Postpartum Depression Screening: An Essential Activity - Essay Sample

Introduction

The postpartum depression screening process is an essential activity that has attracted several views continentally. The mothers generally experience the illness during their initial stages of a period of about 4-6 weeks. It is not worth at all to describe the disease as a disorder or character flaw, as its symptoms often get triggered on some occasions, surpassing their women's potentials to control or counteract its effects. However, it may be described in a better manner as a form of complication involved when giving birth. The primary objective of this discussion to lay down debate on the cases of women who usually resume their places of stay without getting the essential diagnosis or any other form of treatment. The appropriate plans, the corrective measures of the problem, and the positive impacts that would result, after a perfect implementation of these measures are also elaborated in the latter section of this study.

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Literature

Gjerdingen and Yawn's (2007) article provides a glance at the importance of doing the postpartum screening, the possible methods of undertaking the screening process, and why the act is highly recommended. Gjerdingen and Yawn found that the depression majorly occurs in about 10-20% of the total women in the USA hospitals where studies were performed. Besides, they also suggested that, despite the evidence of regular postpartum screenings for women in hospitals, the use of wrong screening tools is a potential challenge that continues to pose problems overwhelming the efforts of detection, which is underway. For this reason, they stated that further study should be undertaken to identify the most relevant postpartum screening tool that is more effective and efficient. Beck and Gable (2000) previously identified the challenge in the United States of America, noting that by the year 2000, almost 400,000 suffered from postpartum.

However, they stressed that only a few get identified, probably due to the use of wrong or ineffective screening tools. In their study, they offer a proposal of ways that could be used to improve the efficiency in hospitals to ensure that every woman suffering from postpartum depression gets early identification for implementation of the diagnosis and treatment plans before the symptoms become severe or treacherous. Beck and Gable (2001) further quote that the only known tool for offering postpartum screening is the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), which had proved to be less efficient for screening the extent of mood disorders in women.

The study also found that the instrument had less affinity to offer accurate results, and errors occasionally occurred in the hospitals making many women go home undiagnosed and untreated as well (Boyd et al., 2005). Nevertheless, eight more self-report measures have been designed in the last decade as practical tools for assessing depressive symptoms during the postpartum period, preferably 1-3 days after a successful delivery (Boyd et al., 2005). There are published psychometric data that are responsible for determining the extent of reliability, sensitivity, the level of specificity, and also concurrent validities. These metrics are perfect evaluation measures for the rate of efficiency and effectiveness of a screening instrument such as the EPDS (Boyd et al., 2005).

Plan-Do-Study-Act

A plan-do-study-act framework is a health model that was utilized to make measurements for practicing a change, to offer a universal screening of Postpartum depression. The original plan involved in this study was to initiate a difference in the clinical practices, by providing primary education to improve the aspect of literacy among the health care professionals that regularly handle women during the process of childbirth. Another critical plan was to offer various screening interventions.

The do-phase involved the process of implementing the education about offering an Affordable Care Act to improve the PPD. Besides, the use of EPDS and Electronic Health Record documentation interventions was also involved heavily in the do-phase. Under the study-phase, engaged more of data analysis, and making summaries of the suggested measures and steps that are already in action. The health experts and health professionals were also subjected through a post-education activity after the primary or basic education were offered. The post-education involved activities such as the use of administered questionnaires aiming at obtaining their inquiries. They were requested to respond using the surveys, whether they understood the elements and policies defined by the ACA preventive PPD services in collaboration with the EHR audits.

The last act phase typically consisted of the planning interventions for the next cycle, which was to be modified to realize better and appealing results. The success of these modifications would further be measured based on the number of postpartum depression cases tested and the results obtained in them using the modern EPDS.

Desired Outcome

One of the most desirable outcomes from the plan-do-study-act design model was to achieve a positive deviation on the success of self-reported knowledge for the ACA preventive PPD perinatal care services. This would improve the confidence of the bodies and researchers that errors are more likely to get eliminated in the future if every health officer proves that he/she has gained the necessary knowledge concerning postpartum depression symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. From the available experience by various researchers, it was noted that the primary cause of women going home undiagnosed or untreated, is because there were no practical tools for screening. However, there are also possibilities that the failure in postpartum depression screenings was caused by the illiteracy of some health workers who did not understand the standards of ACA and the most recommended diagnosis and treatment plans.

