Introduction
Coronavirus disease is one of the most pressing and severe health issues that registered nurses face in their practice nowadays. COVID-19 treatment necessitates the use of novel methods and strategies. Unfortunately, these strategies are not as effective as they could be in terms of providing a complete cure for both the disease and the complications that it causes. Hence, actions, measures, policies, and strategies for eliminating the infectious disease affecting a person should be specific. As such, this paper considers the particular condition of an older woman with coronavirus’s main signs and symptoms. Moreover, the presence of the disease in this individual is confirmed by a positive coronavirus test result. The patient is suffering from a fever, a cough, a loss of smell, and taste sensations. Furthermore, the woman complains of extreme tiredness, lack of strength, and headaches. To address the patient’s issue, several health care technologies, care coordination, and community resources can be used.
Main body
The first step of determining the solutions for the patient is to analyze the impact of health care technologies on the coronavirus problem. As such, Islam et al. (2020) claim that wearable technology can help in these areas by enabling real-time remote monitoring, symptom prediction, and contact tracking. These devices are expected to give first therapy to slow the spread of the pandemic. For example, “accelerometer-based sensors, triboelectric sensors, and wearable strain gauge sensors are used to measure the RR [respiration rate] and provides satisfactory results” (Islam et al., 2020, p. 319). Real-time and continuous RR evaluation is critical for monitoring the present state, progression, and therapy of COVID-19-infected individuals. However, Rubulotta et al. (2020) highlight the disadvantage of the technology: it is expensive, and clinics do not have enough resources to provide it. Thus, although wearable devices are helpful in the treatment, they are not the most available option.
The evidence discussed above is consistent with the technology used in my nursing practice. Namely, wearable technology is becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of people as well as in the healthcare business. I have observed the use of similar devices for the prevention and treatment of other illnesses. For example, I have faced this technology as a solution for the issue of falls in elderly patients. The monitors that patients can care with them immediately report the critical parameters of appropriate health indicators, such as heart rate. After that, they inform a nurse or a close person of the patient. The devices seem to be quite effective in reducing the risks of complications when a person already has health problems.
Yet, as was mentioned, there are potential barriers and costs associated with the use of wearable technologies. Specifically, the patients can experience difficulties with acknowledging the principles of work of such devices as “respiration rate, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation” monitors (Islam et al., 2020, p. 318). However, this barrier can be overcome after proper instruction with communication strategy is applied. Next, the devices might be costly to provide for patients who attend public health institutions. Yet, the facilities could use financial support from the government or other stakeholders to enhance this situation. The mentioned technologies could be applied in the case of the old woman with COVID-19. If she has insurance, it should probably cover the costs of the devices. In turn, a fever and a cough of the patient could be thoroughly monitored with the use of respiration rate and temperature measuring devices. Thus, it would be ensured that the woman’s situation does not worsen, and appropriate help would be provided in case of complications.
Care coordination can be used to also address the patient’s issue. As such, care coordination attempts to ensure that individuals have a prominent role in their care. As the coronavirus pandemic has caused a burden on the global health service, care coordination is becoming more and more significant in improving the adaptability of medical systems, assisting clinicians, and guaranteeing that these patients receive the appropriate treatment and quality of care. Sloane et al. (2021) mention several benefits of this approach organized via networks. Firstly, the ability “to diagnose and manage COVID-19 patients at home as their symptoms emerge [results in] avoiding hospitalization as much as possible” (Sloane et al., 2021, p. 2). Second, the possibility “to discharge “recovered” patients to homecare … [supposes] freeing … critical care beds as possible for incoming patients” (Sloane et al., 2021, p. 2). However, evidence from Falconer et al. (2018) states that inadequate financing for health information technology, inadequate reimbursement strategies, restricted access to technologies, cultural obstacles, and poor electronic health records make the care coordination systems flawed. Hence, this approach is highly effective, but only if the infrastructure for its organization already exists.
