Recent orders
Health, Employment, Gender, and Age
Health, Employment, Gender, and Age
INTRODUCTION
Health is a word that represents different things to different people at different times and different situations. It is a state of psychological, physical, and social well-being, and not just the lack of disease or illness (W.H.O). It is the general condition of a person’s mind and body, usually meaning being free from ailment, pain or injury.
Many people around the world disregard or does not know the significance of good health. When talking about health many people refer to the condition of the body. However, it does not mean being free from the physical pain or free from any disease symptoms. The mind is an important factor during the assessment of a good health (Raphael, 2009).
The significance of good health is not limited to a certain race, religion, gender age, creed or caste. The origin of many diseases can be traced in the mind; a person will be healthy if his or her mind is calm and clear. Many people may feel agitated or unhappy at a psychological level, although they do not have material problems. These are the effects of an unbalanced mind.
What we eat either poisons or nourishes us (White, 2001). Over processed food contain preservatives that act like slow poison. In the modern food handling processes, the emphasis is to the long life of the food. For us to keep our bodies healthy, it is important for us to follow a balanced diet, which consists of fresh vegetable proteins, milk products, beans and dried fruits.
Many factors affect the health of an individual and the community. The environment and the condition one have played a significant role in determining their health status. Broadly the factors that affect the health of an individual are social and economic environment, for example, the income of an individual, physical environment and the person’s characteristics and behaviour (Blaxter, 2010).
The most prevalent of all health problems are the chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and arthritis (Centre for disease control and prevention, 2005a) the prevalence of chronic diseases increase in adulthood, especially late adulthood. For example, heart diseases are more prevalent among people who are 65 years and above (CDC 2005b)
The onset of health problems increases out of pocket health care expenses. For those aged 65 and above and qualify for Medicare, out of pocket increases with the cost of a health condition
Poverty in childhood has a lasting effect limiting life expectancy and worsening health for the rest of the child’s health, even if social conditions subsequently improve. At the same time, health promoting social environments can enhance health status and health outcome at any point across the life course.
Public health has focused on what was believed to be the most prevalent source of mortality, disease injury and disabilities. In late 19th and 20th century, public health concentrated particularly on the physical environment, improvement, for example, clean water supplies, sanitation workplace safety healthier- housing and safe food. This caused an increase in lifetime expectancy.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Health and Employment
Job loss is defined as a life event that removes an individual involuntarily from paid employment (prussia1995). Unemployment is defined as the state of being unengaged in a gainful occupation (Hanish 1999). While job loss is a single event occurring at a fixed point in time, it is a state that lasts over time. Job loss and unemployment form a continuum of experience with the job loss event at one hand and an on-going state of unemployment at the other end (Hanish 199)
A large body of large has studied the relationship between social economic status and health. One stream of research suggests that social economic status is an important determinant of health status because individuals in a lower social are more exposed and vulnerable to psychological risk factors (lifestyle characteristics and living conditions) than those in higher social economic status (Wilson 2001). Other studies have investigated how income is related to cause of death. Results show that there is a strong inverse relationship between income and mortality (Mellor & Milyo 2002). In summary, there is evidence in literature that individuals in low social economic status receive less medical care, are exposed to, and are more vulnerable to risk factors, affecting health status either by direct relationships or by interaction with social status (Rodrigues 2004).
Those in poor health are limited in their ability to accumulate income and wealth because they work fewer hours or are unemployed due to disability (lee &kim 2003 Wu 2003). Employment determines the level of income that an individual attains Smith and Kington (1997) used the assets and health dynamics of the oldest old to study the relationship between health and wealth. The study found evidence that household income is inversely related to health. Specifically, the correlation between current period household income and health reflected a negative causation from health to social economic status rather than the opposite.
Smith1998 used the first three waves of the health and retirement study to examine the two-way interaction employment status and health; he separated new health conditions to study their economic impact. The results of the study provided evidence that the new health events such as the onset of chronic conditions have negative effects on wealth accumulation for those over the age of 50. Smith 1999 examined the size of the association between health and household wealth, out of pocket expenses and total medical expenses. Results indicated that health changes over time could be associated employment.
Some researchers have examined demographic factors that affect the relationship between job loss and negative psychological outcomes. This includes financial strain, the length of unemployment, race, age and education level. These studies have produced no definite evidence to indicate that certain groups demonstrate more psychological distress than others do. In summary the research has yielded non-uniform results regarding the impact of demographic variable on the mental health of unemployed individuals.
