthma, headaches, and tremors. He is homeless, unemployed, and uninsured. He stays many nights at the YMCA and eats lunch at the soup kitchen. He has lived in the community for over 10 years and has been arrested several times for petty theft.