Course Definition and Alignment Table

This paper’s chosen course focuses on the nursing care provided to patients with chronic illnesses in community health centers. Registered nurses who want to become more knowledgeable and proficient in managing patients with chronic illnesses in a community health center environment should take this course (Airhihenbuwa et al., 2021). The course will cover assessment, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention, among other elements of managing chronic diseases. 

Course Description to Support Educational Program Outcomes

Course Title

“Nursing Care in a Community Health Center for Patients with Chronic Illnesses”

Course Description

Due to high morbidity rates in community health centers, registered nurses need to be aware of practices as well as techniques that will help them offer optimal care to chronic patients.

Vision

To be more precise, the goal of the course is to equip registered nurses with the knowledge and skills that would enable them to provide efficient, high-quality nursing care to community members with chronic illnesses who seek services at the health center.

Rationale

Many people around the globe suffer from severe health issues that is chronic diseases. The three major killers in the US as well as taking a high percentage of the healthcare costs are chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease (Bloomfield et al., 2023). For the effective treatment of ailments and to ensure that patients are well taken care of, nurses are very essential. However, a lot of nurses do not possess the experience that is required to effectively provide treatment to patients with chronic illnesses. This course fills up these knowledge gaps by providing nurses with the skills and knowledge required to treat patients with chronic illnesses to the best of their ability.

Align Learning Objectives to Program Outcomes

Course Learning Objectives

• The detail of care will be in evidence-based interventions which will be the prime focus of the nurses.
• The task of appraisal and supervision of people with chronic diseases is made easier.
• Designing aggressive yet structured programs to attend to patients suffering from the disease.
• Promoting the learning objectives, and encouraging the nurses to focus on engaging with stakeholders of the organization is also under the goals of the learning objectives.
• Since self-care activities are critical to patient outcomes, nurses will focus on patient teaching and counseling.
• For registered nurses, factors regarded to ethical standards of patients as well as their critical thinking skills will be highlighted here.
• Designing and developing online simulation games for licensed practical nurses.

Program Description 

This massive continuing education program is for the registered nurse who aspires to enhance his or her skills and knowledge in delivering patient care at CHCs for clients with chronic diseases (Flaherty, 2019). Through online courses, workshops, and practical sessions, the nurses will be able to understand more about the pathophysiology of the diseases, diagnosis, treatment, and management of Chronic diseases. The program may consist of a variety of self-paced online modules, workshops, case scenarios, and hands-on practice that make it possible for nurses to easily and quickly build on to their knowledge and skills. This course will span for 12 weeks and each week, the learner will be expected to undertake 30 hours of training.

Program Outcomes

In enhancing the quality of patient health, will apply nursing care as a way of addressing chronic diseases through nursing best practices. These are technological interventions that the nurses will use to enhance the care they offer to patients diagnosed with chronic diseases. Chronic patients should always be assessed and monitored to ensure that their diseases are well managed to prevent certain ramifications. This is because a complete care plan enables the efficient understanding of chronic patient problems by nurses (Airhihenbuwa et al., 2021). Therefore, through the identification of the concerns of chronic patients, the nurses will be in a position to provide optimum care by working as a team. This will enhance their teamwork skills. The leadership potential of the nurses will also be enhanced. Display high levels of ethical and critical thinking when it comes to diagnosing and addressing the needs of chronically ill and complicated patients. 

Identification of Assumption 

Of course, the proposal assumes that registered nurses are interested in broadening their experience in dealing with chronic patients in a community health center setting (Bloomfield et al., 2023). They affect a large number of patients and are one of the main concerns in the field of healthcare. I believe that nurses will stand to gain from the many learning activities incorporated in the course, which will enhance their efficiency.

Part 2 – Memo to Department Supervisor

To, Department Supervisor,

The current letter is written to propose a continuing education course necessary for registered nurses working in the context of a community health center. The purpose of the proposed course ‘Chronic Disease Management in the Community Health Center Setting’ is to equip the nurses with the knowledge and skills that would enable them to provide optimal nursing care to chronically ill patients.

Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases are on the rise, and nurses must be ready to attend to these patients appropriately (Cabral et al., 2020). The proposed course will meet this need by equipping nurses with a better understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and management of chronic diseases as well as the skills that will enable them to provide the required, optimal nursing care to patients with these conditions.

This course can be taken by nurses who feel they need to upgrade their knowledge and proficiency to perform the role of caring for patients with chronic diseases within a health center that focuses on community health (Bloomfield et al., 2023). A knowledge checklist before and after the course, as well as a skills practice and appraisal, will be used to measure the effectiveness of the course. The pre-course knowledge program evaluation will be provided before the course begins, and the post-course knowledge assessment will be provided after the course ends. Also, we will evaluate skills through demonstrations and assessments including questionnaires that can also help in establishing the degree to which courses enhance productivity among nurses. The effectiveness of the course in increasing the knowledge and know-how of the nurses will be evaluated using the assessment design method.

