The Importance of Medication Management in Healthcare
The term empowerment can be defined as the active participation of an individual in a program where he or she possesses an active decision making power. In the healthcare industry, all the service providers are under the obligation to comply with the requirements of the healthcare service users focusing on the rules and regulation of the government. With the advancement of medical science and technology, the healthcare service users are found to be more concerned about the charges, quality and after services provided by NHS England (Lowes and Hulatt 2013). It can be understood that the for a grown-up society and a developed country, provision of quality healthcare services is a highly crucial factor to ensure further growth and prosperity of the society by decreasing the mortality rate and increasing the newborn healthcare and infant treatment facilities and thereby ensuring consumer satisfaction. Hence the government of England has introduced several healthcare policies for reliable and quality healthcare treatment of the citizens. In this essay, review of the existing legislation, codes of practices and policy which apply to the management of medication will be analyzed and the efficacy of the policies and procedures will be evaluated (Brett et al. 2014). Apart from that analysis of the tension that arises while balancing the rights of the people to independence as well as choice against the duty of the care provider to protect will be performed in this essay. Finally an analysis of the factor that hinders the promotion of healthcare services and communication between the health care users and providers will perform.
In this paragraph, the review of present legislation as well as different codes of practice and policy that applies to the handling of medication by NHS England has been performed. According to researchers, when it comes to the provision of quality healthcare services, the healthcare service users of under-developed and developing countries suffer more due to the reluctance and carelessness of the healthcare service providers while performing their duty (Hansson, Höög and Nyström 2017). However, even in developed countries like England, the death of the patient due to wrong treatment and dosage of medication has been evidenced several numbers of times. In order to ensure the safety of healthcare service users while undergoing treatment, the healthcare act 2014 has been implemented. Apart from that, the Equality act 2010, Data protection act 2014 and Control drug regulation 2013 are also enforced to prevent discrimination, illegal usage of the information provided by the patient to the healthcare professions and over dosage of drug respectively. All the codes and practices in the healthcare system are designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to guarantee the appropriate regulatory control over Medicare. All the laws and regulations associated with the healthcare have gone through an amendment in the year 2010 in order to get upgraded and enhance the quality and standard. According to the upgraded service policy, it has been declared that each and every healthcare home irrespective of its size should have an ambulance service as well as dental care for the convenience of the healthcare service users (Huesch Ostbye and Michener 2016). Amendments have also been done in the health and social care act that includes reduction of restriction in the usage of antimicrobial in order to prevent infection while treating the healthcare service users.
Existing Legislation, Codes of Practices, and Policies for Medication Management
This paragraph evaluates the usefulness of policies as well as actions within a health and social care setting for controlling medication. According to researchers, it is highly crucial for each and every healthcare organization to be aligned with the policies and procedures implemented for medication administration (Styliadis et al. 2014). One of the crucial policies and procedures associated with the healthcare of NHS England are evaluated below:
Determination of the importance of the medication management: Management of medicine in healthcare should be measurable, alterable and actionable. The bellow mentioned factors are the major concerns of the medication management.
- Prescribed as well as non-prescribed medicines
- Temperature adjustment (Cameron et al. 2014)
- Life cycle checking of medicine
- Differentiation of medicine
- Immunization
Expiry date: It is highly crucial to check the expiry date of the medicine that is kept as inventory in the healthcare pharmacy before providing the same to the healthcare service users. Medicines that have crossed their expiry date should be released (Brennan et al. 2012).
Approval of medicine: No medication should be provided or injected to the healthcare service users without the permission of the registered healthcare professionals and no pharmacy are permitted to sell medicines that are not prescript by a registered doctor (Ocloo and Matthews 2016).
Medication for children: The healthcare service providers who have been recruited for providing medication and treating children should be well trained so that they can provide medication to the children in a convenient and careful way.
Monitoring System: It is highly crucial for NHS England to develop a well-monitored medication management system for the following three factors:
- All the deliveries that are done by the healthcare service providers should always be recorded either manually or by using technology (Ham and Walsh2013).
- Effective communication channel should be established among the healthcare professionals, service providers and users.
- Healthcare employees of all levels need to be provided with a periodical training session so that they can come up with greater efficiency through risk elimination.
The chief theme of healthcare of NHS includes the quality and behaviour of services along with affection and comfort of the healthcare providers. However several incidents are found where the vulnerability of the healthcare service users along with their right to independence comes in the way of duty to protect them from major injuries.
For instance, Miss Michelle who has been admitted to the hospital as a patient of dementia was prevented by the healthcare service users when she showed her urge to go out of the hospital premises. As days passed by, the urge of Miss Michele to get out of the hospital premises became uncontrollable. In such cases, though the patient’s comfort is going out of the hospital, the healthcare service providers are strictly instructed to prevent the patient from going outdoor keeping in mind her security and ultimate benefit of getting recovered. The tension that arises during the half recovery stage of the patient is a highly crucial factor and is one of chief concern of the healthcare providers at NHS currently (Szebehelyand Trydegård2012).