Another desired outcome was an increase in the provider-documented rates of screening, using the EPDS tools. Perhaps, the primary cause of women going home without PPD diagnosis and treatment was lack of testing, of offering the activity at a lower rate which is too negligible effort. After the successful completion of the plan-do-study-act model, it was a proposal that a notable increase in the number of screening tests increase.

Educators and experts noted that, with an increase in the name of screening tests, it was possible to identify the causes of PPD and offer the corresponding diagnosis to the women, to help them in fighting against the mild symptoms of PPD, such as Post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD. From the undertaken study, it was evident that there was a general increase in the number of PPD screening tests from 56% to 92.7% (Beck & Gable, 2000). The report also showed that there was a comprehensive utilization of the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale PPD to perform the screening (Beck & Gable, 2000). This proved how successful EPDS could be perfect and practical when applied correctly. It also helped in reducing the cases of PPD symptoms after their discharge from the hospitals after the delivery process.

Another minor desired outcome from the project plan was also to create awareness and knowhow of the health care providers, on the effective use of PPD screening tests, with a subsequent application of standardized screening tools such as EPDS (Beck & Gable, 2000).. This was achieved by the results from the ACOG and NIHCM, who appreciated and acknowledged that PPD screening tools are undoubtedly valuable elements for offering postpartum care.

It also provides a recommendation that a universal screening using the EPDS tool had a simultaneous impact of promoting an earlier identification of the symptoms and treatment for the material depressions (Beck & Gable, 2000). Furthermore, such interventions have a concurrent positive effect of increasing the degree of recognition and detection rates of PPD, which further helps in further prevention of related complications and additional avoidable costs.

Factors That May Lead to the Success of Project Plans

Certain items could contribute heavily towards the success of the plan and delivery of the defined measures. The first suggestion is to build a dialog box that incorporates all of the EPDS aspects and criteria for storing data in a well-designated EHR system. EHR records have importance in any health organization because the patient records are kept and, the access is the particular limited set of consented individuals.

Secondly, flags should be integrated into the EHR systems to help in easier identification of women who have been screened using the EPDS. The most significant advantage of using the EHR models in the ACA preventive PPD care services is that doctors can no longer forge documents for screening, or use other tools which are not certified by the ACA guidelines and policies (Beck et al., 2001). Lastly, the printed copies of the EPDS results should be laminated, and various texts produced both in English and Spanish Languages.

Conclusion

This study offered an actual picture of the challenge that takes place in hospitals. In this discussion, the fundamental aim was to determine the reason behind the fact that many women go home undiagnosed for PPD after deliveries, which end up suffering from severe symptoms of PPD, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The researchers in the articles provided found that the most outraging challenges were the absence of modern screening tools in hospitals. Besides, there were no EHR models to compile reports for the screening cases, to evaluate the success of the PPD screening process.

PPD can impose a severe tragedy characterized by severe consequences primarily for women and newborn babies. Research has proved beyond doubt that PPD screening using EPDS screening tools may be an appropriate measure to reduce the effects of these tragedies, as the standardized tool helps in the promotion of early recognition and intervention strategies. Nevertheless, although there are assurances when these screening tools are used, there is a need to do more studies and research to boost the accuracy and success of the treatment interventions of PPD. Meanwhile, in the plan proposed in the plan-do-study-act model, developing and implementing the charting tools in the EHR system was predominant, with more straightforward educational activities aimed at increasing the overall awareness and knowledge concerning PPD screening and the EPDS tool. The use of the EPDS tool was proved to be beneficial because it can help in promoting optimal health outcomes in women and children through its ability to identify the PPD symptoms prior.

References

Beck, C. T., & Gable, R. K. (2000). Postpartum Depression Screening Scale: development and psychometric testing. Nursing Research, 49(5), 272-282. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/cardiovascularpharm/00006199-200009000-00006.fulltext

Beck, C. T., & Gable, R. K. (2001). Further validation of the postpartum depression screening scale. Nursing Research, 50(3), 155-164. https://journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/00006199-200105000-00005.fulltext

Boyd, R. C., Le, H. N., & Somberg, R. (2005). Review of screening instruments for postpartum depression. Archives of women's mental health, 8(3), 141-153. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-005-0096-6

Gjerdingen, D. K., & Yawn, B. P. (2007). Postpartum depression screening: importance, methods, barriers, and recommendations for practice. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 20(3), 280-288. Retrieved from https://www.jabfm.org/content/20/3/280.short