How do communities protect and improve the health of their populations? Health care is part of the answer but so are environmental protections, social and educational services, adequate nutrition, and a host of other activities. With concern over funding constraints, making sure such activities are efficient and effective is becoming a high priority. Improving Health in the Community explains how population-based performance monitoring programs can help communities point their efforts in the right direction. Within a broad definition of community health, the committee addresses factors surrounding the implementation of performance monitoring and explores the "why" and "how to" of establishing mechanisms to monitor the performance of those who can influence community health. The book offers a policy framework, applies a multidimensional model of the determinants of health, and provides sets of prototype performance indicators for specific health issues. Improving Health in the Community presents an attainable vision of a process that can achieve community-wide health benefits.
A groundbreaking text on how to deliver the highest quality patient care through professionalism in daily medical practice Five Star Doody’s Review: “This is an outstanding book for all clinicians and professors, indeed for everyone in medicine to help mentor and self-police the medical profession.” "Understanding Medical Professionalism is a 'must-have' for all involved in the healing arts. The book demystifies professionalism, bringing it from a philosophical, mystical concept to a practical everyday set of behaviors. The twelve chapters, in a uniform way, provide wonderful, real-life stories that illustrate the challenges faced by practitioners, describe ways to deal with those challenges, and help develop the personal and institutional skills necessary to provide excellent and compassionate care." -- Carlos A. Pellegrini, MD, FACS, FRCSI (Hon.), The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Washington "Insightful, practical, and authoritative. Building on their own research and that of others, Levinson et al. offer a comprehensive discussion of medical professionalism from the refreshing perspective of behavioral skills and an enabling healthcare system. Understanding Medical Professionalism has fundamentally reframed the professionalism debate and will likely remain the definitive work in this field for quite some time." -- David G. Nichols, MD, President and CEO, The American Board of Pediatrics "The authors' ambitious goal of providing a framework for the continuum of physician development of professional behaviors, from student through expert senior clinician, has been met. Students will find the text modular and instructive; residents will benefit from the reinforcement of positive professional behaviors and explication of strategies to excel in this competency; educational program directors will find the framework and tools for assessment and strategies for remediation enriching; and the expert professional will find subtle opportunities to grow to mastership of this most important physician competency." -- Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, Chief Executive Officer, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Professor of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College "The authors offer a framework and an approach to medical professionalism that enable us to understand it, teach it, and incorporate it into our day-to-day lives as health professionals. It is a much needed addition to our armamentarium as we work to align the education of health professionals with the needs and expectations of the society we serve." -- George E. Thibault, MD, President, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
Pamphlet is a succinct statement of the ethical obligations and duties of individuals who enter the nursing profession, the profession's nonnegotiable ethical standard, and an expression of nursing's own understanding of its commitment to society. Provides a framework for nurses to use in ethical analysis and decision-making.
Many social workers, health care staff and teachers maintain high standards of professionalism, often in stressful and challenging circumstances. However, research also reveals instances where individual practitioners and managers, or whole organisations, fail to act lawfully, ethically and/or carefully. This book addresses just those instances by providing guidance on how to maintain accountable professionalism in tricky "what if?" situations. Dilemmas are explored using case studies and the mosaic of legal rules and regulatory body requirements for accountable professionalism are also laid out. The book will appeal to students and newly qualified practitioners in teaching, health and social work and their managers.
In this insightful new book, Moncrieffe argues that the traditionally narrow interpretation of accountability obscures relationships, power dynamics, structures, processes and complexities. The relational view, in contrast, seeks to understand the ways in which people perform in their roles as social actors, and how the quality of relationships influences the character of accountability. This book will provide a grounded theoretical background to accountability, using vivid case evidence to emphasize the significance of relational approaches to accountability using empirical data (from Jamaica, Haiti, Ethiopia and Uganda). Ultimately arguing that accountability is much more than a managerial concept; rather, it is deeply social and political. The result is a unique, coherent, perspective that will both explain and 'debunk' this central developmental concept.
This book is a collection of scholarly articles on the themes of accountability and responsibility in health care and seeks to be the premier book in that field.
How do some families create more healthful environments for their children? How do we explain the health status differences between men and women, blacks and whites, and different communities or cultures? How is stress generated in the workplace? What accounts for the persistent social class differences in mortality rates? Why do societies experience higher rates of mortality after economic recession? Such fundamental questions about the social determinants of health are discussed in depth in this wide-ranging and authoritative book. Well-known contributors from North America and Europe assess the evidence for the diverse ways by which society influences health and provide conceptual frameworks for understanding these relationships. The book opens with a broad review of research on the social environment's contribution to health status and then addresses particular social factors: the family, the community, race, gender, class, the economy, the workplace and culture. The concluding two chapters examine the contribution of medicine to the improved health of Americans and recast the health care policy debate in a broad social policy context.
Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.
The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.
More and more managerial challenges require leaders to be accountable-to take initiative without having full authority for the process or the outcomes. Accountability goes beyond responsibility. Whereas responsibility is generally delegated by the boss, the organization, or by virtue of position, accountability is having an intrinsic sense of ownership of the task and the willingness to face the consequences that come with success or failure. Through this guidebook you will learn how your organization and its leaders can create a culture that fosters accountability by focusing on five areas: support, freedom, information, resources, and goal and role clarity.
