Change to a Family Centered Model of Care (Research Paper Sample)

Research Proposal
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Section A
Part 1: problem identification
The concept of family centered care in healthcare has been there for a long time. Although the primary role of healthcare professionals is to offer treatment to the patient, it is usually necessary to understand that when a patient is unwell, it is not only the patient who is affected. This concept of family centered care is important in that it offers a more holistic care which includes giving the patient wellbeing. Wellbeing is state of mind and it is easier to achieve this through making sure that the patient is not only receiving treatment, but that he or she is also receiving the care that goes beyond just treatment. Offering family centered care is a better way to make sure that the patient receives holistic care. Family centered care is even more appropriate for maternity care. Maternity care is a family affair that and the mother and the child would e better off having the support of the family during the time they are in hospital. Regardless of the many benefits of family centered care, many hospitals fail to implement it. In this proposal this issue is addressed with regard to the hospital where I work. I have been able to identify that in this hospital, mothers who are receiving maternity care are not able to access the family centered care and this is leading to lower quality of healthcare for the new mothers. The problem is that the operational policy for the hospital is not conducive for the delivery of family centered care. The healthcare professionals are also not conversant with the concept of family centered care.
Carter et al (2010) argues that the delivery of quality healthcare starts from the determination of the desired results and then coming up with a comprehensive plan to achieve the desired results. They argue that care environments should have a shared vision and goals and those they should articulate these goals and vision in a way that every member of staff will be able to understand them. This applies the most with regard to the family-centered maternity care.
Part 2: Discussion of investigation of the problem or issue
According to Phillips (2003) with regard to offering maternal care, professionals should recognize the uniqueness of the process of birth and how it is tied to family and family values. This means that the physicians and nurses should be able to deliver the while allowing the involvement and the support of the family. Enkin (1973) also seems to support this view and argues that in most hospitals, the nature of maternal care is prohibitive of family values. He suggests a more open and family centered postpartum care. In his article, Enkin (1973) also proposes that hospitals should seek to involve family members such as the father in the process such as during labor, delivery and in the postpartum care.
Elaine and Celeste (2001) argue that despite the philosophy of family-centered maternal care being around for several decades now, most care environments do not practice it. In fact, they argue that even those care environments that claim to have family-centered maternal care only practice it on paper but fail to be practical about it. The biggest challenge is the fact that despite it being a good approach to give maternal and postpartum care, it is not easy to implement. The first challenge, as Elaine and Celeste (2001) is that most care providers may not be willing to adhere to the principles of family-centered care. This is because this involves the caregivers doing an extra mile in achieving family-centered maternal care.
For instance, physicians may be more comfortable when dealing with only the mother and not having to deal with the larger family (Kelly, 2007). Nurses on the other hand may want to only deal with the babies and not the mother, or the larger family. However as Ernestine (1998) argues, in delivering healthcare, the caregivers must realize that the most important thing is to deliver quality and holistic care and that anything that complicates their practice is not meant for the purposes of making sure that the patient gets the best care possible.
Jimenez et al (2010) put emphasis on the fact that family-centered maternal care has not been achieved as it should. They argue that over forty years since the concept of family centered maternal care was conceived, the achievement of family centered care has remained a mirage that is hard to achieve. In their study, they investigated numerous mother with regard to what family centered care meant to them with regard to the quality of service. They found most women in need of maternal care were not aware of the concept of the family centered care and were also not aware of the risk factors associated with different choices for maternity care. Galvin et al (2000) also reached the same conclusions. In their paper, they investigate the issue of the challenges that can arise when a care centre is trying to implement a family centered care especially for maternity care. They conclude that many care environments such as birth centers, hospitals, dispensaries are not prepared to offer family centered care and that the implementation of such remains a distant ideal for many care environments.
According to Petersen, Cohen and Parsons (2004) care environments such as birth centers have to make sure that they practice what they preach in terms of offering family-centered care. In their paper, they address the problems that come when the care givers flaunt the precepts of family-centered care while their policy purports to offer the same. According to Beverley (2000), for a care environment to be able to comply with family centered care, it has to change its policies and programs as well as facility design. It also has to alter its day-to-day practices of individual practitioners in order to align them to the new precepts of family-centered care.
Part 3: Analysis of the situation
The situation at the hospital indicates that there is no family-centered maternity care. The problems at the hospital come in two major ways. First, there is the issue of the policies at the hospital. For instance, the policies do not reflect the philosophy of family-centered maternity care. This means that the staff, even if they were willing, would not be able to deliver the family-centered. Furthermore, without the right policies, the staff will not feel the urge to provide family-centered because it is harder to provide the family-centered care than it is to provide maternity care in the traditional way (Lighter & Fair, 2000). The second problem is with regard to caregivers. The caregivers are not familiar with the concept of family-centered care and those who are familiar with the concept are not willing to apply the effort it takes to achieve it.
Part 4: Proposal of solution
The solution will be in two parts. To begin with, there will be a campaign to sensitize the care givers so that they understand the importance of family-centered care especially when it comes to the maternity and postpartum care. The second part of the solution will be with regard to developing new policies and processes that will make it possible to implement family-centered. The hospital has a very structured system of operation and unless there is a review and official change of this system, it will not be possible to implement the family-centered care. The current operation policy and system is backed by an IT system that takes care of patient admission, patient records and patient discharge among other processes. It will be necessary for these systems to be aligned with the new policy in order for family-centered to function properly.
There is a need to review the current model of maternal healthcare in the hospital. It is very clear that the current maternal care model is not the est. research has indicated that the best way to go is through the family-centered model because this ensures that the patient gets the best service. Family-centered maternal care is also in line with the family values and supports the growth of a family. Although family-centered healthcare is good for all types of patients, it is more important in postpartum care because childbirth is a family affair. In this regard, new mothers would be better off if they are able to have the support of their close family with them during labor, delivery and after delivery. In other words, childbirth is supposed to be a family affair where the healthcare staff is only playing a role of managing the process to avoid the negative consequences that may come from childbirth complications. Most healthcare professionals agree that family centered care is the best especially in maternal care. In this regard, providing maternal care is a better way to make sure that the patient gets the best care.
Part 5: Resources to implement the proposed solution
IT systems
It will be necessary to update the IT systems so that they can accommodate the new policies. As Krishna (2003) says, IT systems play a major role in the modern healthcare delivery. The quality of care in any healthcare setting depends on how well these systems work. If he IT systems do not correspond to the service policy in a hospital, it will be hard for the policy to function effectively. For the proposal to work, it will be necessary for the hospital to implement IT systems that are in line with the new policy. This will include the changing the admission processes and the operation procedures in order to reflect the precepts of family centered care.
Human resources
For the new solution to work, the human resources in the hospital will have to change. To begin with, there is going to be a need to recruit more human resources and train both the new and the already existing human resources on the new policy change. Maternity care is differen...