For example, studies on older unemployed people have suggested that older workers have more difficulty finding re-employment and suffer greater psychological distress when compared to younger people who are out of work. (Spitzer, 2011), yet other studies indicate that have found that older workers who experience involuntary job loss and subsequent periods of unemployment are able to adjust psychologically to their work life situations better, and maintain their high levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction. (Spitzer, 2011).
GENDER
The gender and health paradoxes are well documented; women live longer than men do, although have higher morbidity rates. Men experience more life threatening chronic diseases and die young, whereas women live longer but have more nonfatal acute and chronic conditions and disability (Bird, & Rieker, 2008). Although men’s and women’s health overall rate of serious mental illness is similar, the most common mental health disorders differ by gender (Bird, & Rieker, 2008). These perplexing patterns raise many questions for social and biomedical scientist and clinicians. At issue is whether the origin of these health differences is physiological, social or both.
In studies of health, a gap still exists around gender differences, and around the issues, this paradox raises about the multifaceted connection between social and biological processes. The studies have failed to assess gender and to explain why rational people are not effectively making health a priority in their everyday lives. Research shows that, the complexity of the gender differences extends beyond narrow concepts of the relative disadvantage or advantage of men and women’s biological or the social organization of their lives.
Neither biological nor social research alone can answer the complex question regarding the antecedents of the puzzling gender differences in health (Bird, & Rieker, 2008). Only a synthesis of this perspective can move forward the much needed interdisciplinary dialogue and investigation to close the knowledge gap (Neun, 2010)
Lois Verbrugge and Deborah Wingard (1987) argued that neither a strictly biomedical interpretation of the data or one based on social factors adequately explains gender based health disparities. The ample data documenting differential in health and mortality. Decades later, little has changed in our understanding of gender based health disparities. Intuitively the answer lies neither in an exclusively biological nor an exclusively sociology vision of reality but in a combination of both (Raphael, 2009).
AGE
Higher rates of ill health are prevalent among people in low economic social status. However, these differences vary with age. The age at which deterioration of health begins varies with the social economic status; the various health condition will start earlier for people with low social economic status. A study conducted by Gortmarker and wise (1997) showed that the old are more exposed to chronic disease like cancer diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It also showed that people who survive to old age are different from those who do not survive.
Social economic disparities in health exist across the whole life course. The gap is largest during early childhood and middle age (siegrist and marmot 2006), at early stages, the poor are associated with high prenatal mortality, infant mortality, prematurity, low birth weight and late birth (gortmaker and wise 1997). At middle age lower social economic status people are associated with high prevalence of heart diseases and high blood pressure, high incidence of diabetes and high prevalence of orthopedic impairment associated with injury (Haan et al 1989). During old age, The physical fragility of human beings becomes a major factor of health (Siegrist and marmot 2006)
HYPOTHESES
One of the hypothesis of the study is that women are more exposed to health conditions than men. The significant differences in gender associated with health conditions are vital for understanding those who are more likely to suffer from various health condition. As Bird & Rieker, (2008) study showed, women live longer than men yet they have higher morbidity rates. Men experience more life threatening chronic diseases and die young, whereas women live longer but have more nonfatal acute and chronic conditions and disability. (Bird, & Rieker, 2008).
The second hypothesis is that the old are more exposed to health condition various health conditions than the young and the youthful. As the study conducted by (Gortmarker and wise 1997) showed, the old are more exposed to chronic disease like cancer diabetes and cardiovascular disease
The third hypothesis is that those who are unemployed are more likely to suffer various health conditions than those who are employed. Studies have shown an inverse relationship between health and employment. Those who are unemployed are more likely to suffer from psychological distress. Those who are employed and suffer from various health conditions are unable to accumulate enough wealth to cater for their health needs.
Methods
Participants
This study was conducted by Harvard school of public health it collected responses from a pool of U.S households. This was done through a general social survey. The target sample size for GSS was 10000 until 1998. It was later increased to 2500 in 1999. Each survey was an independently drawn sample of English speaking persons 18 years of age or over, living in non-institutional households within the United States
Materials
The survey would involve a series of questions for participants regarding their health conditions. The questions used to determine the dependent variable health status. The survey also asked for demographic information including age, and whether one was employed or not. Responses include age, in years; gender as male or female and responses to status employment include either full time or part time employment
Procedures
SPSS software was used to analyze the collected data from the households. Missing cases were deleted from the data, and all variables were recorded to two decimal places to produce contingency tables for the statistical analysis. Approximately 71 per cent responded to the survey questions. The order in which the procedures were conducted began with the use of analytic functions, to generate the frequency tables to describe the sample. Next, the cross tabs function was used to generate contingency tables, followed by the use of chi-square statistics function to test the null hypothesis for each independent variable.
