INDIVIDUAL RIGHT VERSUS THE COLLECTIVE GOOD NURS 8100

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: INDIVIDUAL RIGHT VERSUS THE COLLECTIVE GOOD NURS 8100

The US has one of the highest healthcare spending in developed nations, and healthcare costs have increased dramatically in the past decades. One significant challenge to containing health care costs is administrative inefficiency related to the various components of the payer/provider/patient interface (Nunn et al., 2020).

The administrative costs occur in various forms, including prior authorization and eligibility determinations, claims processing and payment, and quality measurement. High administrative costs are particularly important contributors to high healthcare expenditures, which show the need for reforms to decrease costs in the US (Nunn et al., 2020). The high US administrative healthcare costs reflect the inefficiencies of the current healthcare system.

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Administrative costs cannot be eliminated, even in a public healthcare system, but they can be reduced through technology, policies, and practices. Policymakers across the US envision using technology to reduce administrative overhead and processes before and after care (Cutler, 2020).

The policymakers argue that healthcare technology can be implemented to facilitate the scheduling of patients’ appointments, manage patient communications, bill patients, and collect payments, which will lower administrative costs. For instance, they are pushing for policies for all facilities to have electronic medical records since they streamline patient care processes.

I agree with the policymakers that policies are needed requiring facilities to have certain technologies that streamline healthcare delivery. While healthcare organizations currently budget more than a quarter of their spending toward administrative tasks, technology has a great opportunity to simplify a patient’s care and reduce administrative costs.

Hospitals should put a greater emphasis on healthcare technology that increases patients’ choice and access to care (Cutler, 2020). The focus of the technology should be to remove barriers to healthcare appointments and provide direct, transparent pricing for every patient care aspect.

References

Cutler, D. M. (2020). Reducing administrative costs in US health care. The Hamilton Project Policy Proposal, 9, 3-25.

Nunn, R., Parsons, J., & Shambaugh, J. (2020). A dozen facts about the economics of the US healthcare system. Economic Facts. Washington, DC: The Hamilton Project.

Most of the recent successes in improving the public’4 s health have had to address the tension of individual rights versus the collective good. Anti-smoking campaigns and laws banning smoking in public places protect people from the negative health effects of second-hand smoke, yet some believe that they infringe on the individual rights of those who choose to smoke.

Requiring childhood immunizations has helped prevent diseases such as polio and measles, but some parents assert that they have the right to decide if being immunized is in the best interest of their children.

This tension also exists in the allocation of scarce resources, from providing adequate staff coverage to making decisions about the amount of health care to provide. Given the nurse’s involvement in policy and health care delivery, it is important to understand the dynamics of this tension, as well as the legal and ethical implications.

To prepare:

• When have you encountered a tension between the individual right and the collective good in your nursing practice?
• With information from the Learning Resources in mind, consider relatively recent examples of health care policy that demonstrate this tension. For this Discussion, select one example of timely health care policy that allows you to evaluate the tension between individual rights and the collective good. Conduct additional research as necessary using credible websites and the Walden Library.

By Day 3

Post a cohesive response that addresses the following:

• In the first line of your posting, identify a health care policy.
• Explain the tension between individual rights and the collective good.
• Analyze the ethical and legal considerations of the policy.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues posting adding to the discussion of the tension and legal and ethical considerations (beneficence, malfeasance, autonomy, and justice).

Note: Please see the Syllabus and Discussion Rubric for formal Discussion question posting and response evaluation criteria.

Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you learned and/or any insights you gained as a result of the comments made by your colleagues.

Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and any additional sources.

Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers gained a lot of publicity towards the end of last year. It was very important to have a policy that would guide health care workers due to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy that was rampant in all population sectors for different reasons. A regulation was established to ensure all staff who were eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine would do so by January of this year before providing any care or treatment (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2021). It was the responsibility of companies especially skilled long-term care facilities to establish a policy that would ensure those who qualified to be exempted did so in alignment of the guidelines established by the federal laws.

Tension between Individual Rights and the Collective Good.

