A chronic disease refers to a condition that lasts one year or more and needs ongoing medical treatment. Examples of such diseases include heart disease, diabetes, and cancer (Cardoso et al., 2017). In the U.S., chronic diseases account for the death of many individuals. About three trillion dollars, most of the money is allocated for healthcare costs to treat chronic diseases. The cause of the majority of these conditions is risky behaviors. For instance, using tobacco for a prolonged period, poor nutrition includes a diet low in vegetables and fruits or high in saturated fats and sodium, excessive consumption of alcohol, and lack of physical exercise.
Impact of Sociocultural Diversity on Healthcare Environment
Culture has a significant impact on health care matters which include prevention and treatment. It influences how individuals in society perceive health, conditions, and death. The cultures obstruct both patients and health professionals they hail from (Cardoso et al., 2017). The Canadian health system, for instance, is shaped by the beliefs of dominant cultures. The bias that exists in culture may lead to various medical-related perceptions and preferences. Awareness of such variations is called cultural competence, which enables caregivers to integrate the knowledge into diagnosis and treatment approaches. This is essential as Black Americans have more excellent rates of chronic illnesses than their white counterparts.
Importance of Collaboration with other Disciplines to Healthcare
The field of information technology has brought so much benefit for the healthcare sector by improving services offered to patients. The use of technology in the industry has significantly improved patients’ care (Agniel, 2018). Using information technology systems allows for improved services offered to patients. For instance, an improvement in technology has allowed cancer patients to get better services which include screening. Also, treatment and management of cancer are better because of the application of advanced technology in healthcare.
Importance of Communication Skills
Great health communication techniques among caregivers and patients result in improved medical results for the latter. Better interaction between the two parties is a required skill to develop as well as learn with time. For example, caregivers must understand how to seek information by asking questions that compel the patient to discuss their condition (Agniel, 2018). Despite patients varying from one to another, there are times when they are afraid of asking about something that may be of concern. Additionally, health care providers tend to use close-ended questions format where they get only short answers that are not descriptive.
Importance of Evidence-based and Theory-Informed Decisions in Healthcare
Using evidence and available theory to make decisions can be beneficial in the healthcare sector. Programs for preventing and managing chronic conditions have developed knowledge bases to assist evidence-based and theory-informed decisions. The bases ensure that healthcare professionals have the correct data. Clinical decision support offers appropriate data, particularly at the stage of care to inform decisions concerning a patient’s care. The support can accurately better patient results and result in better healthcare quality.
Prevention and Health Promotion Approaches
Health promotion and disease prevention initiatives can empower better and healthier decisions and reduce the danger of illness. At the populace level, the initiatives can eradicate medical disparities, better the life quality, plus better the healthcare services’ availability. The initiatives are implemented in different settings consisting of rural communities (Agniel, 2018). Individuals from such communities can reap from the initiatives that are designed for utilization in those communities.
Ethics and Decision-Making process in Healthcare
Leaders who embrace ethics in their decision-making process can defend how the decisions impact the associations of the patient, payer, and physician. Ethics is one of the things that have helped the sector grow. With ethics, policies established by the management of an organization can focus more on providing better services to their patients than focusing on how much they stand to gain from the patients.
References
Agniel, D. (2018). Biases in electronic health record data due to processes within the healthcare system: Retrospective observational study.
Cardoso, E. M., Reis, C., & Manzanares-Céspedes, M. C. (2017). Chronic periodontitis, inflammatory cytokines, and interrelationship with other chronic diseases. Postgraduate Medicine, 130(1), 98–104. Web.