Applying Library Research Skills
Create a 3-5 page annotated bibliography and summary based on your research related to best practices addressing one of the health care problems or issues in the Assessment Topic Areas media piece faced by a health care organization that is of interest to you.
Introduction
In your professional life, you will need to find credible evidence to support your decisions and your plans of action. You will want to keep abreast of best practices to help your organization adapt to the ever-changing health care environment. Being adept at research will help you find the information you need. For this assessment, you will review the Assessment Topic Areas media piece and select one of the health care problems or issues to research, which will be a current health care problem or issue faced by a health care organization that is of interest to you.
Instructions
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
For this assessment, research best practices related to a current health care problem. Your selected problem or issue will be utilized again in Assessment 3. To explore your chosen topic, you should use the first two steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking.
View the Assessment Topic Areas media piece and select one of the health care problems or issues in the media piece to research. Write a brief overview of the selected topic. In your overview:
Summarize the health care problem or issue.
Describe your interest in the topic.
Describe any professional experience you have with this topic.
Identify peer-reviewed articles relevant to health care issue or problem.
Conduct a search for scholarly or academic peer-reviewed literature related to the topic and describe the criteria you used to search for articles, including the names of the databases you used. You will select four current scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles published during the past 3–5 years that relate to your topic.
Refer to the NHS-FPX4000: Developing a Health Care Perspective Library Guide to help you locate appropriate references.
Use keywords related to the health care problem or issue you are researching to select relevant articles.
Assess the credibility and explain relevance of the information sources you find.
Determine if the source is from an academic peer-reviewed journal.
Determine if the publication is current.
Determine if information in the academic peer-reviewed journal article is still relevant.
Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format. Provide rationale for inclusion of each selected article. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to document a list of references along with key information about each one. The detail about the reference is the annotation. Developing this annotated bibliography will create a foundation of knowledge about the selected topic. In your annotated bibliography:
Identify the purpose of the article.
Summarize the information.
Provide rationale for inclusion of each article.
Include the conclusions and findings of the article.
Write your annotated bibliography in a paragraph form. The annotated bibliography should be approximately 150 words (1–3 paragraphs) in length.
List the full reference for the source in APA format (author, date, title, publisher, et cetera) and use APA format for the annotated bibliography.
Make sure the references are listed in alphabetical order, are double-spaced, and use hanging indents.
Summarize what you have learned from developing an annotated bibliography.
Summarize what you learned from your research in a separate paragraph or two at the end of the paper.
List the main points you learned from your research.
Summarize the main contributions of the sources you chose and how they enhanced your knowledge about the topic.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Sample Paper
Limited Access to Healthcare
Limited access to healthcare is a significant public health problem in the US. This has resulted in increasing disparity in healthcare and high rates of morbidity and mortality (Oh et al., 2020). A person’s ability to access adequate healthcare has a profound effect on their overall health and can result in higher morbidity and mortality rates. One of the significant barriers to healthcare access in the US is the geographic issue. Rural populations with limited healthcare resources and providers are often forced to travel long distances to access care. Another significant barrier is the shortage of health professionals. The shortage of health workers has contributed to a shortage of healthcare services and an increase in underserved populations, especially in rural areas and low-income communities where private providers of healthcare services have not penetrated.
Another significant barrier is the lack of transport. Studies indicate that approximately 3.6 million Americans fail to receive medical care and another 1 million children miss medical appointments due to transportation every year (Oh et al., 2020). Transportation-related barriers include costs and inadequate infrastructure. The financial constraint also significantly impair access to healthcare. This is primarily due to the increasing prices of pharmaceutical products and medical services. Research indicates that in 2019 approximately 8.3 percent of adults failed to obtain needed medical care due to cost.
Everyone should have access to adequate healthcare. Although America does not have a universal healthcare system, a lot can still be done to improve access to healthcare. One of the strategies that can help address the issue is the adoption of telemedicine.
Identifying Peer-Reviewed Articles
The peer-reviewed articles relevant to the study topic were obtained from online databases specializing in medical and nursing research studies. They were obtained from PubMed and EMBASE. The search terms used were single words and phrases entailing words joined with Boolean operators. These include health disparity, America and poor healthcare access, telemedicine and improvement in healthcare access. In addition, several criteria were used to refine the search and narrow down the articles. The criteria included peer-reviewed full-text articles published within the last five years and conducted by more than one researcher.
Assessing the Credibility of Peer-Reviews Articles
I used several criteria to assess the credibility of the selected articles. The criteria included peer-reviewed articles, conducted by more than one researcher with a medical background, published within the past five, providing complete access, and organized into an introduction, methodology, findings, and conclusion.
