Analysis of the Pertinent Healthcare Issue-The COVID-19 Pandemic
Section One: Analysis of the Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Healthcare institutions have a legal and moral obligation to provide quality healthcare to patients and people in need. Healthcare facilities should be adequately equipped with staff, equipment, and finances to accomplish this objective (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Employment concerns should be kept to a minimum to maintain optimal employment partnerships. However, due to higher employment problems, this vision of a working environment is usually speculative. Many concerns are so prevalent that they are considered national healthcare problems or stressors (Marshall, 2010). This paper will address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare environment as a national healthcare problem having a negative impact on performance effectiveness and possible intervention programs suggested in scholarly articles.
COVID-19 and the Impact on the Healthcare Organization
The COVID-19 pandemic brings to light the massive worldwide disparities and difficulties we all face. The attention on COVID-19 in healthcare facilities drastically decreased overall accessibility to standard medical services. Some facilities limited or stopped providing quality health services or were stressed with treating COVID-19 patients with acute signs and symptoms of respiratory diseases (Cui & Lee, 2020). The key result is that several countries’ healthcare services have been entirely or partially interrupted. Many surveyed countries (53%) have partially or completely interrupted care for hypertension management; 49 percent have interrupted treatment services for diabetes and complications related to diabetes; 42 percent have disrupted cancer treatment services; and 31 percent for cardiovascular disease emergency services. Rehabilitation care has been interrupted in nearly two-thirds (63%) of the countries, even though rehabilitation is critical to a successful recovery following the COVID-19 illness (Cui & Lee, 2020).
The pandemic’s fast-spreading rate posed problems for healthcare organizations. It compelled healthcare practitioners to deal with medical and non-medical stressors such as a lack of personal protective equipment, morbidity and mortality affiliated with COVID-19, the worries of infecting friends and family, and the actuality of losing workmates to the illness. Previous outbreak evidence and initial proof from the COVID-19 outbreak imply that such occurrences have considerable long-term and short-term consequences on healthcare workers’ mental health. Some healthcare organizations developed short-term and long-term programs to support employees’ mental health during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.
For example, in my organization, due to the increased COVID-19 cases, we were compelled to use the initial outdated ICU, which lacked storage, enough working space, essential supplies, and equipment for patient care. Besides, there was an increased workload that led to nurse burnout. Moreover, the organization transferred nursing staff from regulated areas to other fields such as ICUs to fight shortages and increase patient capacity. As a result, this exacerbated stress by putting non-ICU nursing staff in an unfamiliar environment where they lacked sufficient qualifications and skills to care for ICU patients.
Review of COVID-19 from Two Scholarly Articles
According to Jiang et al. (2021), for healthcare systems, COVID-19 is catastrophic. The impact of COVID-19 on health services and other contagious and noncommunicable illnesses was studied. The study recorded that during the COVID-19 pandemic, most worldwide healthcare resources, including ventilation systems, protective equipment, and health professionals, were directed toward the preventative measures, control, and therapeutic interventions of COVID-19. This was especially true in the epicenters of disease outbreaks in various countries, resulting in a lack of medical resources and a significant burden on health systems. The scarcity of healthcare resources contributed to increased COVID-19 morbidity and all-cause death rates. Besides, communicable diseases co-epidemics overstretched health services, for instance, the co-epidemics of dengue fever and COVID-19 and co-epidemics of flu and COVID-19. Patients with noncommunicable illnesses, such as diabetes, faced significant stress due to the interruption of medical care and the increased risk of death following the pandemic (Jiang et al., 2021). Elective healthcare treatments were also canceled globally to combat COVID-19. Another issue that both patients and healthcare providers faced was mental health problems.
Moreover, according to Ardebili et al. (2021), the COVID-19 pandemic prompted significant adverse changes in healthcare professionals’ work and personal lives. The findings revealed that participants encountered different emotions and progression as the pandemic unfolded. Some of the challenges faced by the healthcare providers were increased workload, ambiguity, loss of confidence and control over the pandemic, shortage of PPEs, self-quarantine, remorseful and death feelings, and anxiety of disease transmission to their family members (Ardebili et al., 2021). Consequently, the problems lead to the manifestation of mental health problems among healthcare providers.
Possible Interventions and their Implications in Practice
Possible interventions should include the provision of adequate healthcare resources to healthcare personnel; there should also be the establishment of a quick, reliable national healthcare support system. In addition, to combat the pandemic, a multidisciplinary team should be established to help in decreasing the workload (Jiang et al., 2021). Besides, health systems should provide protective equipment and financial support to healthcare providers. Moreover, counseling and personal mental health care to the healthcare staff are vital to helping combat the psychological and physical pressures healthcare providers face and are currently facing due to the consequences of the pandemic (Ardebili et al., 2021).