Results
Frequency tables were used to determine the results on the health conditions it describes the health condition of the individuals who participated in this study. The study revealed that, of the total 1278 examined 25.4 per cent had an excellent health condition, 46.1% had good health conditions while 22.7% and 5.8% had a fair and poor health conditions respectively.
Responses on the independent variable on the status of employment indicate that, of the total respondent of 4901, only 1402 were valid responses. Of the valid responses, 75.9% were in full time employment while 24.1% were part time employed. 74% of the responses were either missing or invalid.
The second independent variable was based on gender; the total valid responses were 2044. Of the total valid responses, 43.6% were male, and 56.4 % were females. Invalid responses were 2857 this represented 58.3 % of the total responses.
The third independent variable was age. There was a 41.6 % valid response to this independent variable. Of the valid responses, 2.8% were within 1-20 age brackets; this was a total of 58 people. Thirty five per cent were within 21-40 age bracket while 36.9%, 20.6% and 4.6% of the valid responses, were within 41-60, 61-80 and 61-80 age brackets respectively.
First, there is a hypothesis that women are more exposed to health conditions than men are. The number observed for females were more than those observed in the males were. Of the total male responses 25.4% reported an excellent health condition, 49.2% reported a good health condition while 19.7% and 5.7% reported a fair and poor health condition respectively. Of the total valid female responses on the dependent, 25.5% reported an excellent health condition, 43.5% reported a good health condition, 25.2% and 5.9% reported a fair and poor health condition respectively.
The Pearson chi square test indicated a value of 6.479, the likelihood ratio was 6,515 and the linear by linear association was 1.482.
The second hypothesis was that the old are more exposed to health conditions than the young are. The per cent of the age group 1-20 that reported an excellent health condition. While 60%, 20%, and zero per cent reported a good fair and poor health conditions respectively. For the age group between 21 and 40, 31.1% reported an excellent health condition, while 46.4% 20.6% and 1.7% reported a good, fair and poor health conditions respectively. 25.1% of the people within 41-60 age range reported an excellent health condition while 46.5%, 20.6% and 7.8% reported a good, fair and a poor health condition. The per cent dropped to 18.6% for the age group within 61-80 age brackets. Those reporting a good, fair and a poor health conditions were 45.8%, 26.5% and 9.1% respectively. The final age group was 81-100. For this age group, 13.7% reported an excellent health condition while 35.3%, 41.2% and 9.8% reported a good fair and poor health condition.
It is clear from the results that the old reported higher percentages of poor and fair health condition than the young did. For example, age group 81-100 reported a 9.8% poor health condition while those below 20 years reported zero per cent poor health condition.
The Pearson chi – square was 51.186 while the likelihood ratio was 55.412. The linear by linear association was 37.011
The third hypothesis was that the unemployed are exposed to more health conditions than the employed. Of the total respondents that were employed 27.7% reported an excellent health condition while 51.4% , 18% and 2.9% reported a good , fair and poor health conditions. The percentage of part time workers that reported an excellent health condition was 31% while 48% 19%and 2% reported a good, fair and a poor health conditions respectively. The Pearson chi square was 1.481%, the likelihood ratio was 1.504 while the linear-by-linear association was 0.43.
Discussion
Nobody wants to feel the discomfort associated with any disease, actually, most people fear pain and death and discomforts associated with diseases. There is more to being healthy than avoiding death and pain. Health is a pillar of having a successful life, accomplished life and being happy. It is therefore important that one should avoid diseases as much as possible.
The first hypothesis of this study is that women are more exposed to health conditions than men are). Comparing the responses of both men and women, both reported almost the same percentage of excellent health condition, but men reported a higher percentage of good health condition than the women did. On the other end, both men and women reported almost a similar percentage of poor health condition. These results may therefore be not sufficient to conclude that women are more exposed to health conditions than men are.
The second hypothesis was that the old are more exposed to more health conditions than the young are. A closer look on the results reveals that the percentage of individuals reporting an excellent health condition decrease as age increased. The same applies to those reporting a good health condition. However, there was a direct relationship between those reporting a fair health condition and age. In addition, the percentage of those reporting a poor health condition increased as the age increased. The above statistics therefore prove that the old are more vulnerable to various health conditions.
The third hypothesis was that the unemployed are more likely to be exposed to health conditions. From the results only 27.7% of the respondent whore are fully employed, reported an excellent health condition, compared to31% who are part-time employee. At the other extreme end the percentage of full time workers that reported a poor health condition was, 2.9% compared to a 2% of the part time employees. It is therefore still hard to conclude that the unemployed are more exposed to health conditions.
