Why does teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases remain high in the U.S.

What can  healthcare providers do that decrease the rate of teen pregnancy and STD’s in the US?

* These questions should be researched and incorporated in the body of the paper and answered.

This is my introduction already done.

Adolescent Sex

Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases continue to be an important healthcare issue in the 20^th century.  Although teen pregnancy rates have dropped there are still concerns and healthcare problems that are associated with teen pregnancy.   Often times they are afraid to discuss sex with their parents and deny will deny being sexually active at all.  There are problems that manifest with adolescent pregnancy for the mother and often times the infants as well.  The high school drop out rate among pregnant high school students is approximated at about 70 percent and is cited as the number reason teens drop out prior to graduation.  There is also an estimated $7 billion revenue cost associated with teen pregnancy in the United States alone.  The risk of young people engaging in early sexual intercourse is largely due to the lack of sexual education, peer pressure and social influences.

Chlamydial infection, gonorrhea, HIV/AIDS, primary and secondary syphilis, and hepatitis B virus infection are amid the highest reported STDs with chlamydia noted as the most dominate which is likely due to the fact that there is more vigorous testing.  Some of the other noted STDs are genital herpes, trichomoniasis, Chancroid, and HPV.  Often times and without any signs or symptoms present more than one pathogen is involved with sexually transmitted diseases. Typically the only environments in which there remain viable pathogens is the bodily fluids from the genitourinary tract requiring there to be intimate contact for them to be acquired.

Although it affects men and women chlamydia is predominately seen in young women and is the most common nationally known sexually transmitted disease in the U.S.  Bodily fluids from the genitourinary tract are typically the environments in which there remain viable pathogens, so intimate contact is generally required to obtain STDs.  Chlamydia infections are asymptomatic in most women and can be transmitted during childbirth with the potential of a newborn developing pneumonia as a complication.  If it is not treated chlamydia can spread to the uterus and fallopian tube creating further health problems and permanent damage to the reproductive system.

Teaching abstinence is the most affective way to prevent pregnancy and STDs but sexuality and curiosity of sex begins at a young age and exploration into sexuality is a natural part of personal development.  I feel it is our  role and responsibility as healthcare providers to provide adolescents and teens with the information and risk factors involved with having sex.  They need to be educated on contraceptives, pregnancy and STD prevention.

There is an urgent need for programs that adequately addresses the impacts of peer groups, social norms and the influences they have on an adolescents decision about having sex (Kalmuss, Davidson, Cohall, Laraque, & Cassell, 2011).  Evidence from the literature indicates that engaging in a comprehensive sex education which teaches both abstinence and contraception could lead to delayed initiation of and frequency of sex, a decrease in the number of partners and an increase in the use of contraception which may also lead to a reduction of adolescent and teen pregnancy (Basch, 2011).Providing such knowledge about pregnancy, sex, contraceptive use and STD will also provide a foundation and direction in making responsible choices.

2.  Building on what you wrote in Part 1 last week, locate, read, and write about the research and findings in two articles about your topic. These articles should have been published in the past two years in refereed nursing journals. Your paper should analyze, compare, and contrast the authors’ hypotheses, methods, and findings. In addition, you need to make revisions to Part 1 based on the feedback from your instructor, your readings, and/or discussions in class.

• Part 3: Synthesis of literature and proposal
• Part 4: Editing as needed and submission of the completed paper

For Part 3 of the research review paper, you will do a synthesis of the literature and create a research proposal.

Before you begin, review the overall assignment instructions from Weeks 1 and 2. Revise Parts 1 and 2 of your paper, as needed, on the basis of instructor feedback, new knowledge acquired in class, or discussion questions and/or additional readings.

Part 3 will probably be the most challenging part of the assignment, so allow yourself plenty of time to think about what you’ve read and develop an argument for further research. Using the knowledge gained from work on Parts 1 and 2, identify one research question that has not been investigated previously or that you would address in a different way than you’ve read about so far. This is sometimes known as gap analysis, in that you are looking for a gap in the existing body of knowledge where new research would contribute to an understanding of the issue in a way that could improve clinical practice for the nurse practitioner and improve patient outcomes.

Your research question must be clearly related to Parts 1 and 2. Be sure to state this clearly as a research question. Explain why you think this is a gap in existing research (relate directly to published research), its clinical relevance (why you think your specific research question is an important area to explore), and your ideas about research design (how you would conduct research to investigate it). Include a discussion of whether your question would lend itself to a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed design; why; and how you might be able to acquire participants for the study.

APA style with research less than 2 years old.

 Revison of 1st part with the questions inside the introduction and the litature research due by Tuesday at 9pm

 Research part:

Note:

Read the following requirements thoroughly, and write 1-2 pages paper on the instructions given below. Your paper must include headings before started each new section. You must include 3 scholarly references cited in APA. Your answer must be 100% original.

Requirements:

1.      Select one population and consider how social support or social networks can impact health disparities within this population.

2.      Give a description of the population you selected. Explain how social support might contribute to positive health outcomes in this population.

3.      Then, explain how social exclusion in this population might contribute to health disparities and why. Be specific and provide examples.

For the past 2 weeks, you have focused on the features and considerations of quantitative research designs. However, quantitative designs are not appropriate for all research questions. Perhaps you are concerned with how patients react when confronted with negative test results, or you wish to study how views on a certain health topic change over time. In each of these cases, the emphasis is more on understanding the thinking and experiences of an individual or group than on numerical measurements. For these types of questions, a qualitative or mixed methods research design is the most appropriate.

For this Discussion, you focus on the different types of qualitative research designs, when they are used, and why they are important.

