Medicare Part C (aka Medicare Advantage) provides beneficiaries with a managed care option to parts A and B with D.

Review the plan at: https://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/what-medicare-health-plans-cover (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Investigate and come back and summarize what you learned about these plans.

Be specific.

250 Minimum word count

 

 Nichelle Ho Lung 

Please respond to the following discussion by using one reference from peer-reviewed Nursing Journal not older 5 years old (from database and not the internet).

When selecting human subjects for research, it is important to consider cultural, ethical and even social implications of the subjects. Researchers must evaluate the purpose for the research of specific individuals and determine if they are underserved population or a vulnerable population. Things like these are important to establish because implications can be developed from such. A major ethical issue that should be observed is informed consent. As described by Polit; informed consent is a process in the ethical conduct of a study that involves obtaining people’s voluntary participation in a study, after informing them of possible risks and benefits. Human subjects that are of vulnerable populations and are not able to comprehend the information of the research are implicated. If the human subject is unsure of the potential risks and benefits other measures must and should be used to create understanding for the subjects. It is ethically wrong and illegal not obtain proper informed consent. It is not safe for the subject and unfair to them as well.

Cultural barriers can also come into play and should also be observed when selecting human subjects. Providing accommodations for the subjects should be made and applied in order for complete transparency of all parties.

Scenario Information

You are assuming the role of the project manager for a company called SuperPacks to provide a new backpack product with a built-in refrigeration pouch and radio module. Your customer for this project is the U.S. Army, Ground Forces and Special Operations. As the project manager for your team, you will be submitting to your manager a project management report.

Instructions

Having been recently hired by the company, you will assume the role of the assigned project manager overseeing the design, development, production, and delivery of the new product. The details below provide a summary of your company’s project:

• Company type (name your company): A small defense contractor located in the United States of America
• Company size (employees): 100
• Product: Backpack with built-in refrigerated pouch and radio module
• Awarded quantity: 200 units – 100 assigned to Ground Forces / 100 assigned to Special Operations
• Program Budget: Proposed award: $1,500,000
• Customer: U.S. Army, Ground Forces and Special Operations Unit
• Award date: Current Date
• Completion date: Two years from current date
• Delivery schedule: 100 units, 12months ARO (after receipt of order). 50 units every 3 months after first delivery
• Milestone Schedule: 
  • First delivery:
  • Second delivery:
  • Last delivery:
  • First milestone payment (from the customer):
  • Second milestone payment:
  • Final milestone payment:
  • Initial program review (at the customer’s site):
  • Subsequent program reviews: 6 months after the initial review

Expected Result from Senior Management

• On-time delivery for the three stated product deliverables
• Desire to complete the total program under the stated budget of $1,500,000
• All milestones accomplished by due dates listed
• Supplemental contract for future additional units (backpacks)

You will be submitting to your manager, using the Final Project Report Template in Microsoft Word  a project management report, which will include the following:

1. Executive summary
2. Project background/project overview
3. Major activities/milestones
4. Project closure synopsis
5. Project metrics performance
6. Project management issues
7. Project closure recommendations

Respond using one or more of the following approaches:

Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, and evidence

Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own review of the literature in the Walden Library.

Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.

Reference:

Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group.

                                                                      MAIN POST

                                          Ethical Dimensions of Research Studies

       Nursing research and research studies can offer many gains in the healthcare field and offer clear, conscience evidenced-based practices (EBP). Before diving into conducting a research study it is essential to understand ethical issues and ethical dilemmas. Research ethics demand necessity on daily work, the protection of test subject’s and the publicizing of information from the research (Fouka & Mantzorou, 2011). Ethical dilemmas are situations where the test subject’s rights are in conflict with the studies requirements (Polit & Beck, 2017). Nursing researcher need to be aware of any ethical issues and develop a research plan to help alleviate any problems or ethical dilemmas.

