How the National Health Service Meets the Needs of Clients

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Summary

The demand for NHS keeps on rising each day and there is a need to provide quality and efficient services to clients to cater to the various needs which are escalating. Due to the increase in population age, patients expectations increased chronic incidences, and the introduction of new technologies in medicine, it has become very important to ensure that clients respective needs are met. To meet these needs, it is vital to change the approach to clients needs provision and the way services are rendered. Nurses have to change their roles according to the changing environment and focus on the clients needs.

Formation of the NHS

National Health Service (NHS) is a publicly funded organization. The formation of NHS comes into play when a country recognizes a need, which has not yet been met. The formation of NHS can be traced back to the 19^th century, to the era of the First World War when the British people understood the importance of health care. The war served as a catalyst and gave an insight that could not have been identified earlier. Many countries like England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were among the first ones to embrace the idea. They became the pioneer countries where the idea was first practiced before spreading to the rest of the world.

Although the introduction of NHS is very noble, it has constantly suffered and faced increasing costs resulting from advances in technology, medical knowledge and medicines in general (Webster, 2002, p.138). There is also a great shortfall when it comes to financial restrictions which are inevitable due to changing political beliefs and management practices-(own thinking)

Political Issues Affecting NHS

Political factors have made it very difficult for individuals to get equitable facilities and public services. This has greatly affected the operations of NHS aimed at ensuring that clients needs are met. Political barriers prevent minority ethnic groups from accessing services that are vital for their needs.-(own thinking)

One of the major challenges is the funding of various programs. There has not been adequate funding for NHS operations. In the long run, this has contributed to reduced quality operations as the funds available could not cater to customers needs fully.

In addition, due to poor funding, free services end up being given at a fee that most clients cannot afford. This issue compromises access to social and health care.

Another factor is resource restriction. In fact, public services cannot satisfy each individuals need due to the fact that there are corrupt practices that end up in the money set aside for resources. Therefore, there are shortages and restrictions that have to be applied to sustain the shortfall created. However, it is of great importance to ensure that the limited resources provided are shared among the needy equally. In the actual sense, it has not been the case. The restrictions make various individuals use more resources while others end up missing these important necessities. Resource restriction has greatly affected the programs of meeting the needs of clients as this restriction creates a barrier for the achievement of such goals. Unless there is sufficient support in terms of resources, most clients needs cannot be fully met.

Role of a Nurse in the NHS

Nurses have a variety of roles that contribute to the achievement of NHS goals. This can be achieved in various ways. Nurses contribute to coordination by embracing the idea of teamwork to provide better services to the clients. This assists in ensuring timely response to a situation and pooling resources together for a healthy cause. Through coordination, nurses have perfected the role of timely response to urgent needs. Resources here can range from physical amenities to skills sharing. Through coordination, it is easy to solve problems or issues raised by the clients.-(own thinking)

Specialization

Nurses have taken up various roles specializing in his/her field. Thus, nurses have ensured better service provisions because everyone handled what he/she understood best. This in the long run leads to quality service and timely delivery of operations. Specialization also helps in the intensive management of serious clients conditions. Through specialization, it is evident that nurses take up roles that contribute to efficiency in service delivery and meeting clients needs.

Professional Development

Moreover, the nurses are required to take extra courses in their relevant field so as to familiarize themselves with the current changes in the medical world. This role is aimed at ensuring that diverse clients needs are met in the most appropriate way possible. Professional development has proven to be very successful and has improved liaison with clients and quality services provision.

Training

In addition, the nurses have undergone thorough vigorous and continuous training on how to deal with different persons. Through training, the nurses take up new roles like counseling the clients, giving advice and guidance on various aspects. This role has greatly contributed to clients satisfaction and efficient service delivery. Training also helps clients who have mental problems through the provision of effective mental health services. For this need to be fully catered for, it is vital that the nurses be thoroughly trained so as to deliver what is expected.

How NHS Meets the Needs of Clients

The needs of clients are met in different ways such as through political reforms, for example. This area has to have reforms that would ensure clients are satisfied with the services provided.

Through political reforms, the government has ensured equal distribution of resources without discrimination by setting up auditors who check and verify the use of public services. Some reforms like the housing and financial bills have also ensured individuals living in poor housing conditions were assisted. Through the wage bill, clients have been made aware of their rights and adequate wage rates given. This has ensured that each individual could access vital health services. There has also been a bill on road traffic reduction. Importantly, this has health benefits which include air pollution reduction that subsequently leads to the reduction of diseases like asthma, coronary thrombosis and respiratory diseases. Subsequently, there has been a noise reduction caused by speeding traffic.

NHS has adopted the internet, the intranet and the extranet services which assisted in meeting clients needs due to the increase in e-Government strategies, need for financial control and information freedom act (FOI). This has greatly reduced time wastages, reduced costs- customers now get services at an affordable cost, streamlined operations and has also assisted in achieving compliance (Harlequin Solutions, 2006, p.1).

The adoption of internet services has greatly increased efficiency in terms of customer response, emergency response and shared services. It is no longer mandatory to visit any health center to get certain services like prescriptions, counseling and queries. Websites that respond to urgent questions and problems of customers have been developed. In general, with automated systems, doctors and nurses have also been assisted to execute their duties at ease and with accuracy needed-(own thinking). NHS service lines have also greatly assisted in creating and sustaining various interactions and communications with clients.

