Care Coordination and Specialty
Roles
Care coordinators work directly with at risk populations in many different
ways. The hallmark goal of care
... [Show More] coordinators is to assist with the process of
transitioning of care. Care coordinators also assess the needs of patients, create
plans of care, follow up with patients and make changes when appropriate (Eardley,
2018). In a nutshell care coordinators help keep high risk patients on their feet and
running in the right direction and when obstacles arise it is the job of the care
coordinator to assist the patient over that obstacle.
This type of care helps to reduce risk factors by assessing those risk factors
before allowing the patient to be placed in a situation where they can negatively
affect the patient. Care coordinators remove or reduce these risk factors by utilizing
a multidisciplinary care team and many different resources. Care coordinators also
are able to recognize protective factors in play for each individual and work to
strengthen them. This can be done in many ways such as making the patient more
aware of their protective factors so they can be built upon, they can work to ensure
any weaknesses in the protective factors are guarded to prevent them from failing
and becoming a risk factor.
Care coordinators just like public health nurses, utilize the public health
nursing interventions. One intervention care coordinators use often is
advocacy. The term advocacy almost defines the care coordinator role. All of the
things care coordinators do are steps advocating for the patient. Smoothing the
transition from hospital to home, setting up transportation for patients to
appointments, creating a care plan that best fits that individual’s needs, are all
examples of how the care coordinator is advocating for their patient. The second
intervention used by care coordinators is collaboration. Care coordinators must
work with all members of the care team as well as outside sources to achieve the
desired outcomes. Care coordinators work with hospitals, clinics, county programs,
transportation services, food services, home care agencies, rehabs, nursing homes
etc. All of these resources are needed for high risk populations and it is the duty of
the care coordinator to coordinate with them to ensure positive outcomes.
The Henry Street Consortium identifies 11 competencies or cornerstones
for public health nursing. The competency I chose to right about is number 10
which is as follows: Demonstrates nonjudgmental/unconditional acceptance of
people different from self. I feel like this competency fits with care coordinators
because they often work with people whom are underserved and often quite
different from themselves. People of different cultures, different languages, lower
income, elderly, are all examples of people who would be considered high risk
patients and whom likely are in need of help from a care coordinator. It is very
important that care coordinators treat each patient with respect and dignity
regardless of their situation. Without this a health trusting relationship will be hard
to achieve which will in turn lead to poorer outcomes.
The specialty role I chose to discuss is correctional nursing. This refers to
nurses working in correctional facilities like prisons and jails. Nurses are tasked
with routine medication administrations as well as assessing injuries and
illnesses. I selected this specialty role because I thought it might be interesting to
look a little further into this type of nursing and see the differences they are able to
make in what might often feel like an unlikely place.
Nurses working in corrections help to improve the health of this at risk
population by always being a safe place to go with concerns regarding their
health. Inmates can often feel alone and isolated and to have someone whom they
always can trust to do them no harm and provide care can be ver [Show Less]