Rapid Influenza Testing

Rapid Influenza Testing

The Professional Statement Assignment provides you the opportunity to formulate and articulate the professional role of the DNP. It is very concise to help you focus on the most pertinent information as you articulate your professional goals and practice. Professional Statement Introduction: Formulate one concise paragraph that describes your upcoming professional role as a DNP prepared nurse. Implications for Health: Formulate one concise paragraph that describes how preparation at the doctoral level will impact the health and/or outcomes of the population you serve. INSTRUCTIONS  Professional Statement limited to 1 page.  Includes Title and Reference pages (not included in page number limit).  Use current APA format and guidelines for graduate level APA papers.  Correct spelling, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure are used.  Minimum of two scholarly references used.  Do not use first person. You may use “this writer”. Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool

Professional Statement: My passion and goal in life is to help people who are suffering and lost hope. The writer view himself as God’s “vessel” to be used for His glory to reach others. As God’s vessel, the writer needs to obtain knowledge and skills to be able to attend to patients’ healthcare needs and improve quality of their lives and provide support to their families. The writer is very motivated to advance skills and knowledge in DNP role to meet the demand of current healthcare challenges, perform duties that will improve patients’ well-being and e healthcare in community. As technology continue to advance, preparation at DNP level exposes the writer to gain knowledge and skills that are evidence-based for best patients’ outcome. In this role, the DNP prepared nurse has ability and capable of initiating and implementing evidence-based projects that are beneficial for the community as whole.

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Rapid Influenza Testing

Using the right testing and diagnosis tools helps improve treatment strategies’ effectiveness, enabling the patient to avoid long-term complications. According to Green & StGeorge (2018), rapid influenza testing has been an important tool as they have been the basis of successful influenza management. These testing technologies have revolutionized healthcare by providing timely medical interventions. Abbreviated as RIDTs, Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests are regarded as immunoassays that can identify the presence of either influenza A or B antigens in the human respiratory specimens hence displaying the results as a qualitative report (positive or negative.). RIDTs have become indispensable testing in the testing and treatment of influenza. This paper provides a detailed description of the Rapid influenza Testing, its use in healthcare, its purpose, how it is conducted, and the information gathered, and its validity and reliability.

Description of how the RIDTs testing are used in healthcare

Influenza is a viral infection that is known to attack one respiratory system (nose, throat, and lungs). Commonly known as flu, influenza has been thought to resolve on its own, but sometimes it has been known to cause diverse complications that turn deadly. The primary use of the RIDTs is to detect influenza in a patient’s respiratory tract specimen (Green & StGeorge, 2018). More so, most of the RIDTs detect and differentiate between influenza subtypes A and B. In the healthcare setting, RIDTs help diagnose and make decisions on patient treatment plans in clinical settings.

The RIDTs are also regarded as POCT-point of care tests that detect the presence of specific influenza viral antigens in a person’s respiratory collected specimen (Seki et al., 2020). They indicate antigen presence through color change or another optical sign/signal. This diagnostic test (RIDTs) is used in individual patient management, semi-closed cases of community break, and institutional outbreak management. This is whereby the testing tool is used to detect cases of outbreaks in case the number of reported influenza increases within a region. For example, RIDTs identify influenza A outbreaks in schools or communities. Other ways the testing is deployed are travel control among travelers and surveillance, such as in the case of an influenza outbreak. In all the cases on how the RIDTs are used, the accuracy of the test depends on a host of factors such as quality of specimen, care, and expertise of the RIDT preparation.

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The RIDTs testing tools come in three major formats: dipsticks, cards, or cassettes. When performing the test, the physician or healthcare specialty inserts a swap into the patient nostril and collects a sample. The sample can also be collected from a throat swab. The results are obtained in 10-15 minutes, hence the preferred influenza testing mode due to quick results and simple performance. Some testing tools under the RIDT are cleared for patients’ use at home and hence regarded as a point of care applicable. However, using the testing tool is common with false-negative results and suboptimal sensitivity, especially during high activity influenza (Phetcharakupt et al., 2021). The primary testing result for the rapid influenza testing tool is that the toll can indicate positive RIDT but cannot rule out negative results of influenza. More so, the sensitivity and usefulness of the testing tool are sufficient when patients are tested within 48hrs of illness onset.

Different factors have been identified to influence the accuracy of the RIDTs, such as clinical symptoms and signs aligning with influenza. Influenza prevalence in an area, time of illness onset to when the specimen is collected for testing, as well as what type of specimen is tested, i.e., from the nose, throat, etc. according to Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests | CDC (n.d), RIDT records an estimated 90% sensitivity and 95% specify concerning influenza A while for B, they record91% and 95% virus detection respectively. RIDTs successfully detect the antigen virus for flue between 50% and 70% and are better concerning sensitivity for influenza A over B. influenza can be ruled in not out via the RIDTs as sensitivity varies across populations but sensitive in children compared to adults and for antigen A over B (Antoñanzas et al., 2021). Additionally, in terms of accuracy of the RIDT testing tool compared to rapid molecular assay, RIDT is known to have false-negative results while non-false positive. This means that in the case of influenza presence, their positive results are accurate (if the test is positive, there is a very high chance one has influenza). This is unlike rapid molecular say, which is very accurate, i.e.; there is no room for the false negative. An example of RIDT testing result accuracy is that in the case of 10 tests, RIDT would miss 2-5 cases while molecular assay would miss just one.

In conclusion, successful testing and diagnosis allow clinicians to decide the right or befitting response line for infected patients. RIDTs are common as they serve physicians or healthcare personnel as the first-line test that can be confirmed via traditional diagnostic testing. More so, the testing allows healthcare professionals to commence antiviral treatment in cases of high-risk populations hence able to formulate effective infection control strategies as well as make sound and informed decisions regarding diagnostic investigations.

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References

Antoñanzas, F., Juárez-Castelló, C.A., & Rodríguez-Ibeas, R. (2021). Using point-of-care diagnostic testing for improved antibiotic prescription: An economic model. Health Economics Review, 11(1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-021-00326-y

Green, D. A., & StGeorge, K. (2018). Rapid Antigen Tests for Influenza: Rationale and Significance of the FDA Reclassification. Journal of clinical microbiology56(10), e00711-18. https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00711-18

Phetcharakupt, V., Pasomsub, E., & Kiertiburanakul, S. (2021). Clinical manifestations of influenza and performance of rapid influenza diagnostic test: A university hospital setting. Health Science Reports, 4(4) https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.408

Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests | CDC. (n.d.). CDC. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/diagnosis/clinician_guidance_ridt.htm

Seki, Y., Oda, Y., & Sugaya, N. (2020). Very high sensitivity of a rapid influenza diagnostic test in adults and elderly individuals within 48 hours of the onset of illness. PloS one15(5), e0231217. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231217