Enhancing Vaccination Rates in America
Introduction
According to the (CDC, 2019), vaccination entails the process of dispensing vaccines to assist the immune system in coming up with a defense against disease. But perhaps what makes vaccines to be quite useful is that it does not treat ailments but prevents them from occurring. A relative term related to vaccination is immunization, which primarily means the procedure of being vaccinated (CDC, 2019). This being the case, immunization is considered to be among the most feasible public health interventions currently, preventing approximately three million deaths annually across the world. According to a New York Times article (Waldstein, 2020), vaccination rates have significantly dropped in the United States. This has been primarily attributed to the upsurge of the coronavirus pandemic, which has threatened entire America. Rates of vaccinations for children have lessened significantly, with almost half of the newborns not being vaccinated. These falling rates threaten what is considered “herd immunity” through which the society had developed against ailments like measles (Waldstein, 2020). Even without consideration of the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous parents have across time refused or dragged their feet when it comes to the process of vaccinating their children or backing substitute immunization schemes due to medical or religious grounds. On this basis, this paper will discuss how healthcare technology, coordination of care, and community resources may be put into practice to address the population problem of enhancing vaccination rates in America.
Impact of Healthcare Technology on the Population Problem
Healthcare technology plays an essential role in ensuring that the vaccination rates in America are enhanced. This being the case, one of the vital obstacles to more excellent rates of vaccination is awareness. This is where technology essentially comes in. Through it, those individuals who are at risk of specific ailments are informed on the vaccinations that they are to acquire. Reminders are also set through customized health apps on vaccination schedules. Through the technological approach, individuals can be coaxed into considering vaccination for themselves and their children (Kolff et al., 2018). Another advantage of healthcare technology is that it can be used to produce a vaccine indirectly. This entails society sharing information on the upsurge of disease through social media platforms such as Twitter, emphasizing the symptoms, after which A. I (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms can pinpoint future outbreaks quickly enough, permitting public health officials to unfold both awareness and vaccination courses of action (Kolff et al., 2018).
Going into the specific technologies, the text message vaccine reminder is the first technology to be utilized. This is mainly used in the pediatric populace, as it is considered very useful in ensuring that the population acquires information on vaccines against certain illnesses (Kolff et al., 2018). Another technology that is deemed influential in Enhancing Vaccination Rates in America is the auto-dialer telephone reminder. This form of technology is considered to be essential in both pediatric and family medicine populations. What supplements this technology is email vaccine remainders, which are now utilized for vaccination processes with exceptional results. This being the case, the best positive impact of the technology, as mentioned above, has been the ability of the population to choose between the types of reminder technologies that they consider sufficient. But perhaps the most effective technologies come in the form of the electronic health records system (EHR). These systems have become quite widespread in the United States. Based on the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH). The EHR systems assist physicians in establishing vaccination schemes. Finally, Immunization Information Systems (IIS) is also another technology. This is classified, populace-based, automated databases that document all the vaccination doses dispensed through partaking providers to individuals living in a particular geopolitical location. They thus ease the fusion of vaccination records for utilization by health caregivers in establishing relevant patient vaccinations. The systems may also offer mass data on immunizations utilized in observing coverage and program functioning and steer public health measures (Groom et al., 2015).
The disadvantages of the aforementioned specific technologies are minimal. On vaccination awareness, technologies that entail social media platforms are sometimes prone to misleading information. This type of info can be deceptive to the population, giving them false information on the process of vaccination. This might scare them off the process, thus resulting in decreased Vaccination Rates in America. On the other technology of using Electronic Health Records to Supplement the vaccination process, it is worth noting that the disadvantages include privacy and security worries, changes in functioning, and financial anxieties (Atasoy et al., 2019). Therefore, the research study by (Rauch et al., 2018) presents opposing views of the technologies aforementioned, claiming that the best form of technologies to deal with the enhancement of vaccination rates in the United States is through Viral Vector-Based vaccines. This technology utilizes live or non-duplicating vectors (Rauch et al., 2018). Thus, it is worth noting that this evidence from the literature is in line with the technology utilized in nursing practice.
