Question
!!TWO DOCUMENTS ATTACHED!!
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 830-1,000 words, propose a health policy change (that is currently a bill, a law, or may not exist at all) at the 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 the office that you want to help you make this change?
Resources:
-Review different pieces of legislation for ideas on the wording.
-Visit your state’s legislative governmental affairs website site to understand the process your policy change could take if you wanted to introduce it to legislation.
-My state is in New York. Please use New York as the policy.
-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.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric attached prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Please follow the rubric and hit all of the points mentioned above plus the points mentioned in the rubric. Please use in-text citations from the following book with quotes supporting the paper
Barker, A. M., & DeNisco, S. M.(2016). Advanced practice nursing: EssentialKnowledge for the Profession (3rd ed.). Boston:Jones & Bartlett. ISBN 13: 9781284072570
Answer
Health Policy Change
Contents
Introduction
Over the past few years, the state of New York has been grappling with the problem of a highly unbalanced nurse-to-patient ratio, and this was the reason behind the introduction of a new bill, called the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act. In most healthcare facilities, nurses are often forced to work long hours to serve all patients waiting in line. It is no secret that nurses do the bulk of the work in the hospitals. From taking care of the patients to helping them with their therapy sessions, these professionals are at the core of healthcare delivery. However, considering how much the nurses are overworked on a daily basis, this can cause a situation where the quality of care becomes lower than the required standard as less time is spent addressing the needs of each patient (Clarke & Donaldson, 2008). For this reason, the proposed bill, Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act, should be passed by the State Senate in New York.
Public Policy
The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act contains provisions requiring that all the nursing homes and health care facilities meet the stipulated proper and reasonable staffing nurse-patient ratios. If passed, this bill would make a significant difference in the way nurses in New York in various ways. Firstly, the Act requires that all nurse-to-patient ratios be stipulated for every unit. By doing this, the proposed law ensures that all the nurses are assigned responsibility according to the nurse-patient ratio for a specific unit thus reducing the overload of work per nurse (AACN, 2005). For instance, the proposed ratios for the operating room, pediatrics and medical-surgical units are 1:1, 1:3 and 1:4 respectively.
Secondly, the ratios do not represent an average but rather the maximum number of patients that a healthcare facility can assign to any one registered nurseat a time. This makes the nurses accord enough time and attention to all their patients. Thirdly, in regard to the operations of nursing homes, the law would ensure that the there is a minimum care hours for every resident nurse, registered nurse, and other high level nurses. Under this law, for instance,registered nurses have been allocated a minimum of 0.75 hours per day (Kane, Shamliyan, Mueller, Duval & Wilt,2007). Moreover, the bill advocates for public disclosure whereby all hospitals and healthcare facilities are required to let the public know of their staffing levels.
The Wording
The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act has been presented as a bill that seeks to bring amendment to public health law in the state of New York. Its stated objective is “to require all New York’s nursing homes and acute care facilities to meet standards for appropriate staffing ratios of unlicensed direct care and nursing staff (Kane et al., 2007).
The Plan
I believe that by lobbying the state government, the bill has a better chance of being passed into law. The lobbying efforts should be focused on raising awareness regarding how the proposed law will go a long way in making the nurses comfortable, ensuring that patients receive quality care, increasing job satisfaction among nurses, and enabling the nurses to spend enough time examining their assigned patients (Barker & DeNisco, 2016). In my advocacy efforts, I will point out how the state of California has embraced the bill leading to its rise in stature as one of the few states with a minimum nurse staffing ratio. I am confident that the efforts will increase the likelihood of the state senate passing the bill.
Additionally, to further press the importance of passing the bill, I will conduct a research study on the quality of healthcare as delivered by the nurses under the improved ratio, and present those findings to the New York Senator. One of the expected findings is that without the motivation that comes from job satisfaction due to improved nurse-to-patient ratio, nurses are unlikely to stay positively engaged in the healthcare industry in terms of the pursuit of better health outcomes. As a corollary, patients are likely to lose confidence in the healthcare system. Therefore, if policymakers are presented with research findings, they will be able to see how health care quality can be improved by the passage of the proposed law. Similarly, creating awareness about these findings among citizens help mobilize them to support and canvass for the bill (Armstrong & Laschinger, 2006).
Besides, leaders in the health sector need to play the role of champions for the bill to pass seeing as it affects their sector directly. The senator, for instance, has a direct role in influencing the passage of the bill. As public officers, senators are supposed to work for the good of the people in their respective states. I voted for the current senator because I believed that he would make a significant difference in changing positively how things work in New York. That said, I will suggest to him that once the bill is passed, it will be wise for him to propose the establishment of certain regulations for ensuring that all the healthcare facilities within New York adopt it immediately. Real change can only occur if most or all of the healthcare facilities embrace the resulting changes as a matter of urgency. It is for the same reason that I will propose the imposition of dire consequences on providers who violate any of the new law’s provisions.
Conclusion
Nurses are the backbone of healthcare industry. For this reason, they ought not to be subjected to unreasonable working conditions. Despite the fact that there is a significant nursing shortage across the United States in general and in New York in particular, nurse-to-patient ratios should be revised to avoid the problem. For this reason, I propose the passing of the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act by the state senate. The move will lead to immediate improvement in care quality across the state.
References
AACN. (2005). AACN standards for establishing and sustaining healthy work environments: A journey to excellence. American Journal of Critical Care, 14(3), 187-197.
Armstrong, K. J. & Laschinger, H. (2006). Structural empowerment, Magnet hospital characteristics, and patient safety culture: making the link. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 21(2), 124-132.
Barker, A. M.& DeNisco, S. M. (2016). Advanced practice nursing: Essential Knowledge for the Profession (3rd Ed). Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Clarke, S. P. & Donaldson, N. E. (2008). Nurse staffing and patient care quality and safety. London: Routledge.
Kane, R. L., Shamliyan, T. A., Mueller, C., Duval, S. & Wilt, T. J. (2007). The association of registered nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Medical care, 45(12), 1195-1204.
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