Using the Omaha System as a Framework to Demonstrate the Value of Nurse Managed Wellness Center Services for Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Nurse managed wellness centers (NMWCs) are academic service settings where baccalaureate nursing students gain rich community health clinical experience while providing valuable wellness services to a vulnerable population. The Omaha System provides a framework for generating meaningful data that is essential for describing the value of NMWCs. A retrospective study of Omaha System assessments from 9 NMWCs provides descriptive data about the characteristics of the patient population and patient outcomes in relationship to knowledge, behavior, and status. Patients showed significant improvement for the overall sample and for 6 important health problems. These findings support anecdotal data about the value of NMWC for a vulnerable population. Research for this article was funded in part by a grant from HighMark.

Preliminary Evidence for the Usefulness of Standardized Nursing Terminologies in Different Fields of Application: A Literature Review

“…Seven studies using NOC used the NOC rating to measure changes in the condition of patients from admission to discharge (Azzolin et al, 2013;da Silva et al, 2015;Park, 2013;Scherb, Stevens, & Busman, 2007;Scherb et al, 2011;Schneider, Barkauskas, & Keenan, 2008;Tseng & Moorhead, 2014). One study used the Omaha system (Thompson, Monsen, Wanamaker, Augustyniak, & Thompson, 2012). One study used the Omaha system (Thompson, Monsen, Wanamaker, Augustyniak, & Thompson, 2012).…”

“…A similar result was noted by Park (2013) regarding patients with heart failure. Thompson et al (2012) used the Omaha system to describe patients at a nurse-managed wellness center as well as patients' health problems and whether their health improved. Azzolin et al (2013) noted that eight interventions from NIC showed significant improvement according to the outcome score for patients with heart failure in the indicators functional status, self-care, and symptom control.…”

“…Park (2013) used 268 patient records and mentioned the difficulty to evaluate each intervention in her study, and that inclusion of variables like length of stay, severity of heart failure, and hospital readmission would benefit measuring the effect of NIC. Another limitation in these studies was the poor quality and sometimes lack of documentation on nursing practice (Pérez Rivas et al, 2015;Scherb et al, 2011;Thompson et al, 2012) especially the lack of NOC rating at discharge (Tseng & Moorhead, 2014). Two studies were carried out in Brazil in home care and at orthopedic clinic, and one in Spain in primary care.…”

“…All but two of the studies in this theme were carried out in the USA but in different contexts (acute cardiac unit, pediatric health care, home health care, community hospital, oncology units, and nurse-managed wellness center). In addition, the nurses had insufficient training in using standardized nursing terminologies (Scherb et al, 2011;Schneider et al, 2008;Thompson et al, 2012). All studies used a limited selection of recurring terminology.…”

“…Using the NNN to document the nursing process was explored in the study by Pérez Rivas et al (2015), and NNN in combination with data-mining technique was used to explore symptom control (Almasalha et al, 2013). One study used the Omaha system (Thompson, Monsen, Wanamaker, Augustyniak, & Thompson, 2012). Different perspectives on the effect on nursing practice were used in the 11 studies included in this theme.…”