Health Medical Homework Help

For those of you that decide to work in a hospital setting, you will find that YOU are one piece of a big picture that significantly impacts patient care, satisfaction, and ultimately, reimbursement.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported that the quality of care was significantly better in hospitals that performed exceptionally well on HCAHPS.  Meeting core measures are now an expectation for hospital reimbursement.  These subjects may be new to you bit this discussion will help enlighten you as you hear these terms used more after you are working as an RN.

What is HCAHPS and how will you play a role?

Choose one of the HCAHPS survey questions and state one tactic that you, the RN, can use to influence patients to answer “always”

A few helpful websites to google for either question include:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The Joint Commission

The Studer Group

Here’s an example discussion:What is HCAHPS and how will you play a role?HCAHPS stands for “Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.” HCAHPS is a “national program from collecting and providing health care information from the consumer perspective, and the results are used to improve health care services” (Zerwekh & Garneau, 2018, pg. 505). Being a part of the health care team especially as a nurse, it is our role to communicate to the patient, their families and your team. Speaking to our patient in a way that they completely understand in which avoiding medical terminology. Also encouraging the patient to ask any questions or mentioning any concerns that they may have. Educating is another crucial role that nurses take on, because nurses have to educate and ensure that the patient understands what is currently going on. Nurses should also involve the patient into their own care, while communicating with them on what must be done and discussing future goals. Another role nurses play is simply providing respect to our patient. Respect is something all patients deserve no matter what the circumstance is. This can easily be done by creating a environment that is quiet, relaxing and healing in which allows the patient to rest. Respect can be overlooked especially when you are batteling a super busy day which can be very overwhelming to the nurse. (Home, n.d.). Choose one of the HCAHPS survey questions and state one tactic that you, the RN, can use to influence patients to answer “always”Survey Question 2: During this hospital stay, how often did nurses listen carefully to you?The question above must be answered as “always” all the time because it is crucial for the nurse to always listen to their patient and their needs. The best source of information is your patient so we must always LISTEN to what they are telling us! In order to ensure that my patient is always responding “always” is by providng my care whenever they need me and by listening carefully to my patients needs and what they are telling me. I can ensure that I will assist them in a timely fashion and not keep them waiting for no reason. This could be just by answering call-lights in a timely manner or proving pain medication when needed so pain does not worsen or progress.Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rn.com/clinical-insights/the-nurses-role-in-hcahps/ (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.).Zerwekh, J. & Garneau, A. (2018). Nursing today: Transitions and trends (9th ed.). St Louis, Mo: Elsevier Saunders.