Grading Rubric
Grading criteria Points
Introductory paragraph: Do not use a header for the Introduction. End the
paragraph with a thesis statement that tells the reader what will be discussed in
the paper.
1/1
Describe the relationship between the POI and selected outcome. Identify
the outcome you selected. Include the context of your practice or the practice
you plan to engage in upon graduation, and the significance of the relationship
to your advanced nursing practice.
6/6
Determine the level of empirical support for the relationship between your
POI and the selected outcome. Include at least 3 research articles as empirical
support. Include the definitions of concepts, and identify outcome indicators
and corresponding measures presented in the articles.
7/7
Discuss the impact of the empirical support on your understanding of the
POI. How the research studies influence your thinking about the selected POI?
For example, what new insights into your POI were gained?
5/5
Conclusion: Summarize the contents of the paper. No new information should
be included in a conclusion.
1/1
Total points: 20/20
Deductions (for deficiencies such as APA errors, improper formatting of title or
reference page, grammatical/spelling errors, poor writing)
-up to 4
points
Final score: 20/20
Deductions:
Up to 20% of the total point value may be deducted for deficiencies such as APA errors,
improper formatting of title or reference page, grammatical/spelling errors, poor writing. For
example an assignment worth 20 points could have a maximum of 4 points (20% x 20) deducted
for scholarship deficiencies.
Papers over the page limit will be penalized by a disregard of content over the page limit.
A minimum of 10% deduction may be taken for late submissions received within 3 days of the
due date. Papers submitted more than 72 hours after the due date, without prior approval from
the instructor, will not be accepted for grading, and a grade of zero (0) will be awarded on the
assignment.
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Outcomes Paper
The essence of evidence-based practice is to combine evidence obtained from research with clinical knowledge and expertise to inform nursing practice. It enables nurses to take actions whose effectiveness is supported by facts rather than opinions (Abu-Baker et al., 2021). According to Rafii et al. (2021), empirical knowing is the pattern of knowing that relies on facts, thematic descriptions, and theories. This paper will describe the empirical evidence that supports the relationship between the phenomenon of interest (barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care) and outcome (quality of life).
The Relationship Between POI and Quality of Life
The phenomenon of interest that will be the center of focus in this paper is barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care. The outcome associated with this issue is quality of life (QoL). The World Health Organization defines ‘quality of life’ as the status of well-being and goal attainment as defined by an individual or a population. The concept encompasses both negative and positive elements pertaining to functional abilities and overall well-being explained in terms of physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and economic statuses (Daundasekara et al., 2020). Barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care are related to QoL in that they negatively impact the overall well-being of the population, preventing it from attaining health-related goals. As reported by the Commonwealth Fund (2021), failure by African Americans to seek healthcare services prevents them from accessing care thereby placing them at increased risk of developing diseases. Connell et al. (2019) further assert that African American men are unable to seek healthcare services thereby making them more likely to suffer serious medical problems when compared with whites with limited barriers to seeking healthcare services. Examples of diseases that are commonly diagnosed among African American men with limited access to healthcare services include heart disease and high blood pressure (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). The barriers are associated with poor QoL because they limit functional abilities and overall well-being explained in terms of physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and economic statuses.
The specific specialty area for engagement upon graduation is the Nurse Practitioner role. The relationship between barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care and QoL is significant to Nurse Practitioner practice in that it reveals gaps in population-based care that nurse practitioners should aim to address (Connell et al., 2019). Specifically, nurse practitioners, as advanced practice nurses, play a key role in addressing existing barriers to healthcare access for populations. Nurse practitioners should participate in policy development, implementation, and evaluation to ensure that African American men are able to seek health without any hindrances.
The Level of Empirical Support
There is sufficient empirical evidence to support the relationship between barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care and QoL. Racial discrimination is one of the factors that are preventing African Americans aged between 18 and 65 years from seeking health services. English et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional survey to examine the relationship between racial discrimination and ethnicity among Black sexual minority men and depressive symptoms. Evidence from the study revealed that there is a significant exclusivity among Black sexual minority men in the United States. Additional findings indicate that discrimination among Black sexual minority men was associated with depressive symptoms among participants. Similar findings are supported by Qin et al. (2020). Qin et al. (2020) designed a longitudinal mixed-methods study to investigate the relationship between depression symptoms in elderly African Americans and everyday discrimination and social support. From the study, the researchers found that discrimination and the lack of social support were associated with depressive symptoms in elderly African Americans. The key concepts explore in English et al. (2020) and Qin et al. (2020) are racial discrimination, ethnicity, and social support. The outcome measures that define QoL are depressive symptoms among elderly African Americans and Black sexual minority men. Findings from the two studies support the positive relationship between racial discrimination, ethnicity, and social support and depressive symptoms among elderly African Americans.