This paragraph includes an examination of the features that may disturb the attainment of indorsing and making best use of the rights of users of health and social care services. Considering the fact that experience and service quality of the healthcare service providers are two of the major factors that are considered by the healthcare service users, it is highly crucial to provide the employees of the healthcare industry with effective training as well knowledge of all the rules and regulation associated with the mentioned industry (Brett et al. 2014). A vast range of associated factors is aligned with the promotion as well as maximization of the rights of the healthcare service users in health and social care that dignifies the active participation of the codes.
Usefulness of Policies and Actions for Controlling Medication
Laws and legislation: Every healthcare home possess a set of unique interests and those interests are marked as policies and procedures of that specific organization. These policies and regulations not only help the organization to come up with operational excellence but also clarify the rights of the healthcare service users in order to obtain quality services (Naslund et al. 2016). Some of the major regulations that must be implemented by all the healthcare organization include the Care act 2014, Equality act 2010 and Code of Participation. For instance, the Care act 2014 had a wide implication in the case of Miss Michelle’s condition.
Culture: the ambience and culture of a healthcare organization play a crucial role in promoting the right of the health and social care service users. A highly amiable, trustworthy and jolly service environment that promotes cultural competence is a basic requirement for the treatment of healthcare service users of all levels (Demirkanand Delen2013). Such an environment encourages both the healthcare service providers as well as users to demonstrate compassion and respect the dignity of one another. In the case of Miss Michelle, who was suffering from dementia a well established amicable culture of the healthcare home can be considered as a major reason for her recovery.
Two-way communication skill: Effective communication skills along with appropriate communication with both the patient and the management are a highly crucial factor that results in promotion of the rights of the healthcare service users (Al Ameen, Liuand Kwak2012). Healthcare service providers should be provided with effective training to understand the specific requirements of the patients in their vulnerable stage and communicate the same with their superior so that the necessary treatment can be provided to the patient on time ensuring his or her recovery. For instance, the fact that effective tow ways communication has been conducted by the healthcare service providers during her vulnerable stage when she got overly excited or angry, is one of the major factors that has ensured her quick recovery.
This paragraph is comprised of the investigation of the communication between care workers and users that backs to encouraging and exploiting the rights of service users of health and social care services. The three major factors that affect the communication between the two mentioned groups are as follows.
Personal attention: Personal attention refers to the concern an compassion demonstrated by a healthcare service users toward his or her client while taking care of him. Demonstration of personal attention enhances the positive environment of the healthcare home and also creates an effective relationship between the healthcare service providers and service users which further facilitates the treatment process (Fernández-Alemán et al. 2013). Apart from that, personal attention creates personal identification that enhances the satisfaction of the consumers by promoting the care and comfort of the users.
Time adjustment and effective communication: Considering the fact that a single healthcare provider needs to take care of more than one service users, time management to pay adequate attention and communicate with all the service user is highly crucial to build a strong relationship and ensure consumer satisfaction. Effective time adjustment ensures that all the service users are able to access help when needed or in the case of emergency (Kongstvedt 2012). For the convenience of the healthcare service users, several healthcare home implements calling bells so that they can access the attention of the healthcare service providers whenever needed. In order to ensure that all the requirements of each service users are carefully listening to, information should be exchanged and active communication should be established with the healthcare service users.
Balancing the Rights of the People to Independence and Protection of Caregivers
Courtesy and respect: Usage of appropriate gesture and maintaining courtesy while conducting communication with the healthcare service users is a highly crucial factor to establish effective communication. Considering the fact that several cases of misbehaviour with aboriginal healthcare users have been reported in the past, it can be understood that lack of respect towards the culture of the healthcare users leads to miscommunication and consumer dissatisfaction (Fernández-Alemán et al. 2013). Lack of courtesy of the healthcare service providers also makes the healthcare service users feel uncomfortable and unattended. Hence, in order to ensure an effective communication between the healthcare service providers as well as users, education and training for developing respect and learning the ways to approach the patients with courtesy should be provided to both the healthcare service providers as well as professionals.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the government of UK has implemented several rules and regulation in order to ensure that the healthcare service users can avail all the facilities that have been entitled to them. Majority of the organization intends to comply with the laws and legislation in order to ensure a consumer-friendly environment as well as high-quality services. However, considering the fact that the advancement in medical science is occurring at a rapid speed, healthcare organizations should constantly revise their policies and procedures in order to ensure that they are complying well with the current healthcare related issues. It needs to be understood that the satisfaction of the healthcare service users does not depend only on the recovery of the illness but also on the environment and behaviour received by them while availing the healthcare services.
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