To prepare:

• Reflect on the comments made by Dr. Mauk in this week’s media presentation on the value of qualitative research in nursing.
• Locate the journal Qualitative Health Research in the Sage Premier database in the Walden Library.
• From this journal, select an article of interest to you that was published within the last 3 years.
• Review the information on different qualitative research designs in Chapter 20 of your course text.
• Determine what qualitative research design was used in your selected article and evaluate whether it was the best choice.
• Consider ethical issues involved in the study and how the researchers addressed them.
• Think about how using a quantitative design would have affected the type of data gathered.

Post  (1) an APA citation for the article that you selected and provide a brief summary of the content and the qualitative research design used. (2) Evaluate the appropriateness of the design, and explain how ethical issues in the study were addressed. (3)Analyze how the study would have been different if a quantitative design had been used.

Readings

• Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2012).  Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.).Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
  • Chapter 20, “Qualitative Research Design and Approaches”

    This chapter introduces qualitative research designs. It provides an overview of the different types of qualitative research and then describes each one in greater detail, outlining how and when they should be used.

• Houghton, C. E., Casey, D., Shaw, D., & Murphy, K. (2010). Ethical challenges in qualitative research: Examples from practice. Nurse Researcher, 18(1), 15–25.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article explores ethical challenges associated with qualitative research. Specifically, the authors examine the challenges of informed consent procedures, the researcher-participant relationship, risk-benefit ratio, confidentiality, and the dual role of the nurse-researcher.

• Pringle, J., Hendry, C., & McLafferty, E. (2011). Phenomenological approaches: Challenges and choices. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 7–18.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article examines the dilemmas faced by a researcher looking for appropriate methods and approaches for investigating the experiences of stroke survivors. In addition, this article reviews the challenges of using phenomenology as a research method.

• Ryan-Nicholls, K. D., & Will, C. I. (2009). Rigour in qualitative research: Mechanisms for control. Nurse Researcher, 16(3), 70–85.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  The authors of this article provide recommendations for improving the control mechanisms of methodological rigor in qualitative research methods. The text establishes the basis of criticism on the rigor of qualitative work, ways of demonstrating methodological rigor, and the definition of rigor.

• Smith, J., Bekker, H., & Cheater, F. (2011). Theoretical versus pragmatic design in qualitative research. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 39–51.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article assesses the benefits of using a generic qualitative approach to design studies for understanding user and caregiver perspectives. The authors assess these benefits in the context of a qualitative study that focused on parents’ experience of living with children with hydrocephalus.

• Walker, W. (2011). Hermeneutic inquiry: Insights into the process of interviewing. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 19–27.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article examines the process of interviewing from a research perspective. The authors supply personal and theoretical insights into using the research interview, along with a guide to the practicalities of interviewing.

• Williamson, K. M. (2009). Evidence-based practice: Critical appraisal of qualitative evidence. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 15(3), 202–207.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article highlights the importance of qualitative evidence to mental health clinicians. The author stresses that critically appraising evidence is crucial to the EBP process and provides guidelines for appraisal.

• Wuest, J. (2011). Are we there yet? Positioning qualitative research differently. Qualitative Health Research, 21(7), 875–883.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article focuses on the shifting role of qualitative research in the past two decades. The author discusses the merits and detriments of concrete distinctions, the hurdles of flexibility and convergence, and the need to develop a complete research toolbox for improving health.

  Media

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012l). Qualitative and mixed methods research designs. Baltimore, MD: Author.

  Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 8 minutes.

  This video features Dr. Kristen Mauk’s overview of how she applied qualitative research designs and methods to her doctoral dissertation work. Dr. Mauk explains the advantages of qualitative research as well as strategies for increasing credibility when conducting qualitative or mixed methods research.

have been present for several months and have increased in frequency over the past week. He has been unable to sleep because of the need to urinate at least hourly all day and night. He does not have a primary care provider and has not seen a doctor in more than 10 years. His father died when he was a child in an automobile accident, and his mother is 79 years old and has hypertension. The patient has no siblings. His social history includes the following: banker by profession, divorced father of two grown children, non-smoker, and occasionally consumes alcohol on weekends only.

To prepare:

•Review Part 13 of the Buttaro et al. text in this week’s Learning Resources.

•Review the case study and reflect on the information provided about the patient.

•Think about the personal, medical, and family history you need to obtain from the patient in the case study. Reflect on what questions you might ask during an evaluation.

•Consider types of physical exams and diagnostics that might be appropriate for evaluation of the patient in the study.

•Reflect on a possible diagnosis for the patient.

•Review the Marroquin article in this week’s Learning Resources. If you suspect prostate cancer, consider whether or not you would recommend a biopsy.

•Think about potential treatment options for the patient.

Post 1 to 2 page discussion on  a description of the history that you need to obtain from the patient in the case study. Include a list of questions that you might ask the patient. Then, describe types of physical exams and diagnostics that might be appropriate for evaluation of the patient. Finally, explain a possible diagnosis,If you suspect prostate cancer, consider whether or not you would recommend a biopsy,  as well as potential treatment options for the patient based on this diagnosis.

REFERENCES

Readings

•Buttaro, T. M., Trybulski, J., Polgar Bailey, P., & Sandberg-Cook, J. (2013). Primary care: A collaborative practice (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby

◦Part 13, “Evaluation and Management of Genitourinary Disorders” (pp. 723–793)

Part 14, “Evaluation and Management of Gynecologic Concerns” (pp. 794–886)

Marroquin, J. (2011). To screen or not to screen: Ongoing debate in the early detection of prostate cancer. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 15(1), 97–98.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.