Health_Care_Research

Health Care Research MHA 614: Policy Formation & Leadership in Health Organizations January 20, 2013 Health Care Research Health care research is important for many reasons. These reasons include influencing how health care services are delivered; consumers make decisions regarding health care; and health care professionals, such as doctors and nurses, practice medicine; as well as the development of health policy. However, according to Feldman, what research gets done, who does the research, and what findings are published are heavily influenced by “funders and their [research] review groups, and the journals that publish mental health research findings” (Feldman, 1999), although I believe that this can apply to health care in general. Recent research studies affect professional development for nurses. It is the findings of these studies that keep practicing nurses up to date when completing continuing education to keep our licenses current. Continuing professional development is a way to preserve quality standards of care, improve upon the health of our communities, and maintain an up to date group of health care professionals (Brown, Belfield, & Field, 2002). Discussion Research is important in improving how health care services are delivered. For example, the research used to compile the report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System by the Institute of Medicine in 1999 spurred health care systems to evaluate theirs practices and focus on patient safety. The report noted that “deaths due to medical errors were… upwards of 98,000 deaths per year” and that “half of adverse events that resulted in hospital deaths were due to preventable errors… primarily from system failures” (Wakefield & Maddox, 2000). The Institute of Medicine report also noted that “the health care industry lacks a systematic way of identifying, analyzing, and correcting unsafe practices… [and] clearly asserts that preventing errors requires redesigning the health care system at all levels to make it safer” (Wakefield & Maddox, 2000). As consumers of health, research is important to help us make informed decisions regarding health care. Research studies in regards to access, utilization, and costs are important to understand the role patients, as consumers, play in enhancing the quality of health care being provided (Longo & Patrick, 2001). As Garber noted, “Comparative effectiveness research is intended to provide better evidence to help patients, clinicians, purchasers, and policy makers make informed health care decisions” (Garber, 2011). Health care research is also important in the nursing field, as it guides nursing practice. Without the research, we wouldn’t have the policies in place that help guide us in areas of patient care such as infection control, and we wouldn’t know the best practices that should be in place to provide the best possible care to patients. For example, when the To Err is Human report came out, nurses implemented patient safety interventions such as nurse staffing and the organization of care, and made it their goal to “reduce the risk of injury or harm to patients from the structures or processes of care” (Thornlow, 2008). Nurses have an obligation to “minimize the likelihood of errors and maximize the likelihood that errors will be intercepted before or when they occur” (Thornlow, 2008) in an effort to promote patient safety. Just as research in medicine is important in how medicine is delivered and practiced, health care research is important to the development of health policy. Health care research that examines access to and quality of health care helps to improve public health and influences health policy and practice (Center for Health Care Research and Policy, 2012). For example, current reform is based on research that even though cost-sharing can reduce costs, services such as preventative health care should be excluded because it is one that is often forgone due to costs (Mechanic & McAlpine, 2010). Professional Development In order to stay employed as a nurse, we must be up to date on our licensure. In order to maintain nursing licensure, we have to complete 24 hours of continuing education, with one hour of mandatory state nursing law. The continuing education that must be completed is based on health care research, because current research influences how we practice nursing. Although I have never encountered Nursing Professional Development specialists in any long-term care facility I have worked at, I have worked with them while I was in nursing school. Also known as Clinical Nurse Educators, they can be found in many settings: in colleges, working with student nurses; and in the clinical setting, providing support to more experiences and new graduate nurses alike. These specialists “facilitate evidence-based practice; practice-based evidence; quality improvement with data collection, analysis, and synthesis; and, project management by bringing nursing research to the point of care” (Swihart, 2009). A study by Daley and Miller showed that home health nurses must by competent in “assessing and using physiologic data, assessing and using family and environmental data, initiating and monitoring therapeutic interventions and most significantly integrating data, interventions and context” (Daley & Miller, 1996). The implications of this study would help employees and educators have a foundation on which to teach skills necessary for home health care. Conclusion Health care research is important in every facet of health care. Although I am currently not working in the health care field, I feel that health care research has had an impact on what I have done as a nurse, and it has certainly impacted the maintenance of my nursing license. In home health care, I have learned that with more autonomy comes more responsibility and accountability, than working in a long-term care facility. References Brown, C. A., Belfield, C. R., & Field, S. J. (2002). Cost effectiveness of continuing professional development in health care: a critical review of the evidence. British Medical Journal, 324, 652-655. doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7338.652 Center for Health Care Research and Policy. (2012). Retrieved from http://chrp.org/ Daley, B. J., & Miller, M. (1996). Defining Home Health Care Nursing: Implications for Continuing Nursing Education. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 27(5), 228-237. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Feldman, S. (1999). Strangers in the night: Research and managed mental health care. Health Affairs, 18(5), 48-51. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Garber, A. R. (2011). How The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Can Best Influence Real-World Health Care Decision Making. Health Affairs, 30(12), 2243-51. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Longo, D. R., & Patrick, T. B. (2001). Consumer reports and health care information: A call for research. Journal of Health Care Finance, 28(1), 92-96. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Mechanic, D., & McAlpine, D. D. (2010). Sociology of Health Care Reform: Building on Research and Analysis to Improve Health Care. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Supp. Special Issue 51, S147-59. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Swihart, D. (2009, July 8). Nursing Professional Development: Roles and Accountabilities. Retrieved from Medscape: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/705515 Thornlow, D. K. (2008). Nursing Patient Safety Research in Rural Health Care Settings. Annual Review of Nursing Research, 26, 195-218. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Wakefield, M. K., & Maddox, P. J. (2000). Patient quality and safety problems in the U.S. health care system: Challenges for nursing. Nursing Economics, 18(2), 58-62. Retrieved from ProQuest Central