Transfusion of Prematures

       Transfusion of Prematures (TOP) Trial was an open, parallel-group multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) analyzed by the intention to treat (Kirpalani et al., 2012). The main point of the TOP trial was to determine whether higher hemoglobin levels for giving transfusions to extremely low birth weight infants could result in higher hemoglobin levels leading to the improvements in neurodevelopmental impairment at 22-26 months of age and the primary outcome to be survival (ClinicalTrials, 2019). The trial explained that by avoiding a breach the current practice boundaries of the hemoglobin levels that would require an infusion by using a transfusion algorithm. This would avoid dilemmas and minimize risks to the test subject’s. There are no real results of this trial. The test subject’s will be seen for follow-up visits at around six years old to assess neurological and functional outcomes based on the transfusion threshold (Kirpaplani et al., 2012).

Ethical Principles

       Three principles that standards of ethical conduct in research are based on are beneficence, respect for human dignity and justice (Polit & Beck, 2017). Beneficence can be explained as a duty to promote good and eliminate harm to the test subjects. The TOP trial was seen by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) as harmful by veering away from usual care and harmful risks were posed by the deviations (National Public Radio, 2013). The researcher could have maintained usual care and not deviate from routine care on the test subjects. The second ethical principle is respect for human dignity which is the right to know what will take place or full disclosure (Polit & Beck, 2017). The TOPS trial had defects and faced criticism for not telling all this risks that the subjects would face. In this trial the consent forms did not elaborate on previous studies about when to transfuse. The studies suggested that premature infants that had transfusions later had a higher chance of death, brain injury and emergency care for transfusions (National Public Radio, 2013). The researchers should have been honest to the test subject’s parents regarding the previous studies and the risks of participation in the study. The third principle is justice which allows for fair treatment and the right to have privacy (Polit & Beck, 2017). In the TOPS trial it was suggested that the subject’s parents were not aware of what was being asked. Parents were giving up their rights to a physician to make decisions on what they feel was in the best interest of the infant. This would impede on the right to fair treatment. The researchers need to make sure that the parents of the test subjects understand every aspect of the trial and have the rights to make decisions on what they feel is in the best interest of their child. The parent should have the say so in what is being done to their child and not a physician. Research can be done on sensitive issues while protecting the rights of the research subjects by following the ethical principles. Adopting the ethical principles will help avoid ethical dilemmas in research.

Conclusion

       Nursing research has many benefits to the practice and can produce evidence- based practices to help provide the best care to our patients. Ethical dilemmas can be avoided by conducting a study that poses minimal conflicts with patient rights. Making patient safety the main goal is essential in the success of a research study. Keeping ethical principles of beneficence, respect for human dignity, and justice intertwined in the development or framework of the study is the only way to ensure that participants are being protected.

 

  

References

ClinicalTrials. (2019). Transfusion of Prematures (TOP). Retrieved March 18, 2019, from http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01702805.

 

Fouka, G., & Mantzorou, M. (2011). What are the major ethical issues in conducting research? Is there a conflict between the research ethics and the nature of nursing? Health Science Journal, 5(1), 3-14. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

 

 

Kirpalani, H., Bell, H., D’Angio, C., Hintz, S., Kennedy, K., Ohls, R., Poindexter, B., Schibler, K., Schmidt, B., Vohr, B., Widness, J., Das, A., Higgins, R., Zupancic, J., Roberts, R., Whyte, R., Chaudhary, A., & Johnson, K. (2012). Transfusion of Prematures (TOP) Trial: Does a Liberal Red Blood Cell Transfusion Strategy Improve Neurologically-Intact Survival of Extremely-Low-Birth-Weight Infants as Compared to a Restrictive Strategy? Neonatal Research Network. Retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/about/Documents/ TOP_Protocol.pdf.

 

National Public Radio (2013). Another Study of Preemies Blasted Over Ethical Concerns. Retrieved March 18, 2019, from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/08/23/214800726/another-study-of-preemies-blasted-over-ethical-concerns.

 

Polit, D.F., & Beck, C.T. (2017) Nursing Research Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

  

What is the difference between intervention research and systems research? Provide an example of a public health advancement or accomplishment that represents each type of research. In addition, explain the role of systems research and the integration of systems theory for public health programs implemented within community-based organizations. Justify your rationale.