Health Issue Influenced by Nurses

Health Issue Influenced by Nurses ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED AND ORIGINAL ESSAY PAPERS ON Health Issue Influenced by Nurses FIRST POST Health Issue Influenced by Nurses During this pandemic, now, more than ever, nurse shortage is an ongoing problem. This impacts nurse-to-patient ratios, and compromises patient safety. A research study by Shin et al. (2018) showed that the greater the nurse-to-patient ratio, even by one patient, was related to a higher burnout rate among nurses, nurse job dissatisfaction, higher rate for nurses to quit, and was ultimately related to negative patient outcomes. Health Issue Influenced by Nurses Health Policy Agenda There is a policy bill “Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2019” that was reintroduced in Senate on 5/8/2019 by Senator Sherrod Brown. This bill is still being reviewed by Senate. The bill proposes a staffing plan that specifies nurse-to-patient ratios by unit. It also requires hospitals to follow certain procedures regarding how they determine the nurse-patient ratios (Brown, 2019). The bill also proposes that hospitals involve direct care nurses and direct health care providers in the development and re-evaluation of the staffing plans. Nurses may refuse an assignment if it violates the determined nurse-patient ratio, compromises patient safety or jeopardizes their nursing license (Brown, 2019). The competing agendas include saving the hospitals money, which would occur if less preventable errors happen. I believe this bill has favorable opinions. As nurses, we want to provide the best quality of care which can be done with safe staffing ratios. MSN Essential The MSN Essential that supports the master’s prepared nurse leader participation in this specific health policy would be Essential III from The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing , which focuses on quality improvement and safety (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). Master’s prepared nurse leaders must maintain accountability and should act as a role model for other staff by creating an environment that allows for change and innovations in practice (Harvey et al., 2020). Patient safety should remain priority. The advanced practice nurse should evaluate patient acuity and make sure nurse-patient ratios are safe to provide quality of care to patients. State and Federal Initiatives Currently Florida does not have nurse staffing laws (American Nurses Association, 2019). They did propose the Senate Bill 204 “Florida Hospital Patient Protection Act” that would require health care facilities to implement staffing plans and safe nurse-patient ratios, but the bill died in health policy on March 2020 (The Florida Senate, 2021). The American Nurses Association (2019) states there is a federal regulation that has been in place, 42 Code of Federal Regulations (42CFR 482.23(b) “which requires hospitals certified to participate in Medicare to have adequate numbers of licensed registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other personnel to provide nursing care to all patients as needed.” Optimal staffing ratios are vital to prevent negative patient outcomes from occurring and ultimately, promote patient safety. Health Issue Influenced by Nurses References American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011). The essentials of master’s education in nursing . Washington, D.C. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/portals/42/publication… American Nurses Association. (2019). Nurse staffing: Health care advocacy. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nurse… Brown, S. (2019). S.1357 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Nurse staffing standards for hospital patient safety and quality care act of 2019. Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senat… The Florida Senate. (2021). SB 204: Delivery of Nursing Services. Retrieved from https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/204 Harvey, G., Kelly, J., Kitson, A., Thornton, K., & Owen, V. (2020). Leadership for evidence-based practice—Enforcing or enabling implementation? Collegian, 27 (1), 57-62. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2019.04.004 Shin, S., Park, J., & Bae, S. (2018). Nurse staffing and nurse outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nursing Outlook, 66 (3), 273-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.12.002 SECOND POST One health issue that nurses have influenced policy change for is opioid misuse that often result in opioid addiction. Nurses see how prevalent opioid misuse are in practice and policies must be put forth to address this healthcare issue. Parrish (2017) describes how the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) is a law signed by President Obama to address and respond to addiction. The response is through prevention, treatment, and recovery support. The stakeholders include patients and other healthcare providers may view the policy differently. Patients who are abusing opioid drugs can worry that their pain prescriptions will no longer be refilled and both their pain and addiction will no longer be addressed. Physician assistants and nurse practitioners can be concerned that they will no longer be able to treat patients for addiction with certain medications. Moore (2019) states that the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) was signed into