References
Cutler, D. M., & Wise, D. A. (2008). Health at older ages: The causes and consequences of declining disability among the elderly. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bird, C. E., & Rieker, P. P. (2008). Gender and health: The effects of constrained choices and social policies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Raphael, D. (2009). Social determinants of health: Canadian perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.
Spitzer, D. L. (2011). Engendering migrant health: Canadian perspectives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
White, L. (2001). Foundations of nursing: Caring for the whole person. Albany, N.Y: Delmar/Thomson Learning.
Davis, J.A. and Smith, T. W. (2011) General social surveys, 1972-2010 [machine-readable data file]
Santerre, R. E., & Neun, S. P. (2010). Health economics: Theories, insights, and industry studies. Mason (Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Blaxter, M. (2010). Health. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Marmot, M. G., Wilkinson, R., & World Health Organization. (2003). The solid facts: Social determinants of health. Copenhagen: Centre for Urban Health, World Health Organization.
University of Texas : WUW 22080 : wuw22080. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coursehero.com/file/2560901/wuw22080/
Effect of Na3VO4 on the P State of Nitella translucens. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/96/1/91
Http// HYPERLINK “http://www.jiva.com” www.jiva.com.
Camerino Chiropractic Center – Welcome. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://camerinocc.com/index.html
Audience Driven
Ashley Farias
Professor Schmertz
English 3305
16 September 2021
Audience Driven
What makes a good writer, a good piece, an educated delivery? A writer’s strategy relies on the audience they are writing for. Education level and interest play a big part in how the writer is going to deliver their writing to their respective audience. That is the first step in the right direction in writing, I believe. Whether it be academic writers, screen writers, authors, freelance writers, etc, all writers figure out their audience in order to execute their goal. Once you know who your target audience is, it is up to the writer to figure out and research the respective audiences’ education level and their interest in order to truly reach them.
Finding your audience, then figuring out their interest and educational level is crucial in captivating the audience and truly pulling them into the writing. Is your audience interested in being persuaded, acknowledged, hearing a fun story, learning something new, learning even more on a certain subject, etc. Not to mention is your audience interested in cars, candy, politics, astronomy, gaming, and such. Does your audience want to read a whole novel or just a few pages? Some audiences are not interested in lots of information, lots of reading, or evidence. Sad to say but, some audiences although they are at the level to understand and read extensive and informational work, they are just not interested in it. They can prefer smaller works of writing with little to no evidence, while some prefer larger pieces of writing with lots of evidence. What is your audience interested in? Common ground can be a big help if interest is a bit tough to accomplish in certain writing like in a persuasive essay. Moreover the writer needs to take into account the educational level of their audience, for the most part. Some audiences can include multiple educational levels but who makes up most of it? Educational levels include age, grade, literacy rate, understanding, and so forth.
For instance an author is writing a children’s book, the audience of course is the children. More in depth what particular group of children. Whether it be for boys, girls, both, or some of each? That is where interest can come into play. The author is writing a children’s book about dinosaurs, thus the audience will be children interested in dinosaurs or even children wanting to learn more about dinosaurs. In addition to their interest the writer needs to focus on the educational level of their respective audience they are wanting to write for. Will the childrens book be more for the child to read or interact with themselves, or is the children’s book more intended for parents to read to their child. A children’s book is unique because parents or guardians need to be interested in purchasing or letting their children read the book. That is something to keep in mind as well when writing, will there be an outside source as well that have a say in the matter. For this instance the audience will be more geared towards children reading it on their own. Thus the writer will choose what age group to write for, which will be 5-9. Their educational level is a bit low, so the writer will take into consideration their literacy rate and understanding. Altogether interest and educational level will give the writer an upperhand in creating a piece that their audience will truly enjoy or comprehend.
To put in another way a screenwriter for a comedy show is writing for its audience which is people that like comedy for the most part. The audience is known so the next step is to figure out or investigate what their educational level is, for a show target audience age. Comedic writing depends on the age range, thus jokes, puns, sketches, etc, are written specifically for them to understand the “joke”. The audience’s educational level translates to their age in this instance. A certain age or age range is chosen for the writer to focus more on specifically. As well as how extensive the writing is going to be, grammar that will be used, the plot, the reading level, etc. With the audience and educational level now known, interest is up next. The audience interest correlates with their age, therefore the screen writer is given or they themselves investigate and research the interest of this audience to make their “jokes” land and be relatable or known. In a nutshell the audience is controlling what the writer is creating in order for the reader to appreciate and engage with the writing, interest and educational level correlate in great writing for their audience. That is not to say only screen writers need to follow these points in order to captivate an audience, all writers have the same goal which is to captivate and engage their respective audience. To further clarify “Knowing your audience helps you to make decisions about what information you should include, how you should arrange that information, and what kind of supporting details will be necessary for the reader to understand what you are presenting” (Writing for an Audience).
