RESUMEN
Background: Individuals with a uterus experience menopause, the cessation of menses, on average at age 51 years in the United States. While menopause is a natural occurrence for most, over 85% of women experience multiple interfering symptoms. Menopausal women face health disparities, including a lack of access to high-quality healthcare and greater disparities are experienced by women who are black, indigenous, and people of color. Some women are turning away from hormone therapy, and some seek integrative health interventions. Objective: Some menopausal women who seek healthcare do not receive it as they lack access to medical and integrative healthcare providers. A potential solution to this problem is a medical group visit (MGV), during which a provider sees multiple patients at once. The aims of this study were to gather women's opinions about the menopause, provider access, and conventional and integrative health interventions for later use to develop a menopause MGV. Methods: We conducted a Community Engagement Session and a Return of Results (RoR) with midlife women to learn about their menopause experiences, barriers and facilitators to accessing health providers, and their interest in and suggestions for designing a future integrative MGV (IMGV). Thematic qualitative research methods were used to summarize session results. Results: Nine women participated in the Session and six attended the RoR. Participants were well-educated and diverse in race and ethnicity. Themes included: an interest in this topic; unfamiliar medical terms; relevant social factors; desired whole person care; interest in integrative health; barriers and facilitators to accessing healthcare. The group expressed interest in ongoing participation in the future process of adapting an IMGV, naming it MENOGAP. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of stakeholder engagement before designing and implementing MENOGAP and the great need among midlife women for education about the menopausal transition, integrative self-care, and healthcare.
RESUMEN
Electronic health records (EHR) have continued to advance and improve patient care, treatment, and safety, but the education required for EHR use can vary. In preparing future health care professionals for the use of EHR, allied health programs such as health information management (HIM) should understand the current use of EHR skills of HIM professionals. This quantitative descriptive study identified the current use of EHR skills of HIM professionals within a region. An email containing a link to the electronic survey was sent to 350 HIM association members. The response rate was 34.6% (n=121). The results indicated higher use of federal and state regulations regarding privacy/security, problem solving and critical thinking skills for health information technology (HIT) systems, and data mining skills. But, there were some skillsets that had a lower use such as financial decision making, database design, and HIT software development. The findings suggest some specific EHR skills that are essential for HIM graduates. It is imperative that HIM programs have an understanding of what EHR skills are needed for their profession.