Gregory J. Whitehead Case Study
Gregory J. Whitehead has been in private nursing practice for over two decades at a Whitehead Clinic in Vineland, New Jersey. In the interview, he revealed he opted for private practice to create an independent ecosystem that emphasized being a good advanced practice nurse who prioritizes qualities like fairness, kindness, emotional stability, empathy, and compassion.
Adhering to these qualities, teaching and highlighting them to other professionals, advance his non-academic setting competencies. The overall theme of his answers to my set interview questions is prioritizing patient-centered care in resolving any moral dilemmas that may be faced. The interview, however, focused more on private practice in the state of New Jersey, which was fascinating.
Role of Advanced Practice Nurse: Patient Care
His role involved working one-on-one with individual patients at their homes and sometimes in his primary care office. Therefore, he is paid privately by the patients through managed care organizations, private insurance, and Medicaid and is, therefore, an entrepreneur in the healthcare sector. He has created employment for five other health practitioners, an accountant, and a legal expert.
Whitehead clinic is a family practice facility that serves patients of all ages ranging from infancy to elderly adults. He reports that most of their clients seek care when they have symptoms like high fevers, abdominal and ear pains, headaches, rashness, persistent coughs, and wheezing. Patients with more severe symptoms opt to visit emergency rooms, with symptoms such as shortness of breath, disorientation, severe skin cuts, head tumors, and other substances (Woo et al., 2017).
Comprehensive Healthcare
His private practice clinic is dedicated to providing comprehensive healthcare to patients by emphasizing holistic specializations with the family as the root. It specializes in primary care, acting as a contact between the patients and the healthcare systems. The medical professionals involved are registered nurses and Gregory J. Whitehead, who is an advanced nurse practitioner. He acquired his advanced nursing practice license after completing his Masters of Science Nursing.
Role of Advanced Practice Nurse: Health Education
He leads in the health promotion efforts for their patients and their health education. All the healthcare providers are dedicated to providing individualized healthcare services to the patients but have experience working in public health facilities (Nelson et al., 2019). The registered nurses have completed the registered nursing approval to practice in the state of New Jersey. The knowledge and skills obtained in a registered nurse practitioner’s training program teach how to analyze, integrate, and translate the research to improve patient outcomes.
New Jersey Nurse Practice Act
According to the New Jersey Nurse Practice Act, the clinic is dedicated to teaching patients about disease prevention and conducting healthy lifestyles. The primary healthcare services involved include providing physical examinations, tests, procedures, diagnosis, and treatment (Carthon et al., 2017). They also prescribe medications to the patients and inform them of their role in the treatment plan. They conduct routine examinations and may refer the patients to a more specialized practitioner.
His private practice provides him with the independence to act in the patients’ best interest, for example, providing them with health care services in their homes. Given the nature of the practice, Whitehead Clinic tends to serve a small clientele with about 300 unique patients per year, ranging from zero to 97 years. Some patients make regular visits or home appointments several times a year. According to him, primary practice plays a critical role in improving health outcomes, reducing health disparities, promoting healthy lifestyles and patient education, and reducing the chances of visiting the emergency room.
Being the founder of Whitehead Clinic, Gregory J. Whitehead has played a vital role in forming the core competencies, including the scientific, leadership, quality, practice inquiry, technological, policy, healthy delivery system, and ethical competencies. His core competencies as a leader are that he plays a crucial role in the initiation and guidance of change.
Role of Advanced Practice Nurse: Healthcare Advancement
He fosters collaboration with the various stakeholders, such as patients, employees, and other healthcare practitioners, to rely on for more specialized care of their clientele. He also focuses on improving healthcare quality by incorporating new knowledge and the advancement of technology used in patient care delivery. It is also his role in the clinic to ensure that all the employees understand healthcare policies and are willing to minimize any risk to patients as much as possible (Bruckenthal & Gilson, 2019).
Read Also: Nurses’ Role in Disaster Response Essay
Jessica MacLeod Case Study
Jessica MacLeod has proven to be a resourceful nursing professional by choosing to take care of invisible patients. These older adults would not have received healthcare services if she did not provide them, making her a disruptor in the healthcare sector. She has exposed these flaws in healthcare, not by complaining but by doing what she thinks ought to be done. The ethical dilemma here arises as Jessica has to wrestle healthcare policy and society at large, who have neglected the older adults in health, which is the basis of the documentary’s ethical dilemma.
Jessica’s Ethics
Even though I do not question Jessica’s ethics, I would improve from what she is doing by advocating for the healthcare of the elderly adults within the healthcare system’s guidelines. While Jessica can only treat one patient at a time, integrating the invisible patient into the healthcare system would help more older adults get healthcare and no longer be ‘invisible’ from the healthcare system (Artal & Rubenfeld, 2017).
Imperfect Implementation
It is important to notice that due to our healthcare system’s imperfect implementation, there are likely populations neglected by the healthcare system. Therefore, there is a good chance that there will always be a moral incentive for an actor like Jessica caring for the invisible patients. Therefore, her actions are in line with my personal beliefs and values, but my actions would be directed towards advocating for the rights of older adults (Barsky, 2017).
Invisible Patients
In addition to these, other healthcare providers should act in their capacity but sanctioned and supported by the healthcare policy. This is because it is the moral dilemma that bars other healthcare providers from taking care of the invisible patients even at a voluntary and pro bono capacity (Moreno et al., 2017). This has led to the deterioration of the health and, consequently, the “invisible patients’ quality of life.”
References
- Bruckenthal, P., & Gilson, A. M. (2019). Development and Validation of the Achieving Effective & Safe Opioid Prescribing–Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (AESOP-APRN) Survey: A Pilot Study. Pain Management Nursing, 20(3), 214-221.
- Carthon, J. M. B., Sammarco, T., Pancir, D., Chittams, J., & Nicely, K. W. (2017). Growth in retail-based clinics after nurse practitioner scope of practice reform. Nursing outlook, 65(2), 195-201.
- Nelson, L. E., McMahon, J. M., Leblanc, N. M., Braksmajer, A., Crean, H. F., Smith, K., & Xue, Y. (2019). Advancing the case for nurse practitioner‐based models to accelerate scale‐up of HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(1-2), 351-361.
- Woo, B. F. Y., Lee, J. X. Y., & San Tam, W. W. (2017). The impact of the advanced practice nursing role on quality of care, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and cost in the emergency and critical care settings: a systematic review. Human resources for health, 15(1), 1-22.
- Artal, R., & Rubenfeld, S. (2017). Ethical issues in research. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 43, 107-114.
- Barsky, A. E. (2017). Social work practice and technology: Ethical issues and policy responses. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 35(1), 8-19.
- Moreno, J. D., Schmidt, U., & Joffe, S. (2017). The Nuremberg code 70 years later. Jama, 318(9), 795-796.
