Nursing Leadership Health Policy
Details:
The IOM Future of Nursing report calls for an increase in leadership from nurses at all levels. One way nurses demonstrate their role as a leader, is through public policy change. A leader does not always carry an official title or position, but demonstrates leadership through the work and the stance the leader takes to make a change for the good of others. Nurses have been noted by the Gallop poll year after year as the most trusted professionals.
This assignment requires thought about a public policy that is needed or needs to be changed that relates to nursing, health care, or the public. Policy changes can occur by working with members of your legislature, and state or national nurses associations, to introduce a new bill and/or change to a current law in your state or federal government.
Examples of public policy includes any component of the current legislation governing health care, Medicare Part D, Medicaid, nursing regulation, medication technicians, etc.
In 750-1,000 words, propose a health policy change (that is currently a bill, a law, or may not exist at all) at the New York state or federal level that you believe needs to change and why.
- The policy must not be a clinical care policy for individual care. The policy involved may include public or community health, legislative or regulatory, professional organization (nursing-oriented), advanced nursing practice, health plan, or hospital plan.
- Include a specific section for the exact wording for the bill or change in wording of the law.
- Include the plan for the implementation of your policy development, to lobbying for passage, to next steps after passage.
- Discuss who would be the champion for the bill/law change from your state advocates (legislators, federal legislators, local or national state nursing organizations). Are these individuals also influential in making changes occur? Did you vote for the individual in office that you want to help you make this change?
Resources:
- Review different pieces of legislation for ideas on wording.
- Visit New York’s legislative governmental affairs website site to understand the process your policy change could take if you wanted to introduce to into legislation.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin
Introduction
Patient safety of great importance to health care practice. Nurses are at the center of patient care as they spend more time with the patients as compared to any other health care providers. Such interaction between the nurse and the patient is important in facilitating patient-centered care, where the patient is able to open up more to the health care system concerning their needs and the direction of the care. Nevertheless, there has been a major problem with the issue of nurse staffing in the State of New York, with a large nurse-to-patient ration forcing nurses to handle a large number of patients during their shift. This negatively impacts the time that nurses spend with patients, hence affecting the quality of care that each patient receives. Ultimately, this results in poor patient outcomes including increased length of stay at the hospital, increased costs of care, and increased rate of mortality. As such, this paper proposes a change in the staffing policy to allow for establishment of a policy that will enforce a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:3. This will allow nurses an ample time with the patients and hence promote positive patient outcomes.
Benefits of Proper Nurse Staffing
The quality of patient care is highly dependent on the competence of nurses in the healthcare setting and their ability to effectively attend to the patients. As such, an increased in the ratio or nurses to patients would improve the quality and safety of their care (Spilsbury, Hewitt, Stirk, & Bowman, 2011). Nurses have increasingly been challenged to offer safe patient care by the forces of increased patient acuity, shortened stays of acutely ill patients in the hospital, and managed care. Apart from affecting the quality of care, nurse staffing levels could be associated with morbidity and mortality levels (Needleman, et al., 2011). According to studies, nurse staffing greatly influences patient outcomes as a variable. Hospitals that have lower levels of nurse staffing see increased cases of shock, pneumonia, upper gastrointestinal bleeds, urinary tract infections, and cardiac arrest. All these issues contribute to prolonged patient stays at the hospital, increased failure to rescue, and increased rates of mortality.
Apart from the impact that nurse staffing levels have on the quality of care, staffing is also an important determinant of the satisfaction of nurses within the health care environment. Unsafe levels of staffing lead to dissatisfaction among nurses, an aspect that results in increased rates of turnover and absenteeism, decreased rate of entry of candidates into the nursing profession, and retention of nurses within health care organizations (Harless & Mark, 2010). The cost of nurse dissatisfaction and nursing staff replacement presents a menacing and significant cost for healthcare organizations. In addition to the high cost endured by healthcare facilities as a result of burnout, dissatisfaction, and nurse departures, such facilities also have to endure high costs as a result of adverse events related to poor staffing (Cimiotti, Aiken, Sloane, & Wu, 2012). Proper staffing promotes positive patient outcomes and hence reduces that cost associated with adverse events such as medical malpractice.
Legislative Proposals and Advocacy
Senator Simcha Felder of District 17 in New York will be the champion of the law bill that will create new regulations for nurse staffing within health care facilities. The Senator’s initiative will be supported by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in the form of a Safe Staffing Act. Being a senator, Felder is highly influential in the legislative environment, with his say in health matters being further strengthened by his position on the Health Committee. As a nurse, I understand that one of the ways through which I can influence the political environment and the development of health policy is through electing of leaders who support health reform into office. As such, I voted for Senator Felder based on his principles not only in health but on community development and empowerment of the members of the public through equal distribution of resources.
The Safe Staffing Act will allow for the establishment of a minimum number of nurses per unit and ensure that any plans of staffing are defined by both patient acuity and numbers. To effectively promote patient safety and positive outcomes, the Act will require health care facilities to take into account the education, training, and experience levels of registered nurses and the presence of support staff, including secretaries and nurse aids. As such, the unit’s overall layout ought to be assessed carefully during the determination of the ratio of nurses to patients (Harless & Mark, 2010). This proposed change will also incorporate compliance revisions that will require health care facilities to publicly report staffing information and to post nursing census on a daily basis.
Conclusion
The success of the law will highly depend on the
power of numbers wielded by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and
the American Nurses Association (ANA), who will support the Senator in tabling
the law into the New York senate for debating. Such a law will be highly effective
in promoting satisfaction among nurses by reducing their workload and hence
promoting an increase in terms of attention that each patient is given by a
nurse in the health care setting. This would promote patient outcomes allow
health care facilities to cut on the costs that they would otherwise
incur.
References
Cimiotti, J. P., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., & Wu, E. S. (2012). Nurse staffing, burnout, and health care–associated infection. American Journal of Infection Control, 40(6), 486–490.
Harless, D. W., & Mark, B. A. (2010). Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care With Direct Measurement of Inpatient Staffing. Medical Care, 48(7), 659-663.
Needleman, J., Buerhau, P., Pankratz, S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse Staffing and Inpatient Hospital Mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine, 364, 1037-1045.
Spilsbury, K., Hewitt, C., Stirk, L., & Bowman, C. (2011). The relationship between nurse staffing and quality of care in nursing homes: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 48(6), 732-750.
