Nurses can enhance patient understanding of and adherence to their overall treatment plans by strengthening communication, rapport, and education. It Starts with Communication Asking the right questions and opening the lines of communication between patient and nurse can uncover critical barriers to treatment compliance.
Full Answer
What is treatment compliance in nursing?
Treatment compliance is defined as the degree to which patients’ behaviors (e.g., attending follow-up appointments, engaging in preventive care, following recommended medical regimens) correspond with the professional medical advice prescribed. The terms compliance and adherence are often used interchangeably; however, ...
How can we promote compliance with regulations in home care?
The way in which treatment is offered to patients can help promote compliance. Home health care increases compliance by increasing satisfaction with staff and decreasing treatment administration wait times.
Why is patient noncompliance important in nursing?
Despite a nurse’s best efforts, some patients aren’t willing to follow instructions, but the impacts of patient noncompliance are too serious to ignore. Prescription drugs provide an excellent example of the importance of adherence.
How can healthcare providers help improve patient compliance?
Compliance increases when patients believe treatments are necessary and important. Healthcare providers play a critical role in this process by helping patients weigh the risks and benefits while taking into consideration social contexts and perceived barriers.
How do you get a patient to comply with treatment?
Strategies for improving compliance include giving clear, concise, and logical instructions in familiar language, adapting drug regimens to daily routines, eliciting patient participation through self-monitoring, and providing educational materials that promote overall good health in connection with medical treatment.
How do you get a patient to be compliant?
5 Tips to Encourage Patient ComplianceKeep Instructions Simple. Some patients may neglect to follow their care plan because they simply don't understand it. ... Print the Treatment Plan Out. ... Stress the Severity of Noncompliance. ... Build a Rapport. ... Acknowledge Accomplishments.
What can the nurse do to help the patients with compliance to medications?
How Nursing Interventions Fill a Vital Need for Medication...Provide Education and Resources. ... Encourage Honest, Open Communication. ... Provide Positive Reinforcement. ... Help Establish a More Effective Schedule.
How will you ensure the health and safety of your client?
Hospitals can ensure patient safety and prevent untoward harm to patients who seek treatment with these steps.Enforce strict disinfection protocols. ... Use advanced monitoring equipment. ... Verify all medical procedures. ... Observe care in handling medicines. ... Review staffing policies. ... Work with trusted providers.
What can be done to improve compliance?
General Principles to Enhance Medication ComplianceImprove communication between physician and patient and/or family. ... Modify or negotiate regimens. ... Emphasize patient self-management of disease or illness. ... Use the simplest effective regimen available. ... Use technology and devices. ... Develop better communication skills.
How do you assess patient compliance?
Indirect methods involve patient questionnaires, patient self reports, pill counts, rates of prescription refills, assessment of patient's clinical response, electronic medication monitors, measurement of physiologic markers, or patient diaries.
What is the significant role of a nurse for patient compliance?
Nurses can enhance patient understanding of and adherence to their overall treatment plans by strengthening communication, rapport, and education. Asking the right questions and opening the lines of communication between patient and nurse can uncover critical barriers to treatment compliance.
What is patient compliance in healthcare?
Compliance is the process whereby the patient follows the prescribed and dispensed regimen as intended by the prescriber and dispenser.
What is compliance to medication?
Medication compliance (synonym: adherence) refers to the degree or extent of conformity to the recommendations about day-to-day treatment by the provider with respect to the timing, dosage, and frequency.
How can you assist in ensuring the safety of the patients and staff members of the medical office?
7 Tips for Ensuring Patient Safety in Health Care SettingsTip 1: Establish a Safety and Health Management System. ... Tip 2: Build a Rapid Response System. ... Tip 3: Make Sure That Employees Know and Understand Safety Policies. ... Tip 4: Develop a Safety Compliance Plan. ... Tip 5: Practice Patient-Centered Care.More items...
Why do we need to ensure the safety of our clients?
Customer safety is a priority when you work in the service industry. Even the smallest thing can pose a safety hazard. This puts your business and livelihood at risk.
How do you ensure the safety of the patient and your organization is offering the best care to all the patients?
Here are 5 basic ways to ensure patient safety and care:Hand Hygiene. Research shows that effective hand hygiene improves knowledge of when to clean and how to clean. ... Checklist. ... Avoid abbreviations. ... Rapid Response System. ... Promote reporting.
How to improve medication compliance?
The following are ten strategies that providers can use to boost medication compliance. 1. Understand each patient’s medication-taking behaviors. Ask patients whether they have trouble filling, taking, or affording their medications.
Why is it important to identify the causes of noncompliance?
Identifying the underlying causes of patient noncompliance can help providers determine the appropriate intervention strategy for each of their patients. For example, one patient may have dementia, causing forgetfulness. Another may not be able to afford their medication.
What are some examples of medication devices?
For example, e-pill medication devices (e.g., automatic pill dispensers, pillboxes and timers, and alarm watches ) can help improve patient medication compliance. A Bluetooth pillbox can even send providers a remote monitoring message each time the patient opens the pillbox.
Why do pharmacists need to be able to help patients?
Pharmacists are able to not only provide patient education and help patients navigate low-cost or even free medications — but they can also remind physicians to contact their patients who do not re fill their prescriptions , helping providers address compliance problems before they spiral out of control.
What to do if medication doesn't come with instructions?