law to address the healthcare providers’ competing agendas regarding the healthcare policy. SUPPORT allows nurse practitioners to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Buprenorphine is one of three approved medications to treat opioid use disorder. American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011) classifies that Essential VI supports the master’s prepared nurse’s participation in health policy. Through policy, the master’s prepared nurse can influence change in healthcare. The state and federal initiatives that affect CARA include ones that address healthcare coverage to support medications to treat opioid use disorder as well as rehab treatments. The Affordable Care Act is an example of a federal initiative that affects this healthcare policy. Many patients do not seek treatment for addiction because they simply cannot afford to do so. Federal initiatives that help provide coverage for opioid treatments will help address this healthcare issue. References American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011) The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing. https://www.aacnnursing.org/portals/42/publications/mastersessentials11.pd (Links to an external site.) Moore, D. J. (2019). Nurse Practitioners’ Pivotal Role in Ending the Opioid Epidemic. Journal for Nurse Practitioners , 15(5), 323–327. https://doi-org./10.1016/j.nurpra.2019.01.005 (Links to an external site.) Parrish, E. (2017). Substance Use Disorders and Addiction is on the rise: What can we do? Perspectives in Psychiatric Care , 53(1), 3–4. https://doi-org./10.1111/ppc.12210 (Links to an external site.) THIRD POST Health Issue Influenced by Nurses An ongoing challenge within health care is the issue of nurse overtime. Nurse overtime may both be mandatory or voluntary. However, nurses working overtime shifts have led to nurse fatigue and medical errors. Due to the seriousness of this issue, a call to action has been posed (Wheatley, 2017). Health Issue Influenced by Nurses Health Issue Influenced by Nurses In the year 2020, a bill known as “Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act of 2020” was introduced to Senate. The bill was proposed in order to prohibit providers such as hospitals, home health agencies, and surgical centers from working overtime in such situations. These regulations include a nurse is not to work more than a 48-hour workweek or work 12 consecutive hours in a 24-hour period (Merkley, 2020). According to Merkley (2020), these regulations are not be applied during a declaration of emergency or any occurrence of disaster. As nurses, it is vital to feel well rested prior to the care of patients especially the critically ill. Nurse burn out is an issue in which many nurses feel is overlooked and not handled appropriately. As nurse shortages continue, and the number of ill patients rise, nurses working overtime shifts has become a prevalent issue. Although many entities suffer from shortages, most, if not majority of stakeholders would agree with the “Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act of 2020”. MSN Essential Essential VI would support the “Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act of 2020” as it relates to health policy and advocacy. This particular essential emphasizes the importance of advocacy strategies from the masters prepared nurse and their ability to intervene at the system level (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). It is important for the masters prepared nurse to recognize issues such as nurse fatigue, staff shortages, overtime hours, and patient safety in order to advocate policy changes to improve quality of care. State and Federal Initiatives There are several states in which currently have made mandatory overtime amongst nurses illegal. However, Florida has not passed any laws in which prohibit overtime. In 2019, a Senate bill know as “Delivery of Nursing Services” was proposed in order to prohibit a health care facility from imposing mandatory overtime (The Florida Senate, 2019). However, this bill was not passed nor made into law. Nurse fatigue due to overtime hours pose a risk to both the patient and the nurse. As studies have shown that nurse burn out can lead to accidents outside the clinical setting as well (Farid et al., 2020). It is important that this issue be brought to light and the necessary actions be taken in order to prevent its prevalence. Health Issue Influenced by Nurses References American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011). The essentials of master’s education in nursing . Washington, D.C. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/portals/42/publication… Farid, M., Purdy, N., & Neumann, W. P. (2020). Using system dynamics modeling to show the effect of nurse workload on nurses’ health and quality of care. Ergonomics , 63 (8), 952–964. https://doi-org.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/10.1… Merkley, J (2020) .S.4541 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Nurse overtime and patient safety act of 2020. (2020). Congress.Gov | Library of Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senat… The Florida Senate. (2019). SB 644: Delivery of Nursing Services. Retrieved from https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/204 Wheatley, C. (2017). Nursing Overtime: Should it be regulated? Nursing Economics , 35 (4), 213–21 Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10