The proposed interventions in practice will imply that effective quality care will be provided to patients. A safe working environment will also be provided to healthcare providers and patients; hence, mortality rates and mental health problems will be reduced. Besides, there will be a reduced workload; hence, patients will receive quality services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the healthcare system should develop strategies to support those handling the consequences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As proposed by the two articles, strategies should include mental health programs and PPEs, training more healthcare staff, and providing a safe working environment. Therefore, a timely strategy for the pandemic can transform the lives of many healthcare practitioners and patients.
Section Two: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices
Competing Needs Impacting the COVID-19 Pandemic in Healthcare
The need for enough qualified professionals to provide nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the need for enough appropriate equipment and a safe environment for the healthcare personnel in the workplace to use the educational skills, are two competing necessities affecting the organization’s COVID-19 pandemic in the healthcare setting. For reskilling the health sector, the company has an insufficient number of qualified professionals. The capacity to retrain the nurses required to curb the pandemic may be hampered by a scarcity of skilled experts. As a result, the organization has a competing need to obtain more specialists to close the gap and ensure that the company has sufficient professionals and is training the organizational nurses regularly (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The other competing requirement is the necessity for the availability of enough right equipment and a safe work environment for healthcare personnel during the pandemic. However, the right equipment can be complicated because it involves a lot of investing, suppliers, and even money. The diversity of safe healthcare equipment such as PPEs requires professionals and practitioners with the required expertise, competency, and ability to give high-quality care. As a result, the healthcare facility must invest in safety equipment and qualified professionals capable of providing high-quality care while meeting regulatory and legal specifications and sustaining a competitive edge over other healthcare institutions.
Practice Influencing the Stressor
The need for administrative nursing staff to regularly participate in continued professional growth is a policy and practice that can influence enough skilled professionals to provide nursing education that will be useful during crises such as the COVID-19 crisis. Nursing staff in the healthcare sector are also expected to attend all institutional training conferences and workshops to improve their competencies and skills. The nursing workforce must continuously update their professional expertise, knowledge, practice, and principles to deliver maximum quality care and meet shifting healthcare demands (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). As a result, our company has a policy requiring all healthcare nursing staff to participate in formal or informally continuous professional growth. The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, particularly regarding technology, emphasizing the importance of policy.
The Policy for Ethical Considerations, The Policy’s Strengths and Challenges
The policy encourages administrative nursing staff to advance their careers and additional skills. The healthcare staff is obligated to follow the relevant standards of practice and code of ethics on an ethical level. In addition, the policy mandates that all healthcare professionals in the organization participate in professional growth. As a result, the policy aids in creating a work environment in which all organizational employees have equal accessibility to develop their knowledge and skills, resulting in a positive and mentoring workplace (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). More notably, ethically, nursing staff must have the necessary skills to give high-quality care by the standards of practice.
The significant advantage of this policy is that it provides equality of opportunity for all organizational employees to enhance their competencies and skills. This policy has aided in developing healthy workplace relationships among nursing staff. This policy has also ascertained that the nursing staff does not give substandard care. Fortunately, there are no noticeable challenges facing the policy in promoting ethics.
Recommendation of Policy or Practice Changes to Balance the Competing Needs
A stricter policy regarding safety equipment, a safe working environment, and patient safety is required regarding implementing personal rights. Organizations are ethically obligated to strictly adhere to the code of individual rights and make sure that nobody’s right is disrespected, even when working during a disease crisis or outbreak. Implementation of the most up-to-date personal rights in response to being involved in the healthcare sector is one of the competing needs. As a result, policies addressing individual rights and a safe working environment must be implemented. Healthcare facilities are legally required to protect the rights of the nursing staff and patients to follow all applicable laws and regulations and provide enough equipment. Specifically, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) demands employers follow OSHA’s or a state’s OSHA-enacted state plan’s health and safety standards and rules (Michaels & Barab, 2020). Furthermore, in the Act’s General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), employers are obligated to have a workplace free of identified hazards that are likely to cause severe physical injury or death to their employees, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
Ardebili, M. E., Naserbakht, M., Bernstein, C., Alazmani-Noodeh, F., Hakimi, H., & Ranjbar, H. (2021). Healthcare providers experience of working during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study. American journal of infection control, 49(5), 547-554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2020.10.001
Cui, L., & Lee, D. (2020). Coaid: Covid-19 healthcare misinformation dataset. arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.00885. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2006.00885
Jiang, P., Klemeš, J. J., Fan, Y. V., Fu, X., & Bee, Y. M. (2021). More is not enough: It is crucial to understand the COVID-19 impacts on healthcare, energy, and the environment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(2), 684. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020684
Marshall, E. S. (2010). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. Springer publishing company.
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (Eds.). (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Michaels, D., & Barab, J. (2020). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration at 50: protecting workers in a changing economy. American journal of public health, 110(5), 631-635.
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Question 
Adding and revising to previous paper in order #45659.
Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:
Analysis of the Pertinent Healthcare Issue-The COVID-19 Pandemic
Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.