If the medication doesn’t come with specific instructions (i.e., take one pill in the morning), then brainstorm ideas with the patient. Ideally, it would be a time when the patient knows they will generally be free from other commitments and distractions.
What to do if you can't afford medication?
If patients can’t afford their medications, they may simply stop taking them, or they may ration them. To combat this, providers can connect patients with pharmaceutical company–based assistance plans, state-based assistance plans, and pharmacies that provide 30-day supplies of widely prescribed medications.
Can another patient afford their medication?
Another may not be able to afford their medication. Another may be symptom-free and thus stop taking their medication altogether. Providers need to dig deeply into these and other barriers and identify the patient’s specific barriers to medication compliance. The payoff can be significant.
What is non compliance in nursing?
Patient noncompliance is a deep issue with no easy answers or simple solutions. Nurses in almost any setting will encounter noncompliant patients, but with consistent communication and a persistent, but cooperative, spirit nurses can work to overcome the risk of noncompliance one patient at a time. Nurses also can explore Nurses Service Organization’s patient self-assessment checklist to help facilitate open communications.
Why should written protocols be in place?
To help staff deal with hostile, manipulative, or uncooperative patients , written protocols should be in place to help all staff respond to and deal with difficult patients. This should include ways to document and procedures for such common concerns as:
The OIG Compliance Program Guidance
Several years ago, the OIG developed and published compliance program guidelines focused on several areas of the healthcare industry . These guidelines aim to help promote a higher level of lawful and ethical conduct throughout the entire health care industry.
The OIG Supplemental Compliance Program Guidance for Nursing Facilities
In 2008, the OIG Supplemental Compliance Program Guidance for Nursing Facilities.
Medicare and Medicaid
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had issued a healthcare compliance mandate for skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes.
How Do You Know A Nursing Home is Compliant?
If you are considering sending an elderly family member to a nursing home, there is no better way to make sure that the facility is compliant with healthcare guidelines than to ask them the right questions. Ask the facility questions like:
Bottom Line
How the facility answers these questions is telling of how good their healthcare compliance program is and how familiar they are with it. You should find their answers sufficient and satisfactory. At the end of the day, you should feel assured and confident that your loved one will be in good hands.
What is treatment compliance?
Treatment compliance is defined as the degree to which patients’ behaviors (e.g., attending follow-up appointments, engaging in preventive care, following recommended medical regimens) correspond with the professional medical advice prescribed. The terms compliance and adherence are often used interchangeably; however, because compliance may carry a negative connotation, some prefer to use adherence to emphasize patients’ active roles in healthcare management as opposed to the submissiveness suggested in the definition of compliance. This distinction in definition acknowledges that patients and providers can move away from the patriarchal model of health care, promotes patient autonomy, and takes into account evidence suggesting that those who adhere steadfastly to providers’ instructions may not be the healthiest psychologically or physically. While the patient’s active role is considered vital in committing to a treatment regimen, for the purposes of this overview, the term compliance is utilized to maintain consistency.
How does treatment compliance affect adolescents?
For children and adolescents, treatment compliance is influenced by numerous factors. In general, females are more compliant than males, and adolescents are less compliant than younger children. Among adolescents, researchers report that compliance may be related to adolescents’ needs for independence combined with their willingness (or lack thereof) to accept the authority of healthcare providers. For example, research suggests that a cancer diagnosis coupled with cognitive impairments resulting from aggressive treatments predicts poorer decision-making abilities, including higher incidences of high-risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, drug use). Self-esteem, cognitive and social functioning, lower socioeconomic status, lower parent education, feelings of invincibility, illness knowledge, perceived vulnerability, treatment complexity, emotional problems, and prevailing psychiatric illness also relate to compliance.
Why is compliance with asthma so problematic?
For example, among children with asthma, compliance is often problematic, because the disease can be unpredictable with long symptom-free periods.
How does compliance increase?
Compliance increases when patients believe treatments are necessary and important. Healthcare providers play a critical role in this process by helping patients weigh the risks and benefits while taking into consideration social contexts and perceived barriers. Successful compliance also requires that an individual develops the motivation and self-efficacy required to confront a long-term stressor.
What are some examples of behavioral compliance?
Examples include the health belief model by Marshall Becker and colleagues, which states that compliance is related to beliefs about illness severity and treatment regimen benefits as well as vulnerability perceptions. Irwin Rosenstock and colleagues’ health benefits model add that patients will weigh the treatment costs and benefits before deciding whether to perform the recommended behaviors. Individuals who view themselves as more vulnerable or who view their illness as very serious are likely to exhibit greater compliance with health behaviors, thereby promoting positive outcomes. The role of self-efficacy, included in models such as Howard Leventhal’s self-regulatory model of illness and Ronald Roger’s protection motivation theory, is also salient in that patients displaying higher levels of confidence in their ability to complete treatment are more likely to succeed.
What is the third method of measuring compliance?
Collateral Reports. A third method of measuring compliance is through reports by family and healthcare providers. Although this method is rarely used, except with young children, it can be valuable to compare self-reports to reports from third parties.
What are objective measures of compliance?
Pill counts, electronic bottles, and urine or blood serum levels are examples of objective measures of compliance. Although these measures can be expensive, many lessen opportunities for recall bias and human error via electronic tracking (e.g., counting number of puffs pressed on an inhaler). While they cannot guarantee that the patient completed the treatment, increased accuracy has been reported when using objective measures of compliance. Parents also report feeling more comfortable allowing their children to take control of treatment protocols when such devices are utilized.