While skill demonstrations and assessments form part of the evaluation design method it remains ambiguous as to how realistically the conducted simulations above would portray the real world of patient care in a CHC. Perhaps, more studies could be done to identify the best ways of evaluating the impact of continuing education programs on patients. Literature supports the need for the suggested course (Lin et al., 2021). In one particularly enlightening analysis of the research, patients can be served better if they stick to the treatment regime, and doctors should urge them to do so for chronic disease. Another peer-reviewed study is nurses’ patient-centered care for chronic patients In an attempt to foster patient well-being and promote involvement in the treatment process. Since patients may succumb to recurrent infections caused by unclosed sores, there is increased focus on investigating the role of patient-centered care offered by healthcare practitioners in increasing clients’ success in wound care.

To support my suggestion, it is now recommended to offer this suggested continuing education course to our community health center’s registered nurses (Cabral et al., 2020). This training will enhance our program offering and enable the nurses to acquire vital knowledge and skills in the management of chronic illnesses. We would appreciate the chance to discuss further this suggestion and give any additional information that is required.

Thank you for considering this proposal.

Align Appropriate Professional Standards and Regulations

We shall apply the following criteria to make sure that the learning objectives of the nursing education course are in line with the relevant professional standards and laws:

The organization that notes key competencies for nursing is the American Nurses Association (ANA), and the learning objectives must reflect these competencies. Some of these competencies are patient-centered care, coordination, and communication, evidence-based practice, quality, safety, and informatics (Omboni et al., 2020). Specific goals and objectives of the course will respect the Nurse Practice Act and, if needed, the state legislation. This includes area of practice, legal and ethical concerns, as well as, theories and skills relevant to nursing practice. Moreover, effectiveness can be measured concerning the standards set down by the NCSBN. These guidelines ensure that the nurse education programs meet the required standards as far as effectiveness and quality are concerned.

Evaluation of Alignment Criteria

We will apply the following criteria to assess how well the learning objectives correspond with professional norms and laws: Relating to the course content, the competencies that are basic in nursing and which will be addressed in the course should be stated explicitly in the learning objectives as well as how they will be integrated into the design (Van et al., 2023). It is recommended that the learning objectives should be resent to nursing professionals and various stakeholders to ensure compliance of the certain course to the Nurse Practice Act as well as the laws of the state in which the course will be conducted. In light of this, while designing the course, the learning objectives should be aligned with the ANA, NPA, and NCSBN standards. If there are blanks or weak links, they have to be addressed.

Conclusion

Patients with this disease need constant monitoring since the conditions that go with this disease may worsen. In as much as the health of the patient has to be enhanced and the quality of their treatment enhanced, it’s important to embrace the services of the nurses (Omboni et al., 2020). To enhance the knowledge, the course of patient-centered care for patients with chronic diseases in a community health center will be pursued. Essays prove that nurses can enhance the treatment of patients if they coordinate their actions and, more importantly, get to understand how to handle the diseases of chronic patients.

References

Airhihenbuwa, C. O., Tseng, T. S., Sutton, V. D., & Price, L. (2021). Global perspectives on improving chronic disease prevention and management in diverse settings. Preventing Chronic Disease, 18, E33. https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd18.210055

Bloomfield, J. G., Fisher, M., Davies, C., Randall, S., & Gordon, C. J. (2023). Registered nurses’ attitudes towards e-learning and technology in healthcare: A cross-sectional survey. Nurse Education in Practice, 69, 103597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2023.103597

Cabral, D. D. S., Nascimento, M. C. D., Miranda, T. P. S., Júnior, S. I. D. S., Bittencourt, F., & Silva, S. A. D. (2020). Evaluation of healthcare networks by nurses in the Family Health Strategy. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P, 54, e03589. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220×2018048703589

Cohen, S. P., Vase, L., & Hooten, W. M. (2021). Chronic pain: An update on the burden, best practices, and new advances. Lancet (London, England), 397(10289), 2082–2097. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00393-7

Flaherty M. J. (2019). Rehabilitation therapy in perioperative pain management. The Veterinary Clinics of North America. Small Animal Practice, 49(6), 1143–1156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2019.07.006

Lin, L., Wang, H. H., Lu, C., Chen, W., & Guo, V. Y. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and subsequent chronic diseases among middle-aged or older adults in China and associations with demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. JAMA Network Open, 4(10), e2130143. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.30143

Omboni, S., Campolo, L., & Panzeri, E. (2020). Telehealth in chronic disease management and the role of the Internet-of-Medical-Things: The Tholomeus experience. Expert Review of Medical Devices, 17(7), 659–670. https://doi.org/10.1080/17434440.2020.1782734

Udesen, S. E. J., Lassen, A. T., Andersen, N., Østervang, C., & Nielsen, D. S. (2021). Healthcare professionals’ experiences with highly qualified nurses working in acute care teams in primary healthcare settings. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, 39(2), 194–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2021.1913903

Van, M., Cuypers, M., Schalk, B. W., Leusink, G. L., & Bischoff, E. W. (2023). Chronic disease management in patients with intellectual disabilities: A matched study in Dutch general practice. The British Journal of General Practice: The Journal of The Royal College of General Practitioners, 73(735), e744–e751. https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2023.0029