Healthcare System Theory

Discussion of the relationship between systems theory and healthcare delivery in the U.S. System theory is a science that studies systems. System theory studies the way systems communicate, how they are successful or why they fail. Given this information it is obvious how systems theory can be applied to health care. Health care delivery is a system. The health care delivery system is composed of many different parts. Doctors, nurses, social workers, patients, family, pharmacists, government programs to name just a few. The health care system is responsible for life and limb so must work cohesively. Studying the healthcare system and applying the systems theory helps healthcare delivery increase optimal patient outcomes in the U.S.(Petula,
Much of the new information related to improving healthcare rely on the understanding of Innovation theory. With the understanding of how healthcare innovation is introduced and implimented, a new or healthcare innovation can be incorporated quickly and reach successfully the goal of implimentation, quality improvement, and optimal patient outcomes in healthcare. Understanding diffusion of innovation theory can help Supervisors and other implementors of change provide the necessary tools for change to occur among nurses. Diffusion of Innovation theory in current nursing practice is especially needed with the changes that nursing is going through at this time in history. With the courtywide implementation of the electronic medical record mandated by the U.S. government as well as the Affordable Healthcare Act the understanding of how to succefully implement these changes in nursing is very important. With the mandate of the government in place diffusion of innovation theory is and will be an important tool in the success of incorporating new nursing skills into the nursing
When I wanted to tie systems theory into nursing I added the word nursing to systems theory in the search bar. In this manner I was able to view many articles from nursing journals about systems theory and how it related to nursing. I was also able to view information on systems theory on Wikipedia. I conducted similar searches for diffusion of innovation theory. I googled diffusion of innovation theory first then incorporated nursing into the search bar to receive information on how they tie into each other. CINAHL was also used in my searches. It was fairly easy to use but not as easy as google. I was impressed with how much information specific to nursing was available. With CINAHL when conducting my searches there were a few more steps. The first step was to log onto the WGU site then log onto the library. I also had to click on the Federated database search then choose CINAHL. There was a search bar where you can enter your subject matter and add tie ins such as mine, nursing.

Annotated Bibliography

Petula, Sue (2005) Can Applying Systems Theory Improve Quality in Healthcare Systems? Journal for Healthcare