Why Hospitals should hire Patient Navigator Research Paper

Why Hospitals should hire Patient Navigator - Research Paper Example The populations with limited access on the healthcare system encounter difficulty in using the system leading to delay in cancer diagnosis, added costs, less efficient, and effective use of recommended therapies. The patient navigation programs provide support and guidance to people with the goal of improving access to the cancer care system and overcome barriers to quality care. This paper will present a conceptual model to evaluate cost-effectiveness of cancer patient navigation-programs, discuss challenges, and the best approach to address the challenges. Evaluating the economic impact of patient navigation has a wide array of activities that involves different settings while it suffers from inadequate of information. Different cost elements differ in the study perspective. Different researchers present interventions to determine the relevant cost measures that assess the economic value of patient navigation. The history of the patient navigation programs attributes to Harold Freeman the chair of American Cancer Society that commissioned the study of barrier to cancer among the poor in America. The success of the pioneer program and recognition of significant barriers to cancer diagnosis continue to exist among the minority and the underserved populations. Currently, many patient navigation programs work to reduce barriers to care at all levels. The growing popularity and publication of promising observational studies fail to evaluate the efficacy of navigator programs. Researchers are yet to establish the cost-effectiveness and the impact of navigation programs on cancer-related morbidity and survival. The patient navigator programs can be time and resource intensive. Similar to other interventions may improve the health of poor and underserved populations. One should view the navigation programs in the context of allocating resources to maximize health outcomes on limited budgets. It is important to

Food Ads That Are Like Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Essay

Food Ads That Are Like Wolves in Sheeps Clothing - Essay Example Once they watch a commercial about a food product with their favourite cartoon character, that is the image that will stick to them and then they will ask their parents to buy it for them and argue that the commercial says it’s good for them. They become enamoured with the products that are like adorable sheep not knowing that it is only the disguise of the wolves inside just waiting to prey on these naà ¯ve consumers. The video entitled â€Å"We’re Not Buying It: Stop Junk Food Marketing To Kids† (Prevention Institute, 2011) exposes how vulnerable children are to the power of food advertising especially if it caters to their interests. The video asks how the food industry can even penetrate schools with the guise of supporting charity projects but are actually marketing strategies promoting their unhealthy food and beverage products. The video also revealed that most advertised food and beverage products have too much sugar, salt and fat in them but are packaged as healthy food in order to be sold. Since children are bombarded with thousands of such food ads every year, and even incorporated in movies and their favourite video games, then they consume much of this food and drinks in their unhealthy diets. Hence, 1 in 3 children is expected to be prone to Diabetes when they grow up like 40% of their diets come from added sugars and unhealthy fats (Prevention Institute, 2011). I can relate the message in the video with some theories from Sharma & Romas (2012) taken up in class. Health Belief Model discussed in class proposes that one’s health is determined by his personal beliefs or perceptions, and if children believe the message that advertisements convey, then they get sucked into unhealthy diets and lifestyles.