MHA-506 Mod 2 Case Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury
Name
Institution
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which is trauma to the head resulting from an external force, has become a major cause of concern for veterans who return from war. In fact, Moore, Powell-Cope, and Belanger (2018) reveal that about 14% and 22% of Vietnam and Iraq-Afghanistan casualties, respectively, are attributed to TBI. Thus, it is important to provide TBI ancillary services to them to ensure they receive the necessary post-recovery care. These services include a TBI screen and diagnostic evaluation for individuals with a potential positive TBI (Moore, Powell-Cope, & Belanger, 2018). Once a patient has been diagnosed with TBI, appropriate medication and rehabilitation services are also provided. These services ensure that a TBI affected individual receives the appropriate follow-up after deployment. Further, given that the severity of TBI varies, it is important for a TBI screen to be done to ensure that mild TBI’s do not go unnoticed, leaving the individual with post-concussive symptoms, that are otherwise manageable once their root cause is identified. A point worth noting is that TBI does not only affect veterans and military servicemen but also civilians and as such, the scope of these services extends beyond the veterans.
Challenges
While the provision of TBI ancillary service is paramount, it is worth noting that it comes with its share of challenges. These challenges include a slow adoption to technology, staff shortage, and poor job satisfaction which increases turnover rates.
Slow Adoption to Technology
Proper screening and diagnosis of TBI requires the adoption of the most advanced technology in the field. In fact, a lack of proper screening and diagnostic tools could lead to unnoticed TBI, especially if it is of mild severity. According to Martinez and Stabenfeldt (2019), some of the common diagnostic tools such as CT and MRI scans may not be very effective in capturing the symptoms of a mild TBI. Thus, it is important to adopt up-to-date technology and slow adoption to technology is a hindrance to this. In fact, Martinez and Stabenfeldt (2019) reveal that the slow adoption of technologies such as machine learning in the diagnosis of TBI could decrease the quality of life and well-being of the patient. Thus, this is a challenge that the hospital’s ancillary service unit ought to address.
Staff Shortage
Staff shortage is a challenge that is being experienced in the healthcare industry, especially nurse shortages. Staff shortage is usually associated with an increased workload. Consequently, a high workload has been associated with a decrease in the quality of care provided to patients (Zuniga, et al., 2015). Thus, the ancillary service may end up providing insufficient care to TBI patients in terms of screening and rehabilitation, due to a high workload. In addition, there are chances of an inaccurate diagnosis, which could affect a patient’s healthcare outcomes.
Poor Job Satisfaction
As mentioned earlie...