Discussion Reply Week 6-2

Discussion Reply Week 6-2

REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION POST:

 

The COVID pandemic showed us that healthcare could utilize technology much more innovatively than we have in the past to reach patients that may otherwise lack the ability to physically interface with providers in person. Telemedicine or telepsych evaluations are becoming more commonplace as a tool for providers and patients to connect, especially in mental health and behavioral health evaluation and treatment planning as there are mental health provider deserts across the country. Barriers to access care for rural communities or other underserved patient populations (Lawton, 2010). Access to secure internet and HIPPA compliance is a risk factor associated with data safety and legislation is slow to keep up with technological advances (Lawton, 2010).

        Patient engagement will help consumers and stakeholders have positive outcomes in their treatment plans. Providers must educate their consumers regarding health literacy and which tools are available to increase self-empowerment over their own healthcare (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Mobile Applications are tools that patients and health consumers can use to engage in their own healthcare and become health literate (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Mobile apps such as mychart are powered by EPIC. Patients have expressed that having access to their healthcare information in one place helps them feel like they have more control, involvement and understanding of what their care consists of and how they can be empowered through health literacy. This gives consumers a sense of involvement in a situation that is often scary and eases a feeling of helplessness (Epic Systems Corporation, 2022).

        Having regulated and standardized mobile applications for patients and healthcare providers alike to be able to access is a must. Healthcare consumers use the internet for health literacy and there are many unreliable sources of information (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Health and wellness are positively impacted when patients are properly informed using credible sources. Clinicians need to become involved in the development of and self-education regarding reliable yet easy to understand internet resources for health literacy (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Nurses need to use our collective power in numbers to increase our presence in the political and legislative arena to make changes in healthcare policy that we know are needed. Even with the increasing advent of telehealth, APRN’s still have barriers to overcome to be able to treat across state lines and to the fullest of their scope of practice. A lot of nurses do not know how to get involved in healthcare policymaking, but this is a vital and often overlooked power that we have as a profession to enact change (Milstead & Short).

 

FYI 2 OUT OF THE 3 SOURCES HAVE TO BE FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST: