DQ 1-1

DQ 1-1 responses

1.

The allied health care profession that I chose is a registered nurse. Registered nurses perform various services such as counseling, perform physical exams, administer medications, and direct and supervise care delivered by other healthcare personnel like LPNs and nurse aides (American Nurses Association, 2017). Nurses work in various facilities ranging from hospitals to schools. There are many organizations that serve registered nurses such as the American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. An area in which registered nurses can expand on is the amount of nurses that are employed. Nurses are experiencing a shortage due to a number of factors. The factors that are causing the shortage is a combination of an increased average age in RNs, a longer living population, and the population now being able to afford healthcare due to the recent healthcare reform (American Nurses Association, 2017). Having more people join the nursing force would allow nurses to provide more widespread care instead of nurses being spread thin among patients.

 References

American Nurses Association. (2017). Nursing Shortage. Retrieved from Nursing World: http://www.nursingworld.org/nursingshortage

American Nurses Association. (2017). What Nurses Do. Retrieved from Nursing World: http://www.nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/What-is-Nursing/Tools-You-Need/RNsAPNs.html

2.

    Pharmacists are medication specialists who can practice after obtaining their Doctor of Pharmacy degrees (Pharm.D.) (American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy [AACP], 2017). They are culturally competent healthcare professionals that communicate effectively and evaluate many factors affecting a patient’s ability to take a medication (AACP, 2017). They assist patients with access and information related to their prescription medications (Pharmacist Scope of Services, 2017). The obstacles they address include diet, lifestyle, transportation, and language barriers (AACP, 2017). "They perform health and wellness testing, manage chronic diseases and perform medication management, administer immunizations, and work in and partner with hospitals and health systems to advance health and wellness and helping to reduce hospital readmissions” (Pharmacist Scope of Services, 2017). Additionally, their roles include: dispensing prescription drugs, participating in drug and device selection, evaluating drug administration, and practicing telepharamcy (Albanese & Rouse, 2009). They are also responsible for compounding and labeling drugs and devices, implementing proper and safe storage of drugs and devices, and maintaining required records in case of audits (Albanese & Rouse, 2009).

            Pharmacists also play a key role in prevention and are licensed in their first month of pharmacy school to give immunizations (AACP, 2017). They also aid in prevention by offering “services such as asthma care, blood pressure monitoring services, cholesterol screening, diabetes disease management, smoking cessation consultation, bone density scans for osteoporosis screening, anticoagulation management clinics and more” (AACP, 2017). Overall, pharmacists are to continuously optimize “patient safety and quality of services through effective use of emerging technologies and competency-based training” in order to help people live healthier, better lives.  (Albanese & Rouse, 2009, p. 4).

            Pharmacists work in many places, which make them accessible in all healthcare settings, working in inpatient, ambulatory and community settings (AACP, 2017). Something that is amazing about pharmacists, is that they “are available to see patients at convenient times every day of the week, during morning, evening and weekend hours, and without an appointment,” which is why I chose the profession of pharmacy (AACP, 2017). They are available to give care any time of the day and patients have the greatest access to information from pharmacist because they can walk into any local or community pharmacy. Here are the following career options for a pharmacist: academia clinical practice, ambulatory care, association management, chain community pharmacy management, clinical specialists, community health center, compounding pharmacy, contact research organization, corporate management, government/federal pharmacy, home health care, health system pharmacy inpatient, health system pharmacy outpatient, independent community pharmacy, long term care, mail service, managed care, nuclear pharmacy, pharmaceutical industry sale and marketing, pharmacy law/regulation affairs/public policy, and specialty pharmacy (Career Option Profiles, 2017).

            One area which we need to improve in and expand is in dealing with the changing healthcare landscape caused by the expanding growth of specialty pharmaceuticals (Shay, Louden, and Kirschenbaum, 2015). The current structure of the health systems must be evaluated in regards to how they provide hospital-based specialty pharmacy services (Shay et al., 2015). The specialty pharmacy services have affected a wide variety of disease states, and have also dramatically enhanced clinical outcomes (Shay et al., 2015). But the problem is that the medications are expensive and so the solution is to develop a clear plan to implement in each organization so that they can sustain financial viability (Shay et al., 2015). Researchers state that “by focusing on developing a plan for specialty pharmaceuticals, the pharmacy director can help ensure the institution has prepared a strategy that is conservative, financially viable, and patient-centered” (Shay et al., 2015).

References

Albanese, N. P. and Rouse, M. J. (2009). Scope of contemporary pharmacy practice: roles, responsibilities, and functions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy, 1-38. Retrieved from http://www.amcp.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=9444

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). (2017). Retrieved from https://www.aacp.org/resource/top-ten-reasons-become-pharmacist

Career Option Profiles. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.pharmacist.com/career-option-profiles

Pharmacist Scope of Services. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.pharmacist.com/sites/default/files/files/APhA%20-%20PAPCC%20Scope%20of%20Services.pdf

Shay, B., Louden, L., and Kirschenbaum, B. (2015). Specialty Pharmacy Services: Preparing for a New Era in Health-System Pharmacy. Hospital Pharmacy, 50(9), 834–839. http://doi.org/10.1310/hpj5009-834

3. Define and reflect: Primum non Nocere

Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase which means, “first, do no harm” (Allahbadia, 2016, p. 72). To better explain this phrase, it can also be stated as, “given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good” (Allahbadia, 2016, p. 72). This phrase is used by clinicians because it falls under one of the four principles of biomedical ethics, which are, respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice (Beauchamp & Childress, 1994; Mohr & Kettler, 1997). All healthcare providers should follow the respect for autonomy which means self-determination, non-maleficence which means do no harm, beneficence which means to act in the best interest of the patient, and justice which means to be fair (Beauchamp & Childress, 1994). The principle of nonmaleficence incorporates the principles of primum non nocere because they both mean that we should “avoid anything that might have negative consequences” toward our patients (Mohr & Kettler, 1997, p. 254).

References Allahbadia, G. N. (2016). Primum Non Nocere. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of India, 66(2), 71–75. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13224-015-0799-1

Beauchamp, I L., & Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of biomedical ethics, (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Mohr, M., and Kettler, D. (1997). Ethical aspects of resuscitation. British Journal of Anesthesia, 79(2), 253—259.  https://doi.org/10.1093/bja/79.2.253