NUR-513 Topic 8 DQ 2
Re: Topic 8 DQ 2
I work in California which was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic known to be the only state that has legally mandated nurse-patient ratios. During the COVID-19 pandemic California was one of the states hit particularly hard, and hospitals were struggling to keep up. With already existing nursing shortages pre-COVID, to meet the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic many hospitals and organizations were granted waivers regarding nurse-patient ratios. This waiver essentially allowed hospitals to spread their nursing staff even thinner and as they saw fit. This resulted in hospital organizations taking advantage of this small liberty. Before we knew it ICU nurses are taking 3, sometimes 4 intubated patients at a time, med-surg nurses were floating to ICUs with little training and expected to take care of patients that required skills outside of their scope. And pediatric hospitals began taking adult patients to help with the surge. This is unsafe for nurses in terms of protecting our licenses, and it unsafe for patients since high nurse-patient ratios are linked to poorer prognosis and increased mortality (Driscoll, et al., 2018). In my opinion many of the decisions made during this time were profit driven, not safety driven, or quality of care driven.
These waivers expire soon, and naturally with COVID-19 still looming, hospitals seek to renew these waivers. In a response to fight for patient safety, California Assembly Bill 1422 was introduced (California Legislative Information, 2021). This bill would require that the hospital must notify its workers when seeking permission to waive safe staffing laws, allowing for the staff to have voice in this decision (Wells, 2021). And secondly this bill would require that hospitals currently utilizing a safe-staffing waiver inform the general public. This would allow for transparency between hospitals and their patients, informing patients when staffing is dangerous (Wells, 2021). This bill would help protect patients and nurses alike and provide transparency of organizational decisions to have unsafe staffing. It also serves to hold organizations accountable and gives nurses a chance at maintaining safe patient ratios. I have always been all about transparency, and in the future hope to take on larger roles within the Clinical Practice Council (CPC). At some point if my hospital were ever to unionize, I would plan to be involved there as well. In the immediate future, I plan on staying informed and voting.
References
California Legislative Information, (2021). AB-1422 Nurse-to-patient ratios. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1422
Driscoll, A., Grant, M. J., Carroll, D., Dalton, S., Deaton, C., Jones, I., Astin, F. (2018). The effect of nurse-to-patient ratios on nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in acute specialist units: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 17(1), 6–22.
Wells, N. (2021). COVID-19 lessons show need for hospital staffing reform to protect patients. VC Star.
Description:
Research health care legislation that is being considered in your state. What impact might this legislation have on your future practice? What impact does it have on the collective practice of nurses in your state? How do you envision yourself potentially becoming involved in political advocacy for the profession in your future practice?
Topic 8 Participation
Description:
NA
Topic 8: Role Development for Advanced Registered Nurses
Description
Objectives:
- Evaluate how professional nursing organizations influence the profession and support nurses in achieving their professional goals.
- Examine positions and goals supported by nursing organizations that relate to one’s personal worldview and philosophy of care and practice.
- Discuss the potential impact of current legislation on the advanced registered nurse’s individual and collective practice.
Study Materials
Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper
Description:
Advanced registered nursing graduates are entering the profession at dynamic time when roles and scope of practice are shifting based on developments in legislation and policy in response to the evolving needs of the health care system.
Professional nursing organizations play an important role in making sure the perspectives of advanced registered nurses are heard, and in supporting nurse specialties in their efforts to expand their scope of practice and their full participation throughout the health care system.
For this assignment, you will conduct research on the current scope of practice for your specialty and efforts that are being made to expand that scope and the role of the advanced nurse in positively influencing the health care system. Write a 1,250-1,500-word paper that includes the following:
- A discussion of the scope of your future role as an advanced registered nurse, including any regulatory, certification, or accreditation agencies that define that scope.
- A discussion of three professional nursing organizations that you think are most influential in advancing the scope and influence of advanced nursing. Of these organizations, evaluate the one that you would most like to join. How do its goals and mission fit in with your worldview and philosophy of care? How might membership in this organization improve your practice?
- A discussion of a controversial or evolving issue that is most likely to affect your scope of practice or role in the next few years. How do you think this issue could influence the profession and other stakeholders, and why does it matters to the advanced registered nurse?
You are required to cite five to 10 sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.
Prepare this assignment according to the 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 prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
