Promoting Population Health
Promoting Positive Health Behaviors
Darcey Alsdorf
Walden University
NURS6050, Section 4, Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health
September 29, 2014
Promoting Positive Health Behaviors Improving population health
Every Woman Matters Every Woman Matters is a program through the Nebraska Department of Health which is state run and federally funded. This program focuses on decreasing barriers to preventive breast and cervical cancer screenings in low-income women. They so this by raising public awareness and make these screenings more accessable and affordable to eligible women (Backer, Geske, McIlvain, Dodendorf, & Minier, 2005). Reduced cost or no cost clinical breast exams, mammograms, and Pap smear test are provided through this program. The EWM program has attempted to provide their services to physician practices to assist in the development of the program. The practices are expected to follow the GAPS model to implement this change. This includes: “goal setting, assessing existing routines, planning the modification of routines, and providing support for these improvements (Backer et al., 2005, p402). In order for this to be successful, they need to alter physician and practice behaviors. The practices resources, willingness to change, and the ability of staff to fully cooperate or work as a team should have been evaluated before the attempt to implement EWM program into each practice. It seems the practices chosen to implement the Every Woman Matters program already had its own issues or barrier for implementation to be fully possible. Some of the problems that were faced were: one practice was only focused on generating income, some were hospital owned which added barriers to approval, enthusiasm was not shared by all staff, staff was disgruntled or overextended, limited resources, resistance from staff, no active leader, prevention not being priority, and the loss of interest or elimination of goals after the first few months (Backer et
Darcey Alsdorf
Walden University
NURS6050, Section 4, Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health
September 29, 2014
Promoting Positive Health Behaviors Improving population health
Every Woman Matters Every Woman Matters is a program through the Nebraska Department of Health which is state run and federally funded. This program focuses on decreasing barriers to preventive breast and cervical cancer screenings in low-income women. They so this by raising public awareness and make these screenings more accessable and affordable to eligible women (Backer, Geske, McIlvain, Dodendorf, & Minier, 2005). Reduced cost or no cost clinical breast exams, mammograms, and Pap smear test are provided through this program. The EWM program has attempted to provide their services to physician practices to assist in the development of the program. The practices are expected to follow the GAPS model to implement this change. This includes: “goal setting, assessing existing routines, planning the modification of routines, and providing support for these improvements (Backer et al., 2005, p402). In order for this to be successful, they need to alter physician and practice behaviors. The practices resources, willingness to change, and the ability of staff to fully cooperate or work as a team should have been evaluated before the attempt to implement EWM program into each practice. It seems the practices chosen to implement the Every Woman Matters program already had its own issues or barrier for implementation to be fully possible. Some of the problems that were faced were: one practice was only focused on generating income, some were hospital owned which added barriers to approval, enthusiasm was not shared by all staff, staff was disgruntled or overextended, limited resources, resistance from staff, no active leader, prevention not being priority, and the loss of interest or elimination of goals after the first few months (Backer et
References: Altpeter, M., Earp, J., & Schopler, J. (1998). Promoting breast cancer screening in rural, African American communities: the "science and art" of community health promotion. Health & Social Work, 23(2), 104-115. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=1998053486&scope=site Backer, E. L., Geske, J. A., McIlvain, H. E., Dodendorf, D. M., & Minier, W. C. (2005). Improving female preventive health care delivery through practice change: An Every Woman Matters study.Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 18(5), 401–408. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. Carroll, J. K., Humiston, S. G., Meldrum, S. C., Salamone, C. M., Jean-Pierre, P., Epstein, R. M., and Fiscella, K. (2009). Patients’ experiences with navigation for cancer care. Patient Education and Counseling 80, 241-247. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2009.10.024 Leeman, J., Moore, A., Teal, R., Barrett, N., Leighton, A., & Steckler, A. (2013). Promoting Community Practitioners ' Use of Evidence-Based Approaches to Increase Breast Cancer Screening. Public Health Nursing, 30(4), 323-331. doi:10.1111/phn.12021 Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=2012167333&site=ehost-live Meredith, S. M. (2013). Disparities in Breast Cancer and the Role of Patient Navigator Programs. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17(1), 54-59. doi:10.1188/13.CJON.54-59 Sudarsan, N., Jandorf, L., & Erwin, D. (2011). Multi-Site Implementation of Health Education Programs for Latinas. Journal Of Community Health, 36(2), 193-203. doi:10.1007/s10900-010-9297-7 Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=2010969861&scope=site Welch, C., Miller, C., & James, N. (2008). Sociodemographic and health-related determinants of breast and cervical cancer screening behavior, 2005. JOGNN: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 37(1), 51-57. doi:10.1111/j.1552-6909.2007.00190.x Wells, K., Meade, C., Calcano, E., Lee, J., Rivers, D., & Roetzheim, R. (2011). Innovative approaches to reducing cancer health disparities: the Moffitt Cancer Center patient navigator research program. Journal of Cancer Education, 26(4), 649-657. doi:10.1007/s13187-011-0238-7