Annotated Bibliography
Coombs, N. C., Meriwether, W. E., Caringi, J., & Newcomer, S. R. (2021). Barriers to healthcare access among US adults with mental health challenges: A population-based study. SSM-Population Health, 15, 100847.
The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of barriers to healthcare access among U.S. adults. Access to healthcare services has a considerable impact on overall health at all stages of life. When healthcare services are sufficiently utilized, earlier detection and diagnosis of health problems is possible, allowing for early treatment which is less costly. It also reduces the disparity in healthcare. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study using the National Health Interview Survey data. Various potential barriers to healthcare were identified and quantified. Most participants reported affordability and geographical distance as the most significant barriers to healthcare. The article concludes by emphasizing continued monitoring of healthcare access disparities among persons with mental illnesses, focusing on social and environmental factors. The article was selected because it’s relevant to the current study topic and offers important data that healthcare providers can apply to implement interventions to reduce disparity in access to healthcare.
Kervin, L., Teo, K., Churchill, R., Riadi, I., & Cosco, T. D. (2021). Barriers in health and social care access and navigation for elder orphans: a scoping review protocol. BMJ open, 11(5), e043876.
The purpose of this paper was to identify the barriers and facilitators of access to social and health care among elderly individuals in the US. Family members have been traditionally tasked with caring for the elderly kins, including taking them to hospitals for medical care. However, the current demographic changes are resulting in kinless elderly who cannot rely on familial caregiving for transport to healthcare facilities and help them navigate the complex healthcare systems. The study was based on Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage methodology framework. The systematic review of studies was obtained from online databases. The study findings determined that the most significant barriers to healthcare access among elderly individuals are economic and geographic barriers. The study is relevant to the current topic because it yielded findings applicable in addressing the current study problem. It concludes that policies to reduce economic and geographic barriers to healthcare can significantly reduce health disparity in the US, especially among elderly population. The study concludes by recommending increasing research to determine the difference between elderly adults who need improved access to healthcare at the comfort of the homes through strategies such as telemedicine and those who need institutionalized care in elderly care facilities.
Wolfe, M. K., McDonald, N. C., & Holmes, G. M. (2020). Transportation barriers to health care in the United States: findings from the national health interview survey, 1997–2017. American journal of public health, 110(6), 815-822.
The study sought to determine the impact of lack of transportation on delayed healthcare in the US. Many citizens, especially in rural areas, are missing healthcare opportunities due to a lack of transport. The study employed a cross-sectional study design, where patients’ data obtained from the National Health Interview Survey was analyzed. Data was analyzed using regression analysis and multivariate analysis. The study determined that in 2017, more than 5 million Americans missed healthcare opportunity due to a lack of transport. The problem is incredibly persistent among low-income earners and immigrants. The study is relevant to the current topic as it provides significant findings that can be applied to improve access to care in the US, by eliminating transport barriers to care access. The study concludes that the rapidly evolving transport technology can be utilized to improve access to care among Americans.
Oh, H., Trinh, M. P., Vang, C., & Becerra, D. (2020). Addressing barriers to primary care access for Latinos in the US: an agent-based model. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 11(2), 165-184.
The purpose of the study was to assess the difference in access to care among the racial minority groups in the US. Disparities in access to primary health care have led to health disadvantages among non-white racial groups in America. The study used an agent-based modeling study method to estimate the effects of language, insurance coverage, availability of providers, and geographical distance to care providers on access to healthcare among American populations. The study participants were 10,000 Latinos recruited from patients seeking care for six months. Data were obtained from patient logs. The study findings indicated that the factors contributing to limited care access among nonwhite races in the US are lack of insurance coverage, language barrier, shortage of providers, and geographical barriers. The study findings recommend implementing policies and programs to help nonwhite races in America overcome linguistic, cultural, and geographical barriers to access to care. The study is relevant to the current topic as it provides data applicable in developing policies to improve health care access for all Americans.
Learnings from the Research
The analysis of various peer-reviewed studies on the current topic has increased my understanding of care access in the US. It has helped me realize that the most significant barriers to healthcare in the US are financial constraints and geographical constraints. Besides, the analysis indicates that limited access to healthcare in America is most prevalent among non-White races. The studies recommend implementation of evidence-based changes such as telemedicine and policies eliminating economic, cultural and geographic barriers to healthcare. The data will be significant in my practice as a nurse. I will use the data to drive positive, evidence-based changes to promote access to healthcare among all populations.