In the health care world, herd immunity has been promoted especially in community nursing. It is very important because with herd immunity not everybody but the majority of the people can receive vaccination that leads to immunity of a disease. This makes infection transmission to be unlikely leading to the entire population being protected. This would cover even those who are not eligible for vaccinations. It is therefore important for bedside staff to be vaccinated. However according to Farah, Breeher, Shah, Hainy, Tommaso  & Swift (2022), there are major  disparities in actual vaccination rates among different health care workers (HCWs). Advanced practice staff who spend the least amount of time with patients have statistically received the vaccines than nurses and support staff. The probability of an infected support staff spreading COVID-19 would likely be higher because the close proximity of proving care with activities of daily living like showers may not be completed with full personal protective equipment (PPE) in place.

There are  HCWs who are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Bellanti (2021), refers a delay in acceptance or outright refusal of vaccines as vaccine hesitancy. Those staff members who decline to receive the vaccine even when they are eligible to get it cannot work in some hospitals or nursing homes. This creates a further challenge with staff shortage already being a major concern.

It is an undeniable fact that every person has a right to choose what goes in their body but it would not be wise to put people at risk if it was avoidable. To decline to get a vaccine because of misinformation, fallacies, or myths is unfortunate. This is relevant to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ethical and Legal Considerations of the Policy.

There are different factors that surround the mandate for COVID-19 vaccination policy among HCWs.  Perez, Paul, Raghuraman, Carter, Odibo,  Kelly & Foeller (2022), point out the nature of HCWs make them have a high occupational  risk for contracting and transmitting the COVID-19 infection after exposure. Legally and ethically it would therefore be fair to give them a priority to receive the vaccines first.

Getting to a point of herd immunity would also be critical. This is not achievable if the vaccine is not accessible on a global level. According to Hosseini (2021), one of challenges of COVID-19 vaccine is whether the manufactures of the vaccine can be forced to share information with competitors so that availability of the vaccine across the globe can be reached quickly. It would be ethically meaningful to look at infectious diseases as public rights instead of individual needs.

Education is key to knowledge. It is important to acknowledge vaccinations have been an important tool that has been used to contain some dangerous diseases in the past. According to Gurenlian,  Eldridge, Estrich,  Battrell,  Lynch,  Morrissey, Araujo, Vujicic & Mikkelsen (2022), it would be for the greater good to further educate HCWs on topics like virology and epidemiology.

Reference

Bellanti, J. A. (2021). COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine hesitancy: Role of the allergist/immunologist in promotion of vaccine acceptance. Allergy and Asthma Proceedings, 42(5), 386–394. https://doi.org/10.2500/aap.2021.42.210063

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (November, 2021). Biden-Harris Administration Issues Emergency Regulation Requiring COVID-19 Vaccination for Health Care Workers.https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-issues-emergency-regulation-requiring-covid-19-vaccination-health-care#:~:text=All%20eligible%20staff%20must%20have,beliefs%2C%20observances%2C%20or%20practices.

Farah, W., Breeher, L., Shah, V., Hainy, C., Tommaso, C. P., & Swift, M. D. (2022). Disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake among health care workers. Vaccine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.03.045

Gurenlian, J. R., Eldridge, L. A., Estrich, C. G., Battrell, A., Lynch, A., Morrissey, R. W., Araujo, M. W. B., Vujicic, M., & Mikkelsen, M. (2022). COVID-19 Vaccine Intention and Hesitancy of Dental Hygienists in the United States. Journal of Dental Hygiene, 96(1), 5–16.

Hosseini, M.(2021). A Covid Competition Dilemma: Legal and Ethical Challenges Regarding the Covid-19 Vaccine Policies during and after the Crisis. Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review, 6(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.53116/pgaflr.2021.1.5

Perez, M. J., Paul, R., Raghuraman, N., Carter, E. B., Odibo, A. O., Kelly, J. C., & Foeller, M. E. (2022). Characterizing initial COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among pregnancy-capable healthcare workers. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajogmf.2021.100557