Nursing Health and Environment – Executive summary Assignment 3

Nursing Health and Environment

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Introduction

A report shows that the United States spent $30 billion on treating diseases caused by environmental hazards in 2010 (John & SonsTaylor, 2015 pg. 36). There is a rise in cases of illness and incidents caused by the environmental hazards every year. This rise means an increase in risks of early death in the country. The cost for treating environmentally related diseases is anticipated to rise to $67.7 billion by 2020 (Linares, Bellés & Domingo, 2015). This executive summary will provide evidence-based methods to put in place to address these environmental hazards and deal with these diseases and reduce the cost of treating the diseases.

The Purpose of the Project

The project aims at the certified nurse assistants (CNAs) and nurses spending a considerable amount of time educating the community and the patients on environmental health and the environmental hazards (John & SonsTaylor, 2015 pg. 38). The nurses have direct contact with patients and community in both the rural and urban set-up. Therefore, the nurses provide a better opportunity to give education on the importance of environmental health. The nurses, however, need a lot of training and knowledge on environmental health and this will also entail the environmental hazards. This project aims to advocate for more focus on environmental health and implementation of policy and procedures in the healthcare system. With the new policy and procedure in environmental health, the nurses will be able to address environmental health effects.

The Target Audience

The project targets the nurses, executive council in the organization, the patients, certified nursing assistants, the unit council and community in both the rural and urban setup. First, there will be a study carried out for six months to keep track on the cases of diseases and incidents from environmental hazards, the cost of addressing these cases, and the efforts of the hospital to address environmental health. After compiling the study, there will be a six months program for intervention, and it will entail data collection on how the organization is working towards environmental health (Linares, Bellés & Domingo, 2015). After this 12 months period, the unit council will design the policy and procedure for implementation throughout the hospital. Later, the head of the unit council will make a presentation to the executive committee. The council will use verbal communication, PowerPoint, and body language during presentation. Upon the approval of the new policy, the implementation of the project will begin.

The Benefits of the Project

Ensuring environmental safety can mostly help mitigate the menace in ecological health (Linares, Bellés & Domingo, 2015). In today’s healthcare system, there is cause for concern to both the public and healthcare practitioners and especially the nurses on the need for environmental health. The nursing leaders are turning the focus on addressing environmental health by pushing for more training of the nurses on ecological health. It is essential that the healthcare practitioners understand these hazards clearly and the relationship between health and environment. The nurses are the majority of the healthcare providers who can quickly reach out to people in the community and as an individual. Therefore providing training on environmental health to nurses will play a significant role in addressing this issue. In the long run, the hospital will cut the costs it incurs in treating illnesses caused by environmental hazards. The funds saved can be invested in other projects that are beneficial to the organization.

The Cost of the Initiative

There will be a very minimal cost to provide training to nurses on environmental health. Articles and journals on environmental hazards need printing for use in the training process. Some costs will be in printing out the new policy for the nurses and other healthcare providers in the hospital. There will be cost in the revision of the nursing textbook so as it lays more focus on environmental health. However, there is no calculation of the budget for implementing the policy on nursing health and environment. The lack of a calculated budget is comes from an evaluation point of view; the cost will be less compared to the amount the hospital will save in treatment of environmentally related diseases (Blais, 2015).

The Basis upon which the project will be evaluated

The team management and leaders will evaluate the project by assessing the progress of the nurses during training and practical implementation of the knowledge gained during training and monitoring the nurses’ compliance on the new policy on environmental health. Those nurses who are not following the policy will need more training about environmental health. According to Blais, (2015), once the project is implemented the unit council and the management will measure the returns from the project by comparing the costs incurred before this procedure and policy on environmental health and after. The management and unit council will keep track on the number of patients’ cases of environmentally related diseases. There will be a survey of the patient’s knowledge on environmental health, and it will entail the use of questionnaires (Manual, 2015).

Conclusion

The practitioners who engaged in the implementation process of the new policy on environmental health stated that they are experiencing fewer cases of the ecological related disease. The community is also becoming cautious of the various environmental hazards they face every day. The community and the nurses should take the initiative in ensuring environmental safety and health with the former practicing environmental care and the latter giving more knowledge and emphasize on environmental health (Manual, 2015). Therefore, laying focus on environmental health in nursing leads to a decrease in cases of environmentally related diseases and incidents and it saves the hospital the cost of treating these cases.

References

Blais, K. (2015). Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives. Pearson.

John Wiley & SonsTaylor, F. W. (2015). Fundamentals of scientific management. In Working in America (pp. 35-42). Routledge.

Linares, V., Bellés, M., & Domingo, J. L. (2015). Human exposure to PBDE and critical evaluation of health hazards. Archives of toxicology89(3), 335-356.

Manual, R. S. (2015). Environmental Health and Safety.

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