The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to […]

Effective communication is vital to constructing an accurate and detailed patient history. A patient’s health or illness is influenced by many factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, and environmental setting.  There may also be significant cultural factors. In May 2012, Alice Randall wrote an article for The New York Times on the cultural factors that encouraged Black women […]

Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations. For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work […]

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly. Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of […]

1. Introduction Patient Profile: Age: 92 years old. Ethnicity: African American. Presenting Complaint: Slurred speech. Brought by: Daughter to Emergency Department. Vital Signs: Blood pressure 210/100 mmHg. Clinical Significance: Slurred speech + severe hypertension suggests possible neurological emergency (stroke, transient ischemic attack). Advanced age and ethnicity increase risk factors for cerebrovascular disease. 2. Initial Assessment […]