Finally, e-solutions have assisted in keeping clients information safe. Customer information can be kept and retrieved at ease without any difficulty, and this has also prevented the cases of incorrect prescriptions, which were earlier on experienced due to a large number of customers and improper information storage. With this accuracy and precision, the needs of clients are met as they arise with a lot of ease-(own thinking)

Development of Sexual Health Programs

The NHS has come up with various sex health programs aimed at educating and sensitizing individuals about sexuality and issues of sexual health. These programs have greatly contributed to meeting clients needs as they advise on how to take care of ones health and prevent various infections and diseases that are very costly to cure or even incurable. Through sex health education, NHS has greatly reduced the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (Seedhouse, 1994, p.167).

Through sexual health programs, teenagers who are the most vulnerable groups have been advised on how to protect themselves and prevent teenage pregnancy. These programs also assisted in meeting pregnant teenagers needs.

Organizing Focus Groups and Doing Research

Through research, NHS seeks to identify how customers needs are met and what can be done in order to improve quality services. Through the focus groups, there are consultations that ensure customers feedback and responses are captured. This has been very vital for ensuring that NHS identifies clients needs and that they are met satisfactorily, and areas with weaknesses given attention. This will bridge the gap between the clients expectations on service delivery and the actual service delivery. When this gap is greatly reduced, it is deemed that clients needs are fully met.

NHS also meets the needs of clients through building relationships on trust and mutual understanding. When trust is built between the two parties, it becomes very easy for the NHS staff to understand the clients needs because individuals will be able to speak out their ideas without fear. This will lead to an in-depth understanding of sensitive or complex issues surrounding an individual. This is very important information prior to any time of treatment or provision of health service, the more and open the information given, the better for purposes of treatment and prescription (Beaufort & Kurt, 2008, p. 87). It is therefore evident that building relationship is directly proportional to needs satisfaction. A well-developed relationship ensures free sharing which in turn leads to satisfaction needs provision. Clients prefer approachable and friendly staff.

Offering Free Consultation Services

When free consultation services are given, many clients are interested in accessing such services. Through these consultation services, clients needs are identified easily and appropriate actions are taken to meet them. NHS has used this strategy to attract people to know their health status, while at the same time, knowing their needs for the purposes of treatment.

It is important to bring services close or make them accessible. One of the fundamental ways of ensuring that clients needs are met is ensuring that services are close to them-(own thinking). This can be done by offering mobile health services like door-to-door visits, health campaigns and awareness seminars. This encourages individuals who are not in a position to visit the major health centers and get services at their own comfort zones. This reduces expenses and ensures that individuals are sensitized to key issues affecting their health and hygiene in general.

NHS also aims to attain 100% need satisfaction through teamwork and working together with their clients. This is the surest way of monitoring a clients needs and taking necessary attention. While working together with the clients, NHS staff will have a chance to ask the clients about their level of satisfaction with the services provided and how various aspects should be improved in the future. Customer response will greatly assist in ensuring clients needs are handled according to their expectations.

The Implications of PRN and how the practice contributes to quality care.

Professional regulations are put in place to regulate the behavior and conduct of nurses during their normal operations and interactions with the clients, this has assisted in ensuring quality is not compromised and the clients are given the attention needed. These practices have proven to be very helpful in offering quality care. The following are professional regulations and how they contribute to quality care;

Professional Accountability

Actions done in negligence during normal operations can be of great danger to the clients, which is why nurses should be accountable for any act which might pose a threat to the client being attended. Professional accountability ensures that nurses perform their duties with all due care and precision.

Demonstrate knowledge of professionalism

Nurses are supposed to demonstrate knowledge of professionalism in their operation, failure to do this; may lead to termination of employment or serious legal actions taken against the nurse. This indicates how it is important to have good knowledge and the ability to execute operations as required. This professional regulation ensures that clients get the best nurses who are competent and able to offer quality care. Anyone who is not performing professionally is eliminated.

Professional Standards

There are set standards that nurses must attain. They are required to be in the qualified nurses register which is normally reviewed from time to time and proficiency standards met by the applicants. This ensures the public is protected by being given quality care.

Anti-discrimination

This is a professional regulation that ensures that nurses treat every client without any form of discrimination. This has worked for the good of the clients because it ensures that clients are given full attention and quality care without any form of discrimination on race, gender or wealth.

Public Protection

Nurses are required to ensure the public is protected by the maintenance of a safe care environment through the application of risk management and quality assurance strategies. This has ensured quality care for clients across the board.

Tort

Nurses are not supposed to commit a tort, which is any civil wrong against the client or his property (David Haber, 2010, p. 427). A tort has a professional implication in that it can lead to imprisonment for a period exceeding one year. This helps in ensuring nurses treat their clients with respect and quality care when executing their duties.

References

Beaufort, B & Kurt, D 2008, Managing Health Services Organizations and Systems. Health Professions Publishers, New York.

Haber, D 2010, Practical Applications for Health Professionals, 5^th Ed. Springer Publishing Company, New York.

Webster, C 2002, National Health Service: A Political History. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Seedhouse, D 1994, NHS: A Philosophical Review of the National Health Service. Wiley Publishers, Boston.

Harlequin Solutions, 2006, Competitive Advantage Solutions, Web.

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