Healthcare interventions addressing health concerns at the patient, family, or population levels should be developed in line with the current policies and regulations. Aligning interventions with current policies and regulations enhances the intervention’s success, acceptance and sustainability. Similarly, in this case, the population education intervention’s development was guided by the state board nursing practice standards and the governmental policies on cancer care interventions.
Research shows that all interventions to improve cancer care outcomes should be developed using the current guidelines and regulations on cancer care (Alcaraz et al., 2020). My state board nursing practice standards, scope of practice, and ethical conduct influenced the intervention. Since the board restricts nurses from practicing independently in my state, I developed the intervention under the supervision of a physician. In addition, the intervention was developed considering professional ethical conduct in the interaction between the group and the nurse, as the state board of nursing recommends.
Furthermore, the intervention development was guided by the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines for cancer prevention. According to Rock et al. (2020), the ACS has developed guidelines for cancer prevention, including screening, diet, and physical activity. These guidelines were used to develop the population’s educational content on cancer prevention. In addition, the HIPAA governmental policies on patient information informed the intervention development by considering privacy and security safeguards when handling and sharing patient information. Using these policies and guidelines makes the intervention more likely to improve cancer care outcomes among African Americans since it employs best practices, professional practice standards and protects patient information.
The proposed intervention, population education, will considerably improve the quality of cancer care, enhance patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and the individuals. The intervention will provide the care providers dealing with cancer care with best practice guidelines related to new cancer technology modalities, leadership strategies, effective communication, and care coordination. Coccia (2020) notes that healthcare technology modalities enhance oncology care quality and patient safety. Therefore, the team will work together towards improving the quality of oncology care offered to the African American population. In addition, there are different patient safety issues related to cancer. These issues include medication errors, chemotherapy handling, administration, side effects, and adverse drug reactions, to mention but a few. Since the educational program will educate cancer patients and care providers on the management best practices, they will be able to prevent cancer-related patient safety issues, thus enhancing the overall patient safety in the population.
Cancer is associated with high costs to the healthcare system and the affected individuals. Alcaraz et al. (2020) note that the cancer burden is disproportionate among different populations, such as the African American population, and the related costs. The proposed intervention will encourage African Americans to take the necessary measures to prevent cancer and go for screenings, thus reducing costs related to cancer progression. In addition, costs on the system will be reduced following the use of healthcare technologies to increase care efficiency and reduce cancer cases.
According to Coccia (2020), technology has been one of the factors in improving cancer care and reducing the cancer burden across health populations. Healthcare technological modalities such as artificial intelligence, robotic surgeries and imaging technology can address the cancer issue by improving screening and diagnostics, and enhancing treatment and management of different cancer types, thus helping reduce cancer cases and improving management and patient care outcomes.
As mentioned earlier, cancer care requires the interplay of different healthcare providers to enhance outcomes. The cancer care team may include oncologists, nurses, radiologists, physicians, nutritionists, community health workers and social workers. Through care coordination, the team can effectively share information regarding patient care, thus improving care by reducing duplication of services and improving treatment plans. Addressing cancer among African A