Establishing Sickle Cell Competencies (Essay Sample)

Establishing Sickle Cell Competencies
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Establishing Sickle Cell Competencies
Introduction
Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited disorder in the blood where the red blood cells develop abnormally. The red blood cells become rigid and form a shape like a crescent or a sickle, and thus the name sickle cell. The disorder has most preference in people of Caribbean, Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and Mediterranean origin. In the United Kingdom, only the African and Caribbean people have the disease. The disease is, therefore, more concentrated on the Negro race, and it has no sex preference. Sickle cell anaemia that is the most common type of sickle cell disease is the most prevalent genetic disease in the African region. About 10-40% of the population has a gene for this disease, which results to an estimated sickle cell disease (SCD) prevalence of 2% (World Health Organization. 2010). An indication of this is that there is a deficiency of national policies and plans to cater for the disease. In addition, there are inadequate facilities and trained personnel who can handle the disease. Treatment and diagnostic tools are also a source of concern for the prevalence of the disease.
Problem statement
Sickle cell disease is a hereditary condition, and once a family has the disease, all the other members and generations have a high risk of acquiring the disease. Deaths resulting from this disease mostly happen to children who are under the age of five years, pregnant women, and adolescents. Therefore, any strategies and interventions aimed at reducing the sickle cell disease mortality and morbidity should focus on the management of the above vulnerable groups of people. As stated earlier, there are a few number of trained health professionals who can handle the diseases, despite the fact that the rates of its occurrence are on the rise. Facilities, medicine, vaccines, and safe blood transfusion are also limited. Even in the developed countries, these problems still exist. Out of approximately 400, 000 infants born yearly with SCD in Africa, 50-80% of them die before they reach the age of five years. The children who survive suffer end-organ damage that is accompanied by shortened lifespan.
There is a great socioeconomic implication for the affected individuals, families, community and the nation at large. The patients’ life is interfered with including their education, work and psychological development. A research done in the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that 12% of children who are hospitalized in most hospitals have SCD, and translates to an annual cost care of more than $1000 per patient. Research has been done in different countries about sickle cell anaemia, but there is more to be done in order in order to contain the disease. In order to improve the management of sickle cell disease, the most appropriate way is early case identification and implementation of health care management (World Health Organization. 2010).
Goals and objectives of the Quality Improvement Project
The main aim of managing sickle cell disease is to put up a strategy that will reduce the incidence, mortality, and morbidity due to this disease. The disease affects children, pregnant mothers and adolescents who are an important part that make up the population. Any control measure or intervention should thus be directed to this group of people. As the population increase across the world, so is the burden of the disease on the affected regions. There need to be an improved awareness, both on individual and community basis about the disease. In addition, it is important to increase the primary prevention, thus increase life quality (Tanabe, et al. 2010).
Priority intervention for the affected countries that are supposed to be used in the development and implementation of programs and policies for SCD prevention and control should be identified. Since there are insufficient resources to cater for the disease, it is important to advocate an increase in these resources so that the affected individuals can be attended to. After prevention of the disease, it would be important to put up strategies for monitoring, researching and evaluating the sickle cell disease.
Action plan
One of the main things to do in order to improve the conditions of sickle cell anaemia across the world is diagnosis. People need to be diagnosed in order to know whether they have the disease of not. Once the patient knows that he or she has anaemia, it is a bit easier to make the next appropriate step. In addition, it would be important to raise self-awareness across the countries with high prevalence for the disease. Self awareness is the most appropriate method a person can use to manage the symptoms for the disease. Once the patient is aware of the symptoms, he or she can know when the condition is improving or deteriorating, and thus consult the health professional when necessary.
On the other hand, genetic counseling and testing will be important in increasing self awareness about the disease. Similarly, public awareness is an important aspect where schools, communities, media, and health institutions need to be sensitized about the disease. Workshops for community training about the disease should be established with the aim of raising awareness and training community members on how to handle the disease. After that, facilities in health care centers require to be improved in order to cater for the casualties of the disease (Blumenstein, & Blumenstein, 2014).
Conclusion
Sickle cell disease can be handled, considering the improvement in the level of technology in the health sector. New diagnostic metho...