Nursing Role in Program Design and Implementation

Week 8 assignment Interview Transcript on Nursing Role in Program Design and Implementation

Interviewer: Share details about a healthcare program within your field of practice. Tell us about the program costs and project outcomes.

Interviewee: Our behavioral health department offers a full-day psychiatric partial inpatient program tailored for geriatric patients diagnosed with dementia. The program has specific age criteria and is available to anyone with any type of dementia diagnosis.

We provide transportation through our program van for clients who don’t have family available to give them a ride. The program runs from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM each day, offering both clinical and counseling services. Our social workers and counselors work closely with the clients, providing counseling and educational services for their families as well. We also have psychiatrists involved who admit clients and follow them throughout the program.

The primary goal of this program is to provide both clinical and nursing educational support to the patients and their families, offering short-term, intense treatments for behavioral disturbances associated with dementia. We aim to maintain the functional levels of our geriatric dementia patients and improve their quality of life. Additionally, we want to prevent patients from being admitted to the hospital due to acute psychotic episodes.

As for the exact numbers of participants, it's hard to say because the program’s costs are covered by Medicaid and Medicare, and it isn't billed separately. However, we’ve seen very positive outcomes, including a reduction in inpatient admissions and readmissions after patients have been stabilized. We've also had clients report that they’re able to engage in volunteer work while regularly attending the program.

Interviewer: Who is your target population?

Interviewee: Target population can be considered geriatric patients covered by Medicaid and Medicare, who are suffering from dementia. Clients are mostly referred by their PCP, primary psychiatrists, and inpatient social workers.

Interviewer: What role does the nurse play when it comes to the design of this healthcare program? Provide examples, if any.

Interviewee: when nurses provide feedback and input on the design of a program it can improve the quality of care and work environment of nurses (Cutcliffe, Travale, & Green, 2018). Nurses function in all the layers of the program, such as preadmission assessment, ongoing assessment, medication education and management, and as mediators to collaborate for occupational therapies and counselling services. Nurses assure that there is nursing care and a well-equipped nursing office always available for assessment and PRN medication administration.

Interviewer: What is your role in advocating for your program’s target population? Do you have input into design decisions? How else do you impact design?

Interviewee: Nurses would assure that client meet the requirement for admission in the program, adherence to the recommendations to the program to prevent relapses or acute inpatient admissions, and family member group therapy attendance to ensure coping and effective caregiver roles (Omura, Levett‐Jones, & Stone, 2019).

Interviewer: What is the nursing role in the implantation of the healthcare program? In regard to this role, what is the different between design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you illustrate with examples?

 Interviewee: Presence of a nurse in the program may prevent interruption of the flow of the program. This can be beneficial with quality improvement of the program. Nurses can cause decrease of costs as they are the mediators, collaborating with providers and floating information in the directions needed (Glasgow, Colbert, Viator, & Cavanagh, 2018). Nurses can help with after care and case management, as many demented clients would need transitioning in to the next level of care.

Interviewer: Who are healthcare team members that you believe are most paramount in implementing a program? Can you provide a reason to support your response?

Interviewee: Psychiatrist, psych counsellor, and psych nurse are the most needed members in the implementation of this program, as they are the brain of it. They have the academic background and knowledge to decide which clients would fit the program and how much they can benefit from it (Stichler, & Gregory, 2019). Psych nurses have the tool to qualify them for assessment of clients and their certain needs.  

References

Cutcliffe, J. R., Travale, R., & Green, T. (2018). Trauma-informed care: Progressive mental health care for the twenty-first century. In European psychiatric/mental health nursing in the 21st century: A person-centred evidence-based approach (pp. 103-122). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Glasgow, M. E. S., Colbert, A., Viator, J., & Cavanagh, S. (2018). The nurse‐engineer: A new role to improve nurse technology interface and patient care device innovations. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 50(6), 601-611.

Omura, M., Levett‐Jones, T., & Stone, T. E. (2019). Design and evaluation of an assertiveness communication training programme for nursing students. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(9-10), 1990-1998.

Stichler, J. F., & Gregory, D. (2012). Nurse leaders in healthcare design. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 42(6), 305-308.