Care Coordination: An Essential Tool for Homeless Shelters' Health Needs - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ethical values should guide healthcare providers as they provide the basis under which nurses identify the intentions, actions, and motives required. Care coordination allows for the organization of care to enable the delivery of healthcare services. For care coordination to be effective, there is a need for all personnel and resources to be organized. Homeless shelters consist of a group of people who would benefit a lot from care coordination. The health needs of homeless shelters are challenging as being homeless hurts the health of the individuals. Special services for the homeless are essential as they have unique healthcare needs. This paper investigates the ethical and policy factors in care coordination in a homeless shelter.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Governmental Policies Related to The Health and Safety of People in Homeless Shelters

The federal government has established policies related to the health and safety of people in homeless shelters. Such policies ensure that the decisions made in care coordination are relevant to the health and safety of the individuals. Some of the procedures established by the government control the funding and delivery of healthcare services. One of the policies developed for homeless shelters is the 2006 policy of essential care for homeless individuals (Duffy, 2018). The system was established after the realization of the various problems that people in homeless shelters experience. People living in homeless shelters are exposed to multiple health risks, which leads to the need for coordination of care. The policy was developed as a guide to the communities, individuals in the shelters, and healthcare providers to discuss the crucial issues they experience and provide solutions.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act of 1996 also provides some crucial policies that govern the coordination of care for the homeless (Powell Davies et al., 2017). Most of the people in homeless shelters cannot afford health insurance. The act provides modifications for such people to ensure that they receive medical care. The bill also helps to protect the confidentiality of the individuals.

National, State, And Local Policy Provisions That Raise Ethical Questions in Care Coordination

The policies developed at the national, state, and local levels raise some ethical questions that need to be addressed. Most of the ethical concerns are directed towards practices and policies in care coordination, especially in homeless shelters. Some of the deficiencies are troubling both in principle and in practice and need to be corrected. The first ethical question raised by the policies concerns the confidentiality of the patient information. It is necessary to ensure that the patient's medical history is secured and that only authorized people can access it (Shulman et al., 2017). It will help protect the homeless from individuals who might target them for exploitation.

Another ethical question concerns how the information obtained is used within the coordination of care as well as outside of care. It is essential to ensure that the consent of the patient is obtained before the information is used elsewhere. The implication and consequences of the policy's ethical concerns are that it may endanger the life of the individual, especially if they are suffering from terminal illnesses such as cancer.

Impact of The Code of Ethics for Nurses on The Coordination and Continuum of Care

The code of ethics for nurses with regards to coordination of care has several impacts that need to be assessed. First, nurses are expected to have a code of ethics that guides them and helps them evaluate the various situations they experience. The code of ethics is a non-negotiable standard that all nurses are expected to follow, ensuring that nurses practice coordination of care with dignity, compassion, and equality for every person. It also ensures that the patients are kept at the center of attention. Precise boundaries are put into place during the coordination of care, and nurses are expected to advocate for the betterment of the patients. The code of ethics also ensures that the nurses protect the rights of the homeless to health and promote their safety.

Several factors contribute to health disparities and access to services in homeless shelters. Most of the discrepancies are caused by environmental, social, and economic factors in society. The leading cause of disparities in access to healthcare services is the institutional, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and systemic inequality that leads to differences in resource allocation. Lines of gender race, sexual orientation, class, and other dimensions have been used to create disparities in the coordination of care. Another factor contributing to health disparities is the unequal allocation of resources, goods, and services. This form of inequality is demonstrated in unequal economic, environmental, and social conditions, commonly referred to as health determinants (Isaacs et al., 2019).

The social determinants of health, as identified in healthy people 2020, were developed to create a physical and social environment that promotes the health of all individuals. It illustrates the importance of ensuring that everyone in the community has access to health by addressing all the social determinants of health. It works to close the gap between various social groups to achieve health equity by taking action on the social determinants of health. Social health determinants refer to the environmental conditions under which people are born, work, live, worship, play, learn, and affect the health and functioning of the individuals. Resources that improve the quality of life have a significant impact on the quality of life. Examples of social determinants include access to job opportunities and education, the ability to meet daily needs, public safety, social support, among others.

Key Ethical and Policy Issues

The rapid advancements in technology in the healthcare sector have led to nurses and other health care providers to face a lot of challenges as policies are yet to be established for new practices and procedures for care coordination on homeless shelters. It is, therefore, important that nurses exercise caution when making decisions to avoid legal liability. It is also necessary that they consider the ethical aspect of their actions to ensure that they put the interest of people in homeless shelters first. Making such decisions seems easy at first glance, but in many situations, they turn out to be hectic as what seems ethical is not legal. It is, therefore, essential that nurses understand the code of ethics for coordination of care in homeless shelters. Although policies may change, the fundamental ethical principles are always the same.

Coordination of care in homeless shelters require that nurses have the essential elements of care, which include attentiveness. Nurses are ethically expected to attend to the needs of their patients. They should also be responsible when making decisions as they make them daily and impacting the lives of people. They should, therefore, consider the implications of the decisions they make as they affect the health and well being of an individual (Sullivan, 2019). Competence is also required as care coordination in homeless shelters involves a lot of knowledge and skills that may be complex. One has to stay up to date with the needs of the patients and the best practices of providing coordination of care in homeless shelters. Nurses also have the ethical responsibility of ensuring that their patients in homeless shelters respond to the treatment they receive and communicate this to other members of the treatment team. Care coordination also requires that the concerns of the patients are addressed.

Conclusion

Although most of the time, healthcare providers rely on their employers to guide them on the policies that they should follow, they make decisions on ethical issues independently. Such ethical concerns do not fit with the needs of each individual in the homeless shelters. In such a situation, the decisions made should respect the autonomy of the individual. In most cases, the patient's beliefs in care coordination are different from those of the healthcare provider. Nurses are expected to respect the patient's choices even when they differ with those they could make if they were in a similar situation. The decisions made should also benefit the patient, as they should positively impact the individual's health. For example, some policies limit the visitation of patients when in ICU, but they do not consider a situation where one has a same-sex spouse. Although the health care provider may be against homosexuality, they should put their belief aside and determine if having the person in the room with the patient would improve their outcome. In some situations, this may be good, while in other cases, it may be harmful if conflicts are in the relationship. Truthfulness in care coordination is also essential as health care providers act as patient advocates in most situations.

References

Duffy, J. R. (2018). Quality caring in nursing and health systems: Implications for clinicians, educators, and leaders. Springer Publishing Company.

Isaacs, A., Beauchamp, A., Sutton, K., & Kocaali, N. (2019). Care coordination can reduce the unmet needs of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 563.

Powell Davies, G., Harris, M., Perkins, D., Roland, M., Williams, A., Larsen, K., & McDonald, J. (2017). Coordination of care within primary health care and with other sectors: a systematic review.

Shulman, C., Hudson, B. F., Low, J., Hewett, N., Daley, J., Kennedy, P., ... & Stone, P. (2018). End-of-life care for homeless people: a qualitative analysis exploring the challenges to access and provision of palliative care. Palliative medicine, 32(1), 36-45.

Sullivan, H. R. (2019). Hospitals’ obligations to address social determinants of health. AMA journal of ethics, 21(3), 248-258.