As for the utilization of community resources, they are rather available for all patients. For example, Fields et al. (2020) found that the majority of patients had access to the technology required to communicate with their healthcare professionals. Access to a qualified clinician, on the other hand, should be enhanced to guarantee patient competency and comfort with self-management while using telehealth services. Moreover, clinical care teams are advised to expand access to telehealth services and provide more community resources to improve care access (Fields et al., 2020). Yet, Moghadas et al. (2020) highlight that hospital rooms, urgent care units, and ventilation systems are also critical community resources for the care of critically sick patients. Hence, it is argued that policies promoting self-isolation, such as paid sick leave, may postpone the epidemic’s peak, providing a window of opportunity for emergency mobilization to increase hospital capacity.
The care coordination networks are helpful in nursing practice since it makes the treatment easier for both patients and medical workers, which I have observed in my clinic. The prerequisites for this approach are now widespread and could be easily accessed. As for community resources, I can state that the nurses already employ various technologies to make the health facilities more obtainable by the ill people. Moreover, I agree that such resources as beds and rooms should be preserved for the most critical cases if coordination care allows the clinic to continue remote treatment of the patients that can cooperate.
Yet, there are barriers to the use of care coordination and community resources in the context of the discussed female client. Namely, the coordination might be somewhat complicated if the patient has little medical knowledge and cannot follow the instructions of the nurses appropriately. The same issue concerns the use of publically available technologies if the woman has no access or experience of using them.
Board nursing practice standards, policies, and legislation within the context of technology, care coordination, and community resources also have an impact on the treatment. As such, the US Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to create and regulate initiatives to improve quality of care, security, and reliability through the adoption of health IT, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and secure and private electronic medical exchange (HealthIT.gov, n.d.). Next, The Care Coordination Quality Measure for Primary Care is used as a conceptual framework for care coordination to address a vacuum in care coordination assessment by measuring people’s care coordination experiences in primary care settings (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, n.d.). Finally, there are prescriptions about the utilization of community resources that are present in the insurance plans of a person.
These standards and legislations inform my approach in the treatment of the woman with coronavirus as well. As such, the use of technologies should not violate the client’s privacy; the coordinated care messages should be in accordance with the requirements for it; the community resources should be provided to the patient if she needs them. In this way, the process of treatment would be legal and with regard to the standards that serve the purpose of guaranteeing the customer’s quality care.
Conclusion
To conclude, health care institutions have various beneficial options of care when applying technologies, coordinated care, and community resources. In the case of the discussed patient, wearable devices could be applied to control her health state. Moreover, coordinated care would help to free space in the hospital by communicating with the patient and providing remote care, which is also an effective way to reduce the utilization of community resources.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). Care coordination. Web.
Falconer, E., Kho, D., & Docherty, J. P. (2018). Use of technology for care coordination initiatives for patients with mental health issues: A systematic literature review. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 14, 2337–2349. Web.
Fields, J., Brown, M., Grismore, C., Badwan, Y., Claster, S., & Nugent, D. J. (2020). Critical telehealth and healthcare utilization during COVID-19 in sickle cell disease: CBO reach in understanding the patient experience. Blood, 136, 32–33. Web.
HealthIT.gov. (n.d.). Laws, regulation, and policy. Web.
Islam, M. M., Mahmud, S., Muhammad, L. J., Islam, M. R., Nooruddin, S., & Ayon, S. I. (2020). Wearable technology to assist the patients infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19). SN Computer Science, 1(6). Web.
Moghadas, S. M., Shoukat, A., Fitzpatrick, M. C., Wells, C. R., Sah, P., Pandey, A., Sachs, J. D., Wang, Z., Meyers, L. A., Singer, B. H., & Galvani, A. P. (2020). Projecting hospital utilization during the COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(16), 9122–9126. Web.
Rubulotta, F., Soliman-Aboumarie, H., Filbey, K., Geldner, G., Kuck, K., Ganau, M., & Hemmerling, T. M. (2020). Technologies to optimize the care of severe COVID-19 patients for health care providers challenged by limited resources. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 131(2), 351–364. Web.
Sloane, E. B., Gehlot, V., Wickramasinghe, N., & Silva, R. (2021). Using community care coordination networks to minimize hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. SoutheastCon 2021. Web.