Term Paper on "Quality of Life"

Term Paper 3 pages (1156 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Quality of Life in the Healthcare Professions

Utilizing one quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) so that one does not have to face many disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is the standard of a healthy life. One's health is directly related to one's quality of life and health services can help one achieve a high quality of life if they are used and used correctly. There is even an International Society for Quality of Life Research, which promotes investigation of health-related quality of life measurement. It promotes many of the areas of health standards and equal treatment on a global basis of all people. Among the areas of care where quality of life is affected are:

Variation of services: Some areas are provided with excellent quality of services, while other regions of the country and the world are sadly lacking in quality of services.

Underuse of services: People do not know or will not use the services which are available and therefore suffer needlessly. Preventative care will help clients avoid more serious problems which might be caught and treated earlier.

Overuse of services: People use health facilities too often for unnecessary services, increasing costs and endangering their health.

Misuse of services: Some people are injured while being treated and die prematurely through negligent care, errors and faulty medication administration. In the 10-year period from 1983 to 1993, 7,391 deaths were attributed to medication errors alone.

Disparities in quality: Ethnic and racial minorities are affected by lack of quality medical services, even today when our nation is proud of being multicultural and tolerant. Fewer Hispanics have been found to have undergone hip replacements, for instance, than non-Hispanic elderly whites. This lack of service to one element of the population means that many elderly Hispanics are still suffering needlessly from a surgery which can alleviate pan and improve physical function, two elements which will add to their quality of life (Fact, p. 2).

Some things which will add to quality of life have been singled out as most effective:

One's outlook on life. When one has an optimistic and positive outlook on life, one may find good in all events, whether they are surgeries to improve one's health, or facing one's demise with the knowledge that one's life has had meaning (Newman, p. 15).

Counseling and promotion of adherence to evidence-based guidelines for nurses and doctors. Nurses and other caregivers are encouraged to make inquiries as to the client's ongoing psychological and physical condition, to observe and make vital measurements. In this way nurses have been found to be critical in patients' positive outcomes through their experiencing positive and consistent care (Newman, p. 20).

A researcher and writer of nursing theories, Margaret a. Newman, believes in a theory of health as expanding consciousness. This is stimulated by concern for the mistaken concept that health is simply the absence of disease or a disability. For the diseased and dying, an emphasis on one's health is not enough. One needs quality of life in order to feel that one is worthwhile and that one has lived a good life. Rosemarie R. Parse published Newman's theory in 1981, responding to the search for meaning between caregiver and their relationship with the patient. Developed as a theory in the tradition of Heidegger, Gadamer, Dilthey and Merleau-Ponty, she researched works by European philosophers as well as by pioneer nurses and American theorists to develop the theory of health as expanding consciousness (Parse, p. 47).

Regionalizing surgery for Medicare… READ MORE

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