Quality of life concepts and measurement

Quality of Life in the Healthcare Professions

Utilizing one quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) so that one does not have to face many disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is the standard of a healthy life. One's health is directly related to one's quality of life and health services can help one achieve a high quality of life if they are used and used correctly. There is even an International Society for Quality of Life Research, which promotes investigation of health-related quality of life measurement. It promotes many of the areas of health standards and equal treatment on a global basis of all people. Among the areas of care where quality of life is affected are:

Variation of services: Some areas are provided with excellent quality of services, while other regions of the country and the world are sadly lacking in quality of services.

Underuse of services: People do not know or will not use the services which are available and therefore suffer needlessly. Preventative care will help clients avoid more serious problems which might be caught and treated earlier.

Overuse of services: People use health facilities too often for unnecessary services, increasing costs and endangering their health.

Misuse of services: Some people are injured while being treated and die prematurely through negligent care, errors and faulty medication administration. In the 10-year period from 1983 to 1993, 7,391 deaths were attributed to medication errors alone.

Disparities in quality: Ethnic and racial minorities are affected by lack of quality medical services, even today when our nation is proud of being multicultural and tolerant. Fewer Hispanics have been found to have undergone hip replacements, for instance, than non-Hispanic elderly whites. This lack of service to one element of the population means that many elderly Hispanics are still suffering needlessly from a surgery which can alleviate pan and improve physical function, two elements which will add to their quality of life (Fact, p. 2).

Some things which will add to quality of life have been singled out as most effective:

One's outlook on life. When one has an optimistic and positive outlook on life, one may find good in all events, whether they are surgeries to improve one's health, or facing one's demise with the knowledge that one's life has had meaning (Newman, p. 15).

Counseling and promotion of adherence to evidence-based guidelines for nurses and doctors. Nurses and other caregivers are encouraged to make inquiries as to the client's ongoing psychological and physical condition, to observe and make vital measurements. In this way nurses have been found to be critical in patients' positive outcomes through their experiencing positive and consistent care (Newman, p. 20).

A researcher and writer of nursing theories, Margaret a. Newman, believes in a theory of health as expanding consciousness. This is stimulated by concern for the mistaken concept that health is simply the absence of disease or a disability. For the diseased and dying, an emphasis on one's health is not enough. One needs quality of life in order to feel that one is worthwhile and that one has lived a good life. Rosemarie R. Parse published Newman's theory in 1981, responding to the search for meaning between caregiver and their relationship with the patient. Developed as a theory in the tradition of Heidegger, Gadamer, Dilthey and Merleau-Ponty, she researched works by European philosophers as well as by pioneer nurses and American theorists to develop the theory of health as expanding consciousness (Parse, p. 47).

Regionalizing surgery for Medicare patients. Bringing the medicine to the patient is one way in which healthcare staffers can show concern for the elderly or very ill. High-risk procedures may become more available locally for elderly patients, lowering the high incidence of deaths due to cardiovascular or cancer surgeries in low-volume hospitals (Gastonia, p. 2).

Exporting medicine overseas. Care and love for all people is important to those who wish to find meaning in their healthcare jobs. If only people in their country are cared for, the lack of care for others appears more obvious. In fact, some diseases may be wiped out if medication is provided to parts of the world where the incidence of that particular health risk is prevalent. For instance lymphatic filariasis, or malaria, is spread by mosquitoes. Through the efforts of the World Health Organization, private donors and pharmaceutical corporations, progress is being made in wiping out this disfiguring disease in Africa and India (GSK, p. 1).

Fighting common ailments. Obesity and smoking are habits which, when eliminated, create better quality of life for the client.

Obesity was found in one study to reduce life expectancy by five years. Smokers, however, were even worse off, with their life expectancy reduced by seven years. Control of diet and exercise are not the only ways in which quality of life may be enhanced for these subjects at very little cost. The study found that it was less costly to treat obese subjects than nonobese patients, so it was advantageous to treat obese clients and assist them in controlling diet and exercise. Smokers cost less than obese to treat and assist to quit their habit. Obesity is considered a major health issue today, as is smoking and there is no financial reason not to treat the clients who indulge in these two habits (McPherson, p. 37).