Article | EVIDENCE-BASED PLAN FOR HEALTHCARE

Running head: EVIDENCE-BASED PLAN FOR HEALTHCARE
Develop an Evidence-Based Plan for Health Care Delivery
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NURSING
Introduction
Patients suffer from heart failure because their heart muscles are unable to pump
enough blood to the body as they normally should. This can happen due to a number of
underlying diseases like coronary heart disease or arteriosclerosis (Okuyama et al., 2015).
The inefficiency to pump blood can cause the body to not get enough of oxygenated blood for
the cells to function properly. Hospitals have acute care settings where patients suffering
from these kinds of illnesses are admitted for treatment (Kelkar et al., 2016). Nurses, during
their education, are provided with special education to help the patients get quality care. The
quality of the care provided by the specialist nurses deployed in acute care has shown to
improve the treatment of the patient and reducing the number of readmissions and mortality
rates. The main objective of the nurses is to take care of the well-being of the patient while
giving them the necessary treatment (Dreyer et al., 2016). The evidence-based discharge
education plan is being discussed that is implemented by nurses to improve discharge day for
patients.
IDEAL Discharge Planning Strategy
Transfer of information of the patient to the clinician regarding the discharge from
hospital prevents adverse events and reduces readmissions. Involvement of families of the
patient in the planning process makes this effective and safe. There is step-by-step guidance
followed by nurses implementing the IDEAL Discharge Planning (Weiss et al., 2015).
The I in IDEAL stands for Include. It means including the families of the patient in
the planning process of discharge ("Care Transitions from Hospital to Home: IDEAL
Discharge Planning Implementation Handbook", 2019). The members of the family who will
be present with the patient after they have been discharged from the hospital should be
included in the meetings for them to understand the type of care the patient needs and they

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have to provide. The initiation of the planning process should be starting since the first day of
the admission in the hospital. It should be well understood by the patient as well as the family
members.
The D in IDEAL stands for discussing. This step revolves around the discussion of
the key areas that will prevent problems at home. The environment at home of the patient
should be informed to the clinician to help make a patient-centered plan ("Care Transitions
from Hospital to Home: IDEAL Discharge Planning Implementation Handbook", 2019).
Information regarding the patient’s eating habits, allergies to certain medications and the
activities they are prohibited from doing must be mentioned to the nursing professional for a
proactive discharge plan for the patient. The nurse will be taking up the duty to make the
patient and their family understand the utility associated with the medications that have been
prescribed to the patient. The apparent side-effects and the number of medicines to be taken
must be clearly specified to the family who will be in charge of administrating the
medications to the patient. Explanation of the test results must be provided to the family as
well as the patient for better understanding of the illness that is being contracted by the
patient. Follow-up appointments with the physician specialising in cardiology must be made
with clear specification of the importance of it. This will help the family understand the
significance of the follow-up and reduce the risk of readmission in cases of heart failure.
The E in IDEAL stands for educating. This includes the providing of education to the
family as well as the patient about the heart condition and the risk that is associated with this
condition ("Care Transitions from Hospital to Home: IDEAL Discharge Planning
Implementation Handbook", 2019). The reasons why this condition is prevalent in the patient
must be corroborated with the lifestyle that is associated with the patient. The patient should
be provided every day with information about the medications that they have been prescribed
for the day. This will help the patient in understanding their condition and the degree of