Inequitable resource allocation and subsequent shortage of healthcare resources are preventing African American men aged between 18 and 65 from seeking healthcare services, especially those who reside in rural areas. Nicholson et al. (2020) investigated the influence of resource allocation on mental health outcomes among African American adults and older adults. Participants in their 60s formed part of the study population. The study found that there was an inverse relationship between the resources allocated for African Americans and depressive symptoms. The concept being investigated in this study is resource allocation and the outcome measure is symptoms of depression. Another study that linked limited resource allocation to negative health outcomes among African Americans is that of Poteat et al. (2020). In this study, the researchers found that Black Americans are experiencing severe COVID-19 exacerbations due to provider bias, employment discrimination, and the lack of Medicaid expansion among other factors. A retrospective cohort study conducted by Luth et al. (2020) revealed an inverse association between hospice services and the risk of live discharge among African Americans with dementia. The outcome measure in the study was the live discharge of African American patients with terminal conditions. Depressive symptoms, COVID-19 exacerbations, and live discharge all have negative impacts on the QoL of patients.
The Impact of Empirical Support
Evidence from empirical research has generated new insight regarding the relationship between barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care and QoL. For example, it is evident from the literature that the discrimination faced by Black sexual minority men is preventing them from seeking healthcare services (English et al., 2020). Again, the inequitable allocation of both human and non-human resources is preventing African Americans from seeking health services, especially those who reside in rural areas. The lack of social support is a key factor in the negative health outcomes observed among African Americans (Johnson et al., 2020; Qin et al., 2020). These factors have negative mental health outcomes for African Americans as evidenced by increased depressive symptoms.
Additional insights gained from the empirical evidence reveal the relationships between the location of healthcare facilities and medical insurance and the health-seeking behaviors among African Americans. For example, the distal location of hospice services is preventing African Americans from accessing the services. Those who can access the services are at increased risk of live discharge (Luth et al., 2020). Besides, African Americans who lack Medicaid expansion are reluctant to seek costly health services (Poteat et al., 2020). This increases their risk of developing severe COVID-19 exacerbations.
Conclusion
Reviewing published empirical studies is the best way through nurses can advance their ‘empirical’ knowledge. Empirical evidence supports the relationship between barriers to African American men ages 18-65 seeking health care and QoL. This evidence guides nurse practitioners to understand how various barriers to health-seeking affect the quality of life of African American men aged between 18 and 65 years.
References
Abu-Baker, N. N., AbuAlrub, S., Obeidat, R. F., & Assmairan, K. (2021). Evidence-based practice beliefs and implementations: a cross-sectional study among undergraduate nursing students. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00522-x
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Vital signs: Racial disparities in age-specific mortality among blacks or African Americans: The United States, 1999–2015. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6618a11external icon
Connell, C. L., Wang, S. C., Crook, L., & Yadrick, K. (2019). Barriers to healthcare seeking and provision among African American adults in the rural Mississippi Delta Region: Community and provider perspectives. Journal of Community Health, 44(4), 636–645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-019-00620-1
Daundasekara, S. S., Arlinghaus, K. R., & Johnston, C. A. (2020). Quality of life: The primary goal of lifestyle intervention. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 14(3), 267–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827620907309
English, D., Hickson, D. A., Callander, D., Goodman, M. S., & Duncan, D. T. (2020). Racial discrimination, sexual partner race/ethnicity, and depressive symptoms among black sexual minority men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(5), 1799–1809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01647-5
Johnson, N., M. C., Martin, P., Gilligan, M., Cutrona, C. E., Russell, D. W., Schofield, T. J., & Poon, L. W. (2020). The impact of distal influences and proximal resources on the mental health of African American older adults: Findings from the Georgia Centenarian study. Innovation in Aging, 4(5), igaa046. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa046
Luth, E. A., Russell, D. J., Brody, A. A., Dignam, R., Czaja, S. J., Ryvicker, M., Bowles, K. H., & Prigerson, H. G. (2020). Race, ethnicity, and other risks for live discharge among hospice patients with dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(3), 551–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16242
Poteat, T., Millett, G. A., Nelson, L. E., & Beyrer, C. (2020). Understanding COVID-19 risks and vulnerabilities among black communities in America: The lethal force of syndemics. Annals of Epidemiology, 47, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.05.004
Rafii, F., Nasrabadi, A. N., & Tehrani, F. J. (2021). How nurses apply patterns of knowing in clinical practice: A grounded theory study. Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, 31(1), 139–146. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v31i1.16
The Commonwealth Fund. (2021). Transforming care: Understanding and ameliorating medical mistrust among black Americans. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/2021/jan/medical-mistrust-among-black-americans.
Qin, W., Nguyen, A. W., Mouzon, D. M., Hamler, T. C., & Wang, F. (2020). Social support, everyday discrimination, and depressive symptoms among older African Americans: A longitudinal study. Innovation in Aging, 4(5), igaa032. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa032