Category: Medical

Medical unit in a community hospital.

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

You are a manager on a medical unit in a community hospital. You are concerned about a recent increase in falls with injury on your unit. How might you assess this situation?

  1. Where might you find the data in your hospital to support your concern?
  2. What type of study could you perform to identify the cause(s) for the increase in falls with injury?
  3. How will you select your population of interest?
  4. How will you select a control group or comparison group?
  5. What are potential errors in measurement that you may encounter?

Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Posted on | by Brian Leakey 
        Complementary and alternative medicine refers to the treatment methods that are extensively utilized in the treatment and management of infections and are not part of mainstream medicine. The significances of complementary and alternative medicines are several and have been backed up with several evidence-based pieces of research. In the treatment and management of chronic infections like diabetes, cancer, and hypertension complementary and alternative medicines have significantly and extensively been utilized to alleviate the side effects of allopathic treatment (Johnson et al., 2019). This is because, for a chronic infection like cancer, the treatment methods like chemotherapy and other medications have adverse side effects which might be uncomfortable for the patient.

        Complementary and alternative medicines can also be utilized to treat conditions resulting from an individual’s lifestyle. For instance, some types of diabetes and high blood pressure are caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices, and alternative and complementary treatments like consuming a healthy diet, smoking cessation, and consumption of large quantities of water can help treat individuals. Alternative and complementary medicines are very essential and effective in the clinical practice (Johnson et al., 2019). Additionally, the medications can be administered by anyone and on many occasions are home-based care and interventions which can significantly help an individual to lower the burden associated with accessing allopathic medicines. Despite being essential in the treatment and management of symptoms of several infections like cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, an individual needs to utilize both complementary and alternative medications with allopathic medicine in their clinical interventions.

        Holistic and allopathic care is commonly used by medical service providers to offer advanced medical services to patients. Allopathic care has significantly improved medical service provision since its invention and has significantly increased the life expectancy of patients. This is because some conditions are very complicated and cannot be treated with holistic methods alone. Additionally, allopathic care has significantly advanced throughout the years which has enabled people to perform complex surgical operations like heart transplants and dialysis which have improved medical outcomes (Gaynor, 2022). However, despite significantly improving medical outcomes, allopathic care can sometimes lead to undesirable side effects. Therefore, to alleviate or lessen the adverse side effects of allopathic care medical service providers need to utilize holistic care in their interventions as well. This is because holistic care has limited to no side effects hence making it appropriate to treat undesirable side effects of allopathic care. Patients have the right to choose the type of treatment intervention they desire and nurses should not try to enforce the patients to choose a medical intervention that they do not desire. However, as a nurse, it is important to educate and advise the patient on the best medication to use depending on their conditions.

Abuse Of The Medical System

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

There are many forms of abuse in the current US medical system. Examples: At times physicians have been known to “Up-Charge” to increase their reimbursement from insurance. There have also been times when the standard of care, or care offered, to a given patient is different based upon the type of insurance, or even whether they have insurance. Individuals also abuse the medical system. Some patients seek services that are unnecessary as a form of drug seeking, either for personal use or to sell illegally. Some patients have allowed another individual to use their medical insurance information to receive covered services fraudulently. Some of these abuses are initiated by medical professional and some are initiated by the consumer. Explore “both sides” of this issue of medical abuse.

Asthma case study instructions ( Essay)

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

A 6 year old female child that came to the clinic with accompanied by her mother complaining of cough since 8 weeks ago. The cough is triggered when she laugh or cry. Her cough get worse when she is exposes to cold air, exercise, and at night. Patient past medical history of mild eczema and chronic nasal congestion. No shortness of breath, wheezing or fever reported. She is currently talking no medications. No known allergies reported. On her examination she is not in acute distress. Positive findings during examination: nasal turbinates little pale and edematous. During lungs auscultation she had end- expiratory wheezing, but no use of accessory muscle of respiration. The child was born in India moved to United Stated when she was 1 year old. Her family recently moved to a new area, since that, she is complaining of worsening nasal congestion. The house has some carpets on the floor. She also has a dog in her house. Patient has a history of mother and cousins diagnosed with asthma. The primary diagnosis is asthma based on her past history, clinical presentation and family history.

Introduction
Should be a paragraph that provides a brief overview of the case and main diagnosis:
1-Asthma
Differential Diagnoses
Provide EACH differential diagnosis with the rationale and supporting evidence with the REFERENCE for each one. Also explain why differentials Viral pneumonia and sinusitis) were not the main diagnosis.
1- Asthma:
2- Viral pneumonia:
3- Sinusitis:

Diagnostics
Identify the lab, radiology, or other tests needed for Asthma with supporting evidence.
Treatment
Include the initial treatment plan for Asthma. It should include medication names, dosages, and frequencies

The Ethics Behind the World’s Most Expensive Medication

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

write 200–250 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

One of the reasons for the rising cost of healthcare in the United States is the cost of prescription drugs. It is a complex problem and poses many ethical dilemmas for which solutions have yet to be implemented. Pharmaceutical companies set the prices for drugs and negotiate the actual payments with insurers. Insurers do not always cover the full cost of the drugs, leaving even insured patients to pay out-of-pocket for their prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money on developing new medications to help people. The price of the medication must cover the upfront costs of drug discovery, development and testing, and manufacturing. It must also include the cost of the clinical trials required for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before the medication can be sold.

Read the following 3 articles about the high cost of drugs and how the pharmaceutical industry sets prices:

The Ethics Behind the World’s Most Expensive Medication
EpiPen Pricing
Prescription Drug Pricing in America
After reading the articles, answer the following questions:

What may be legally permitted is not necessarily ethical. What are your concerns from an ethical standpoint about the pricing of prescription drugs and the new therapies based on precision medicine discoveries such as the gene therapy described in the first article?
Pharmaceutical companies must make a profit to stay in business, be accountable to their investors, and be able to continue developing new medications. Imagine you are responsible for drug pricing for a pharmaceutical company. The CEO has tasked you with setting a price for a newly developed drug that is profitable for the company and shareholders based on the time and resources that were used for production. If you turn a profit, you will receive a bonus as well. How would you handle the price setting in this situation? Use the resources to justify your decision.

Welfare Policy and Medicaid and Health Care Policy

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

Read about Welfare Policy and Medicaid and Health Care Policy in Chapter 12 of your textbook. Also, review Sections 2 and 5 of the Poverty in Texas content by the Texas Politics Project and the Texas Tribune article “Poverty in Texas drops to lowest level in a decade.” Why does Texas have such a high poverty rate (when compared to other states in the U.S.), and what steps might the state government take to reduce the poverty level? How does the political culture of Texas (refer back to Chapter 1) influence the government’s response to poverty? What are the conservative vs. liberal explanations for poverty (see section 5 in the “Poverty in Texas” content)? What role do you believe the state and federal governments should play, if any, to reduce the poverty rate?