Impact on nurses, nursing care, healthcare organizations, and quality of care.
The problem of obesity in Florida has a significant impact on nurses and nursing care. The first impact which is there on nursing is that patients who are obese tend to stay in the hospital longer compared to normal weight patients. The patients need more care during this period from the nurses and the majority of them are highly unstable (Osondu et al., 2016). The nurses also face challenges because the patients who are obese are more difficult to transport. Moving them around even on the hospital beds is a significant challenge. For the healthcare organization, there is increased utilization of their medical services. The obese patients attend the healthcare facilities more compared to the normal weight patients. The healthcare organizations also have to be ready to deal with an increase in the risk of injury of the people. The healthcare organizations have to be ready to deal with more problems that can arise even during medical attention such as urinary tract infections. The obese patients also require to visit emergency room services more often and the healthcare organizations need to be ready to handle the increase of patients who regularly visit the emergency services department. When it comes to quality of care, obese patients are a risk to quality because it is associated with infections and other complications which can, for example, lead to poorer surgical outcomes (Aziz et al., 2017). It is difficult to give these patients good care because of the various conditions they face such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Local Key Stakeholders.
There are various key stakeholders that are there when it comes to the issue of obesity. The first stakeholder are the government at all levels. It is important to note that the government is in charge of the health system and it is critical to ensure that it is efficiency. The government has worked to provide the best care but obesity is a challenge because of the complications that it brings. The state and local government need to make sure that they have more emergency rooms, for example. The next local stakeholder are healthcare organizations (Osondu et al., 2016). The healthcare organizations today need to have more capacity to handle the increase in citizens of Florida who are obese. The next important stakeholders in this issue are the media. It is important for the media to build on responsible advertising especially when it comes to the products that lead to obesity. There are high fat and high sugar foods and drinks advertised that need to be removed or should come with disclaimers. The media has the ethical duty to communicate messages to encourage people to exercise and observe their diets.
Intervention.
One local approach that can be used is encouragement of physical exercise. One of the interventions that can deal with the problem of obesity is ensuring that the local citizens are regularly exercising. There should be a culture of going to exercise at thrice a week (Musich et al., 2016). Physical activity can lead to people living healthier lives. The lives of people improve when they engage in physical exercise and they can drive the obesity. In Florida, getting people outside more is an intervention that has worked particular for those who are in their middle ages (Aziz et al., 2017). This intervention works because there are quality and enjoyable physical exercise which are there for younger generations such as parkour.
References
Aziz, M., Osondu, C. U., Younus, A., Malik, R., Rouseff, M., Das, S., & Agatston, A. S. (2017). The association of sleep duration and morbid obesity in a working population: The Baptist Health South Florida employee study. Metabolic syndrome and related disorders, 15(2), 59-62.
Osondu, C. U., Aneni, E. C., Salami, J., Valero-Elizondo, J., Rouseff, M., Das, S., & Agatston, A. S. (2016). Obesity is associated with Significantly Higher Healthcare Expenditures in a Large US Employee Population: The Baptist Health South Florida Employee Study. Circulation, 134(suppl_1), A19792-A19792.
Musich, S., MacLeod, S., Bhattarai, G. R., Wang, S. S., Hawkins, K., Bottone Jr, F. G., & Yeh, C. S. (2016). The impact of obesity on health care utilization and expenditures in a Medicare supplement population. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 2, 2333721415622004.