In reading “Writing in College” the article was more comforting in letting the target audience, the students know that they are not expected to be superb writers right away. The audience is at ease knowing that they are supposed to improve and not already be experts in writing. William and McEnerney reassure students that one does not already have everything planned out in their writing but that writing is a work of progress. In other words, William and McEnerney believe “the most productive work on a paper begins after you have gotten your ideas out of the warm and cozy incubator of your own mind and into the cold light of day” (pg. 2). With that in mind William and McEnerney do a superb job in captivating their audience. For one their interest which in this case would be reassurance in their college writing, is touched upon. Two their writing correlates with their education level, and how college students do not usually look at too many citations and supporting evidence. Many students do not realize that self-improvement is still possible. Writing is a work of progress, as is the writer. Therefore with the help of knowing what to do and what not to do, ” write to discover and to refine it” (William and McEnerney, pg. 4). To further explain William and McEnerney go on and comfort the audience in their writing, reassuring them, and making the audience think about their own writing and how it is okay to be top notch writers, right away. The Audience is interested in knowing that they are in the same boat as most college students.
When reading both of the articles I noticed a big difference in supporting evidence and data usage in captivating their respective audience. In “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse” Thonney uses more supporting evidence and multiple articles in supporting her thesis. “Many students think the main claim in an academic argument must be an assertive, polemic statement. But corpus-based analyses reveal that most academic writers state their main claim matter-of-factly”(pg. 351). Thonny knows that his audience is more stirred towards academic writers and professors thus, using more evidence to fully back the writing that is being read. The audience in “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse”, are interested in evidence to fully engage in the reading and turlly trust what they are reading and trust the author as well. Thonny emphasizes that students lack the right information and guidance in writing. With the right help of professors, students can be steered in the right direction in writing like academic writers in their desired field, not just pleasing the professor.
All things considered the audience is ultimately in the power position to guide the writer in the right direction. The writer must take into consideration their respective audience interest and educational level to start off their writing in an effortless way. Knowing the audience well will enable the writer to then figure out what information to include, what kind of support they will need for the level of the audience, and what they are looking for in that specific reading or show in some cases like stated before.
Works Cited
“Writing for an Audience.” Accredited Online College Degrees | UMGC, www.umgc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/getting-started-writing/writing-for-an-audience.cfm.
Williams, Joseph M., and Lawrence McEnerney. “Writing in College.” Some crucial differences between high school and college writing
Thonney, Teresa. “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse.” New Voice, May 2011, p. 359.
Health Wellbeing and Social Care (Contemporary Issues)
Health Wellbeing and Social Care (Contemporary Issues)
Name:
Tutor:
Institution:
Date:
Health Wellbeing and Social Care (Contemporary Issues) in UK
The effort to improve the quality of health care services requires sustainable, long-term health care reforms in UK, in fact, entail setting three strategies. This objective involve extension of the health insurance to these who are insured, facilitating a reflection of the value of health care services and the cost, formulating and implementing policies aimed at enhancing quality of health care services (Athena S., 2013, 1). Nevertheless, there is a need to establish whether the UK policies have an element of compatibility with the settings in the health care system and whether they set objectives are achievable. On the other hand, the health care system can use policies, which are applied in the in the local benchmarks in order to improve the quality while maintain the cost in a way that is feasible and effective through achievement of the set objective. This paper focuses of presenting a contextual discussion on welfare and policy by drawing evidence, strengths and weaknesses of policy measures, which have been formulated to address delivery of healthcare services in UK.
Strengths of policies in UK relates to a strategy for increasing the value of coverage as a way of improving the level of health care services in a system attributed to numerous benefits. Furthermore, there is a need to deal with the disparities identified in the local practice, which is presented through the challenges and opportunities in the health care system. However, there are chances where improvement of services quality can be associated with a spillover effect emanating from other hospitals (Chandra and Staiger, 2007, 20). This is facilitated by offering a chance for the hospital staff to interact and learn some practices from each other. Therefore, in this way the performance of the hospital’s staff is increased by avoiding to lagging behind other peers, thereby resulting to improved health care services and reduction of disparities (D’Souza1 and Sequeira, 2011, 88).