The potential barriers and costs associated with the use of the technologies, as mentioned earlier, are as follows. The communication technologies, text, and email message vaccine reminders are estimated to cost approximately $2.70. On the other hand, electronic health records are considered to be quite costly in terms of its initial adoption charge. The barriers include technical concerns, maintenance of the technologies, and Resistance to technological change by the population (Kruse et al., 2016). These technologies are applied within the context of the vaccination problem through two ways: creating awareness of the need for vaccination and the vaccination schedules through text message and email vaccine reminders and managing the vaccination of the populace through Electronic Health Records.
Care Coordination and The Utilization of Community Resources to Address Vaccination Rates
Care coordination entails purposefully organizing patient care ventures and sharing knowledge and particulars among all the partakers concerned with patients’ care to attain safer and more productive care (Williams et al., 2019). This being the case, care coordination can be used to ensure that the vaccination rates in America are enhanced. It is worth noting that care coordination is a healthcare delivery framework designed out of the developing awareness of both the extensiveness and cost of health conditions and the impediments of a healthcare system that revolve around acute care (Williams et al., 2019). This care coordination process is thus perceived as crucial to ensuring patient-centered care, which is of high quality (Izumi et al., 2018). Therefore, care coordination can be used in this population problem to make sure that every individual in the community is vaccinated in an attempt to link the community’s needs and inclinations in the issuance of top-notch health care. However, in doing so, community resources must also be included in the vaccination enhancement plan. This is mainly in the form of the places or structures whereby public awareness on enhancing vaccination should occur. With care coordination and community resources both in place, enhancing vaccination will be relatively smooth. Since the care coordinators are both aware of the healthcare systems and the general population, they are responsible for coming up with strategies to ensure that the population accepts the vaccinations being delivered by the healthcare systems. However, various researchers are against the idea of care coordination. A good example is (Chen et al., 2018), who claim that the best alternative is the integrated service lines, which are considered more structurally appropriate to the population problem. This evidence gathered is consistent with how care coordination and community resources are used in nursing practice.
The barriers to care coordination and community resources in the context of this population problem includes interactions of care coordinators with the population, whereby the population may develop trust issues with coordinators. The population may also fail to thoroughly understand the care coordinators’ role in enhancing vaccination rates and thus making their task of doing so very difficult (Friedman et al., 2016).
State Board Nursing Practice Standards and Governmental Policies linked with health care technology, care coordination, and community resources
The state Board Nursing Practice Standards are essential in steering actions that entail technology, care coordination, and community resources. The first standard to be considered is that nurses are tasked with issuing safe, applicable, and receptive quality nursing practice (ANA, 2018). Through this standard, the care quality and safety of the population given with the vaccinations are guaranteed. Therefore, the techniques utilized in making the population aware of the importance of immunization and the actual vaccination process are all safe and effective. The second nursing standard claims that nurses think critically and scrutinize nursing practice (ANA, 2018). Through this standard, the cost to both the system and individuals will be put into consideration.
Local, state and federal policies affect the nursing scope of practice while implementing the enhancing vaccination rates programs in numerous ways. Based on the Patient Self-Determination Act, the patient has the right to accept or decline medical care after acquiring intensive knowledge on the same. This means that the vaccination cannot be forced onto the population using the technologies and care coordination approaches. Thus, only the population that accepts it after full information is presented is to be given the vaccination. Another policy that claims that nurses should only utilize evidence-based practices also affects the nursing scope. The techniques to be used in Enhancing Vaccination Rates in America should be purely evidence-based.
Nursing ethics will inform the population problem’s approach based on the applied technology, care coordination, and community resources used. The ethical values are instrumental in addressing the population problem since nurses are champions for patients and must come up with a balance when issuing patient care. Among the principles include autonomy, whereby the population will have the privilege of making their minds emphasizing their beliefs and principles (Haddad & Geiger, 2020). Beneficence is also another principle whereby the nurse should foster good. The process of vaccination is aimed at making sure the population does not suffer from diseases. Non-maleficence is also another harm whereby it is worth noting that nurses should not bring about harm to their populace. This being the case, the applied technology, care coordination, and community resources will all be aimed at making sure that no harm befalls the population to engage in vaccination.
References
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