Polypharmacy is a common concern, especially in the elderly. List the definitions of polypharmacy you encounter in your readings. There is more than one. Discuss three risk factors that can lead to polypharmacy. Explain the rationale for why each listed item is a risk factor. This is different than adverse drug reactions. ADRs can be a result of polypharmacy, and is important, but ADRs are not a risk factor. Discuss three action steps that a provider can take to prevent polypharmacy...

Improving the quality of health care delivery and patient safety continues to be a political concern and has been at the heart of reform issues for many years. The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have increased awareness of health care quality and safety issues, as well as advocated for health care reform. The documents featured at the ANA and IOM websites listed in this week’s Learning Resources focus on many of the current issues surrounding quality and sa...

When seeking to lessen behavioral risk factors in different populations, one of the greatest challenges is addressing the systemic issues within the population that enable the risky behavior to occur in the first place. Consider the health risks of school-age children not being immunized or drug users sharing needles. As Dr. Beilenson discussed in the Week 4 media program, these risky behaviors led to increases in individual and population health problems. Thus, when planning health prevention p...

To effectively develop policies and programs to improve population health, it is useful to use a framework to guide the process. Different organizations and governmental agencies (for example, Healthy People 2020) have created a variety of such frameworks, which establish measures for assessing population health. These measures frequently are derived from the examination of epidemiologic data, which include key measures of population health such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, etc. Wit...

Discussion: Financing of Health Care With coinciding concerns about health care costs and the imperative to improve quality of care, health care providers and others face difficult decisions in the effort to achieve an appropriate balance. Such decisions often are addressed in the policy arena. How do policymakers evaluate which health care services should be financed through government programs? How do ethics-related questions and other considerations play into this evaluation process? Is it...

To complete: For the Part 1 application (approximately 3–4 pages of content with a title page and references in APA format) address the following: Describe your selected population health issue and the population affected by this issue. Summarize the two advocacy campaigns you researched in this area. Explain the attributes that made those campaigns effective. Begin to develop a plan for a health advocacy campaign that seeks to create a new policy or change an existing policy wi...

Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform As health care delivery in the United States continues to evolve, either through mandates, improved technologies and training, or other drivers, nurses remain at the forefront in facilitating the success of new initiatives. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee of experts to address the following question: “What roles can nursing assume to address the increasing demand for safe, high-quality, and effective health care services?” In the f...

The Role of Government in the U.S. Health Care System As stated in the course text, Health Care Delivery in the United States, “the health care enterprise is one of the most important parts of the U.S. social system and of our economic system as well” (Kovner and Knickman, 2011, p. 4); however, with millions of citizens uninsured, rising costs, massive health disparities, and the need to improve quality and access, many view health care as a broken system. As such, it continues to be a signif...

The purpose of this assignment is to Provide learners with the opportunity to disseminate evidence-based practice to colleagues in the healthcare environment. Provide learners with the opportunity to communicate a scholarly project in a professional manner Due Date Submit to two places by 11:59 p.m. MT Sunday of Week 7 Week 7 Assignment Submission Week 8 Threaded Discussion; as designated Total Points Possible: 200 Requirements After completion of the Capstone Proj...

Reflect upon the Capstone Project and identify the contributions it has made to your professional development and attainment of career goals.  Solution: With the constant advancement in the healthcare sector, the capstone project course has become highly pivotal in personal and professional nurse development for the advancement of their careers (Rogers & Education, 2017). Reflecting on the capstone course, I can positively say that it has enabled me to advance my knowledge, skills, and exp...