In UK there are policies to promote relationship between the utilisation health care services and the numerous visits and application of various technologies in health care systems, such as imaging and diagnostic technologies. Moreover, these services have proofed beneficial to numerous patients, despite insignificant guidance offered by various sources in the medical field (Baicker and Chandra, 2004, 54). Therefore, there is a need to deal with the disparities identified in the treatment of parties associated with a life expectancy, whereby there should be a spending measure for the end of life patients, which is attributable to the numerous modes of treatment. A great variation of the cost incurred in offering quality health care services that are based on the geographical regions (Milstein, 2004, 5). Therefore, there should be approaches aimed at saving the cost and improving the quality of health care services, which are achieved through approaches of medical staffs. In this case, the lower-performing hospitals can achieve good performance levels in their geographical location; hence reduce the disparities based on the geographical location of the hospital is a health care system (Rushton, 2007, 149). Moreover, this strategy would contribute to the establishment of a significant share of achievement through national benchmarks, and expunge the variations experienced in the quality of care offered to patients.
Health care policies in UK are aimed at facilitating expansion of coverage and control costs; in fact, these reforms are likely to be successful in situations involving conversation on the way finance is can be developed and applied in delivering effective care (Buttell, Hendler and Daley, 2007, 64). On the other hand, the reforms focused on long-term objectives, aimed at saving on the costs that are more significant to emphasis appropriation of resource to improve the quality of health and civilian’s lives (Reinertsen and Schellekens, 2005, 36). These policies are applied as strength for improving clinical education through research to develop and establish innovative solutions.
The first priority of UK policies involves integration of mental and behavioural health care into principal care and other health care services to the public during their lifetime. In this case, this has requires collaboration with psychologists, who are considered crucial components of interdisciplinary health care systems. Therefore, integrated health care regards an approach, which is attributed to increased level of interrelationship among health professionals. Besides, there coordinated care requires integration of psychological care within primary care services that lead improved access to quality health care services, thereby lowering care expenditures.
The second priority of UK policies also involves development of new models regarding primary care in order to expand accessibility to quality care despite decreasing supply of physicians (Athena S., 2013, 1). For instance, this priority focuses on medical home model that depends on multidisciplinary care groups that are coordinated by communication facilitated by proactive care focusing on the needs of the parents. Therefore, this facilities management of medical care programs, which enables coordination of the care for Medicaid patients. There are policies that considers the second priority to be involving fund partnership between public health agencies and provides aimed at meeting shared goals. In fact, this is considered a measure of decreasing or preventing chronic diseases (Dzau and Duke, 2009, 50). On the other hand, this priority involves collaboration with public employers, thereby offering them favourable condition of working. Therefore, this involves application of necessary effort to promote unity among communities with an aim of improving health.
The third of priority of this policy involves maintenance of psychological workforce through competence with aims of developing and applying evidence-based behavioural and psychological assessment. Therefore, intervention has been applied in addressing public needs brought about by altering demographics of the population (Lipson and Dibble, 2005, 22). In fact, this priority involves overwhelming evidence in mental and behavioural state of health workforce, which is increased through sufficient response of health care needs in increasing diverse population. On the other hand, this priority focuses on collaborating with psychologists, which are researchers and practitioners directly associated with health care systems for approximately fifty percent of the UK citizens. Nonetheless, the mortality of U.K citizens is associated with traits of mental health issues that are significant to public health concern.
There are policies that focus on identifying the third priority as supporting comparative effectiveness through research, which facilitates improvement of quality and value of care. In this case, this involves identification of intervention, which works best (Rhydderch, Elwyn, Marshall, and Grol, 2004, 213). On the other hand, this reforms focuses on significant important which can focus on reinforcing ability to conduct a study results on population. These reforms offer collaboration between communities and academic health centres, thereby offering a perfect way of tracking information regarding patients (Dzau and Duke, 2009, 23). Moreover, these reforms has been facilitating on ways of assessing effectiveness of clinical care.
The fourth priority involves ensuring that there is quality mental and behavioural health care and access to psychologists, who focus on plans and lifetime. This priority focuses on mental and behavioural health problems, which have serious effects physical health (Manojlovich, 2007, 1). The priority focuses functional ability and emotional welfare of the public. Therefore, effective treatment of mental and behavioural health focuses on prevailing problems, due to the need by numerous individuals in the care of received services. Some policies focus on supporting personalisation medicine through funding research, thereby supporting clinical interventions (Dzau and Duke, 2009, 24). There reform focuses on facilitating advancement in genomic research that yield, which would yield unexpected information regarding treatment that can be of great benefits (Curristine, Lonti and Joumard, 2007, 12). On the other hand, the third article identifies the second priority to be a focus on prevention, personalisation and prospective, that can be applied in changing treatment for diseases.
