The Healthcare Policy Issue: Unsafe Care for the Patient and Burnout for the Nurse - Paper Example

The healthcare policy issue is safe staffing levels for nurses is an issue that has been on the radar for hospitals and politicians for quite some time. It is a concern because nurses are expected to take on an unlimited number of patients on a daily basis. This results in unsafe care for the patient and burnout for the nurse. Patients are then exposed to preventable errors, complications that could have been avoided, longer hospital stays and more frequent readmissions (Massachusetts Nurses Asocial, 2017). The risk for falls and bedsores rise, and nurses get overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted. Some states have had success movement toward staffing issues. The nurse-patient ratio was an issue that was thought to be put to rest with the passage of the Illinois' Nursing Staffing by Patient Acuity Act in 2007. The Act requires staffing committees made up of 50% floor nurses, meeting twice a year and patients to be assigned by acuity. As a floor nurse in Beth Zion hospital, I can honestly say this Act is not working. There are no staffing committees with floor nurse involvement. Staffing levels are determined by executives. Even if there were committee meetings involving staff nurses, to think that floor nurses can stand up to executives, when even nurse managers, directors, and Chief Nursing Officers cannot, is not realistic. For patients to receive safe care, and nurses to receive the respect they deserve, the law needs to be changed to set nurse-patient ratios. It is also worth mentioning that the issue of fewer nurses in hospitals is pronounced in public hospitals because of insufficient funds. In private hospitals, the issue is not as prevalent as such, and fresh graduate nurses prefer the private sector due to better pay (Rokkas, Cornell & Steenkamp, 2014).

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Communication of the Issue

After having witnessed firsthand what challenges the nurses to go through in the name of public healthcare provision I chose to identify my local city-council representative and set up a meeting with him as a policy maker. It is a vested interest of mine to come up with a proposition of a city ordinance which will increase funding and get more nurses to work in public health provision. This will ease the situation concerning the amount of workload the current nurses have to go through (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). The section of vulnerable populations that are part and parcel of the economically disadvantaged are supposed to have access to medical care each and every time they need it and from nurses that are ready to offer the best; nurses that are not subject to burnout because of attending too many patients and working too many hours. Beth Zion is just one of the hospitals in California that are experiencing these staffing challenges; the entirety of health care institutions in California and the rest of the United States have also found it hard to provide quality to all Americans in health care programs; a shortage of nurses brings about substandard care. My observations also resonate with APHA and CDC findings on matters of staffing in American Public Hospitals. Recently APHA and CDC officials have come to realize that vulnerable populations, especially those that live in rural areas, are more at risk since they are dependent on public hospitals for medical care; the same public hospitals that do not have enough nurses. Besides, even when the nurses strain very hard to cover all patients, the services accorded are second place about what nonvulnerable populations are getting (Khamisa, Oldenburg, Peltzer & Ilic, 2015).

Analysis of Empirical Evidence

The city council representative is looking to use his tenure in office well so that he may be re-elected next time. I proposed to him an offer that he would not refuse. What I affirmed to him is that if he made sure he would table the plight of nurses such as me in parliament, I would see to it that I rally support for him among all my nurse and physician friends in Illinois and beyond. Besides, if he needed signatures from the nurses in support of the motion, I would like the first to sign. All the representative had to do was to make sure the bill on staffing and wages was tabled in parliament; an offer that he would not have refused.

Importance of a Successful Representation

If the visit and presentation are successful, the politician will take to heart whatever it is that I told him regarding increasing the number of nurses in public health care institutions and raising the salaries of the said nurses so that working in the public sector becomes more appealing. It would also be successful if the politician perceives, through my presentation, that it is in his best interest to follow up and present the issues of nurses in Congress and the Senate; if anything, it will help him to get more votes from this particular faction of American laborers (Cowen & Moorhead, 2014).

Summary

There has been a lot of disgruntlement among American health officials regarding the amount of money the country budget allocates to matters of healthcare; pertinent issues such as the wages and salaries paid to nurses. Some critics have gone as far as blaming the government for committing a lot of money to the military and forgetting the basic needs of Americans and their health care provisions. It would be very much helpful if the politician I got finds a chance to talk to make sure that the issues I raised revolving around better staffing practices and remuneration are tabled at Congress. From then on there will be more awareness of what America needs. At the moment, the presidency of the United States is looking to conduct a complete overhaul of the Medicare and Medicaid systems; this should be done with better policies in mind for the American nurses and people. Policies that will address all the pertinent issues in healthcare would have to put into consideration the issues faced by the providers of the said health care; nurses are the key drivers of health care provision.

References

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Cowen, P. S., & Moorhead, S. (2014). Current issues in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Khamisa, N., Oldenburg, B., Peltzer, K., & Ilic, D. (2015). Work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. International journal of environmental research and public health, 12(1), 652-666.

Rokkas, P., Cornell, V., & Steenkamp, M. (2014). Disaster preparedness and response: Challenges for Australian public health nursesA literature review. Nursing & health sciences, 16(1), 60-66.

Strunk, J. A., Townsend-Rocchiccioli, J., & Sanford, J. T. (2013). The aging Hispanic in America: Challenges for nurses in a stressed health care environment. Medsurg Nursing, 22(1), 45.