Applying the Knowledge of Economic Theory

Envisioning Recovery
Practice development is mainly aimed at addressing a shortfall in clinical practice by the use of systematic processes in order to change current practice so as to improve health care. When undertaking practice development for improving recovery for patients it is vital that the healthcare organization envisions the recovery that it would like for its patients. Using such a vision will allow the organization to drill down to the specifics of how it can go ahead and improve recovery for its patients. Having a bigger picture of the recovery that the facility would like to have is beneficial as it allows the facility to create an image of how recovery should be within the facility. Once there is a bigger picture in place there is need to break it down into smaller pieces or steps that would assist the healthcare facility to achieve its overall objective (Earthy, Sleney, Mcneilly, & Thomas, 2015). A healthcare facility that has gone through the process of envisioning its patients’ future recovery and has measurable goals and priorities will be in a better place to handle its patient recovery process.
Envisioning recovery would entail identifying who would be in charge of the various activities and caring for the patients. Recovery is never instant and it would be beneficial of all involved parties understood this and worked towards ensuring that the patient is not rushed, but given time to adjust. By using a preexisting vision and associated goals there are better outcomes for recovery and all the staff know and understand what they need to do when a particular case is presented. It is vital that when envisioning recovery, the vision is realistic and can be easily interpreted by the other healthcare providers. This would make it easy for them to recall what needs to be done and the steps that should be followed.
Knowledge of Economic Theory
Economic theory is model for decision-making for how a person can allocate scarce resources. The main goal of economic theory is the accurate prediction of the choices that people make in regards to the allocation of resources. Advanced practice nurses can use this theory to properly allocate the scarce resources that they have within the health care facility to ensure that each patient receives appropriate and necessary care. The scarcity of resources plagues the current health care environment and advanced practice nurses should be able to properly ensure that they make use of the few resources they have to improve the health outcomes of patients. By using economic theory knowledge, a nurse would be able to properly appropriate their time in order to ensure that they have served the assigned patients. A nurse who understands economic theory would evaluate all possible alternatives and compare the relative costs and benefits of each option in order to make an informed decision (Jones & Yoder, 2010).
There are many interventions that nurses can offer to their patients and each intervention should be properly evaluated to ensure that it is suitable for the patient. An intervention that works for one patient might have negative connotations for another patient maybe because they are allergic to something. Therefore, a nurse should use economic theory to gauge the proposed intervention and analyze the costs and benefits to the patient and the hospital before implementation. Decisions have to be made in regards to the best intervention that would benefit the patient and at the same time costs have to be analyzed too. Therefore, using economic theory a nurse could be able to determine if there are alternative interventions that could be given to a patient that would be appropriate and would not result in shortages.
References
Earthy, S., Sleney, J., Mcneilly, E., & Thomas, H. (2015). Getting back to normal? Recovery in the context of serious physical illness or injury.
Jones, T. L., & Yoder, L. (2010). Economic theory and nursing administration research—Is this a good combination? Paper presented at the Nursing forum.