Weaknesses of the policy seeking extension relates to insurance coverage, which is not an assurance of high value of health care services; thus, there is a need to focus on those who are not insured in order to eliminate the perception that high quality health care services are offered to those who are insured (Baicker and Chandra, 2008, 30). Therefore, this create equality in the cost incurred in offering health care services, and chance of improving the quality of the services is increased based on the geography, instead of the status of insurance or expenditures (Manojlovich, 2007, 1). On the other hand, there are disparities that have been identified concerning the quality and cost of services offered to patients, who have the same insurance cover. Moreover, a negative relationship has been identified in the quality of the health care services received and the health insurance. Nevertheless, the relationship contributes to increased or decreased spending on the quality of health care services, whereby the labour force has been attributed increased specialist, instead of generalists (Buttell, Hendler and Daley, 2007, 64).
Cost of the health care services and the quality are intimately related; though, there is a certain quality of the health care can lead to lower costs, and this is because of the failure of the process to bring a series of high costs (Butts, 2010, 34). The unit output of the healthcare services is scrapped while the resources used in the production are wasted (Bandyopadhyay and Coppens, 2005, 20). In order to recover the scrapped units additional resources have to be reallocated to the appropriate deficiency. These allocations involve those aimed at replacing the customer who is lost due dissatisfaction in the organisation.
The lower the quality will eventually result to higher costs for the healthcare organisation. The additional costs arise due to the liability of the process failure caused by the low quality of the services offered to the customer. This situation is termed as Quality waste, which is a representation of the consumption of the resources for repairing the output unit that does not satisfy customers (Buttell, Hendler and Daley, 2007, 68). The waste is traced through identification scrap and rework as way of managing and eliminating quality wastage from within the organisation aimed to improve the quality of the services. However, UK government is cooperating with other state and boards in order to establish recommendation for a national process of public reporting and monitoring of care (Rushton, 2007, 149). They are also focused on developing the reporting analysis and methods for the adverse happenings; in fact; this is in order to increase responsiveness to the occasions of adverse events (Leatherman, Berwick, and Iles, et al., 2003, 30).
The government has actively engaged in the pursuit of establishing accreditation standards. The other initiative that they are taking is to develop a board recertification to the physicians and the health care organisation, and focus on their reporting of the public performance information. These organisations and the physicians are to be licensed via multispecialty group practices (Brent, 1989, 34). An independent agency is established with the roles and responsibilities to review the usefulness via the public and private partnership; in fact, this is aimed at establishing guidelines with standards for provision of better health care services. Through these agencies, parameters are set about the care that is anticipated to all the customers.
These parameters include access to medical records, reasonable waiting duration, and regularity source of care. These government agencies are focusing on establishing a performance standards aimed at gauging the meeting of the standards to regulate the performance of the medical services quality provided to the customers (D’Souza1and Sequeira, 2011, 88). The agencies are also aimed at separating the cohort of the substantiation of the translation guideline and the anticipated standard; in fact there are initiatives that are focused at improving the quality of services and at the same time incorporating costs control (Crigger, Brannigan and Baird, 2006, 15). By the nature of the health care being a process that comprises of series to effect the operations of an institution that provides health care services, the organisation should seek to establish a process. This process an involve admission, the process of billing, blood testing, and it facilitates the way of being organized. The commencing process is to establish the area that needs improvement and price control.
The institutions can also decide to form teams that have proficiency in the certain areas in order to execute the process in the desired way. The individuals that are able to perform well in certain areas and should perform in daily basis. The group members should be made to understand the significance of the improvement in the institution; in fact, they should focus on things like accessibility to management and data management systems that will facilitate the operation in the organisation (Casey, 2007, 5). In order to facilitate the provision of quality services, the organisation should seek to identify the customer’s expectation of the services to be offered to them (Lipson and Dibble, 2005, 23). They should seek to establish the process of output that can meet process. This will be through the focus on meeting the identified customers’ expectation in terms of the quality of the services. Apparently, teams should be focusing on determining relevant resources that should be deployed in order to meet standards of customers’ expect.
