Effects of Local, State and Federal Policies or Legislations
Local, state, and federal policies and regulations have a direct effect on my nursing scope of practice, within the context of care quality, patient safety, and cost to the system and individual. One of the effect of the federal policies on the scope of nursing practice is expanding the role of the nurses in patient care. The adoption of policies such as those expanding the roles of nurse practitioners in patient care increases the quality, safety and efficiency of care given to stroke patients. Policies such as independent practice authority for nurse practitioners reduce the costs incurred by patients due to increased availability of nurse practitioners to address the issue of physician shortages. Local, state and federal policies also influence the scope of practice of the nurses through their role in health policies. The recognition and expansion of the existing provisions of the roles of nurses in healthcare policies increases their policy advocacy roles in healthcare. The expansion also implies their increased role and autonomy in influencing the policies that are adopted at the state levels to enhance the safety, quality, and costs incurred by stroke patients and healthcare systems (Brom et al., 2018). Consequently, policies made at any level of government have a direct effect on the scope of nursing practice and cost, safety, and quality indicators of stroke care.
Proposed Strategies
A number of evidence-based practice strategies can be adopted to improve the quality of care, enhance safety, and reduce costs incurred by stroke patients and healthcare systems. One of the strategies is the adoption of health promotion and disease prevention strategies. Stroke is attributable to risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. An effective way to improve the quality of care, enhance safety, and reduce costs incurred by patients is by adopting health promotion initiatives. The provision of services such as screening facilitates early identification of individuals at risk of stroke and implementation of responsive interventions (Oza et al., 2017). Strategies such as health education and promotion of healthy lifestyles and behaviors can be implemented to mitigate the risks of stroke.
The other recommended strategy for prevention of stroke is antiplatelet therapy. Antiplatelet therapy is recommended for use in practice to reduce and prevent the risk of recurrent ischemic stroke and stroke in patients that are identified early before an episode. Nurses and other healthcare providers should consider factors such as cost, timing, effectiveness, safety, and patient preferences in selecting an appropriate antiplatelet therapy for stroke (Oza et al., 2017). Drugs such as aspirin and clopidogrel are recommended to prevent recurrent stroke episodes.
The other recommended strategy to improve the quality of care, enhance safety and reduce costs incurred by stroke patients and healthcare systems is the incorporation of healthcare technologies into the care process. Healthcare technologies such as telehealth can be incorporated to enhance care coordination between different providers involved in the care process. Telehealth would enable stroke patients and healthcare providers to interact remotely, manage effective stroke, and prevent its complications. Telehealth would also increase the self-management skills for patients and their families, hence, their coping with stroke. Telehealth has also been shown to reduce the costs incurred by patients as well as healthcare systems. The reduction in cost is attributed to the elimination of unnecessary hospital visits, hospitalizations, and complications (Bashir, 2020). Therefore, the use of telehealth should be considered for stroke patients discharged for home-based management and rehabilitation.
Conclusion
Stroke has adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of the affected patients and their significant others. Stroke also has enormous cost burden to the patients and healthcare systems. Board of nursing standards affects the safety, quality, and efficiency of care given to stroke patients. Local, state and federal policies also inform improvement interventions that nurses utilize in address the needs of stroke patients. Evidence-based practice interventions that can be used in reducing the impacts of stroke exist. Therefore, nurses and other healthcare providers should explore effective and efficient evidence-based practice interventions that can be adopted in their settings to improve the care outcomes of stroke patients.
References
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