This measure of the output that is required in order to ensure that there is no wastage of resources in the organisation; in fact, the team of health care providers has to focus on the cost of the services that they are providing the customers (Crigger, Brannigan and Baird, 2006, 15). There are implications that are involved in the staff nurses and practices that are related to the cost and quality of services (Milstein, 2004, 5). Nurses should focus on having personal integrity in terms of safety and quality of health care services; in fact, nurses should have the enthusiasm to listen to the patients. They should also have the ability to develop a given practical objective to every individual in the organisation. This is in a way to generate an achieving strategy in the organisation.
References
Athena S., 2013, ‘Institute of Health and Wellbeing’, The University of Glasgow, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from < http://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/healthwellbeing/>
Buttell P, Hendler R, and Daley J., 2007, Quality in Healthcare: Concepts and Practice. Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from < http://healthcarecollaboration.typepad.com/healthcare_collaboration_/files/quality_buttell.pdf>
Baicker K. and Chandra, A., 2008, ‘Myths and Misconceptions about Health Insurance’, Health Affairs, 27 (6): 533-543
Brent C., 1989, ‘Quality Management for Health Care Deliver’, The Hospital Research and Educational Trust, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from < http://intermountainhealthcare.org/qualityandresearch/institute/Documents/articles_qmmp.pdf >
Buttell, P., Hendler, R. and Daley, J., 2007, Quality in Healthcare: Concepts and Practice. Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: <http://healthcarecollaboration.typepad.com/healthcare_collaboration_/files/quality_buttell.pdf>
Butts, J., 2010, Ethics in Professional Nursing Practice, Jones and Bartlett Publisher, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from :< http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763748986/48986_ch03_pass3.pdf>
Bandyopadhyay J. and Coppens K., 2005, ‘Six Sigma Approach to Healthcare Quality and Productivity Management’. International Journal of Quality and Productivity Management, 5(1); Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: <http://www.isqpm.org/2005%20Journal/Six%20Sigma%20Approach%20to%20Health%20Carel%20Quality%20Management-revised-1%20by%20Jay%20Bandyopadhyay%20and%20Karen%20Coppens.pdf>
Casey J., 2007, A Lean Enterprise Approach to Process Improvement in a Health Care Organisation, System Design and Management Program, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: < http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/42345/233976521.pdf >
Baicker K. and Chandra, A., 2004, ‘Medicare Spending, the Physician Workforce and Beneficiaries’ Quality of Care’, Health Affairs Supply Web Exclusive 25(4): 184-197
Chandra, A. and Staiger, D., 2007, ‘Productivity Spillovers in Health Care: Evidence from the Treatment of Heart Attacks’, Journal of Political Economy, 115(1): 80-92
Curristine, T., Lonti, Z. and Joumard I., 2007, Improving Public Sector Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities, OECD Journal on Budgeting, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 <www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/43412680.pdf>
Crigger, N. J., Brannigan, M. and Baird, M., 2006, ‘Compassionate nursing professionals as good citizens of the world,’ Advances in Nursing Science, 29(1), 15–26.
D’Souza1, S. and Sequeira, H., 2011, ‘Application of MBNQA for service quality management and performance in healthcare organisations’. International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology 3(7), pp. 73-88. Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: < http://www.ijest-ng.com/vol3_no7/ijest-ng-vol3-no7-pp73-88.pdf>
Milstein, A., 2004, Clinical Climate Change: How Purchasers Will Hinge Provider Revenue on Superior Cost Efficiency and Quality, Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: <http://council.brandeis.edu/pubs/Princeton%20XI/Arnold%20Milstein.pdf>
Manojlovich, M., 2007, ‘Power and empowerment in nursing: Looking backward to inform the future’, The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12 (1), Retrieved on Nov 30 2012 from: < http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/topic32/tpc32_1.htm>
Leatherman, S., Berwick, D., and Iles, D., et al., 2003. ‘The Business Case for Quality: Case Studies and an Analysis.’ Health Affairs 22 (2): 17–30, 18.
Lipson, J. G., and Dibble, S. L., 2005, ‘Introduction: Providing culturally appropriate health care’. In J. G. Lipson and S. L. Dibble (Eds.), Cultural and clinical care (pp. xi–xviii). San Francisco: University of California, San Francisco Nursing Press.
Rushton, C. H., 2007, ‘Respect in critical care: A foundational ethical principle’. AACN Advanced Critical Care, 18(2), 149–156
Reinertsen, J., and Schellekens, W., 2005, 10 Powerful Ideas for Improving Patient Care. Chicago: Health Administration Press, 36–37
Rhydderch, M., Elwyn, G., Marshall, M. and Grol, R. 2004. ‘Organisational Change Theory and the Use of Indicators in General Practice.’ Quality and Safety in Health Care 13: 213–17
