Nursing Policy Brief

Nursing Policy Brief

Introduction

Nurses have an important role in policy formulation, adoption, and implementation. Nurses need to have political competencies to advocate for implementing policies that will promote patient safety and improve the quality of healthcare services. They must also be aware of healthcare policies that have been enacted and push for the full implementation of these policies at their places of work. One such policy is the RN staffing ratio law (AB 394). This law prescribes the minimum required ratio for RNs to patients. This results in the provision of quality and safe healthcare services to patients. Our assignment writing help is at affordable prices to students of all academic levels and academic disciplines.

Background of the Problem Requiring the Policy

California is the only state in the United States with a law that sets a minimum RN-to-patient ratio. The nurse turnover rate is a global human resource problem. The nurse turnover rate across the world is high. It ranges from 15 to 44% (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). These figures are just statistical from various studies, but the rate is believed to be much higher. A high nurse turnover rate results in quality loss and significant financial losses for healthcare organizations. These high rates cause serious organizational consequences. The causes of nurse turnover rates include personal reasons, long working hours, understaffing, uncomfortable working environments, communication barriers, and lack of appreciation (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018).

Nurse turnover has significant consequences. It increases recruitment and training costs for new nurses (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). In addition to this, healthcare services may be less optimal due to communication barriers between senior nurses and new nurses (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). It results in nurse shortages, which negatively affect the quality of healthcare services. Patients feel incompetent nurses are treating them due to frequent replacements, which causes patient dissatisfaction and increased complaints (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). The AB 394 aimed to provide a safe working environment for nurses and spend more time with their patients. The staffing ratios aimed to improve patient safety and improve nurses’ recruitment and staffing (Griffiths et al., 2020).

How the Policy is Relevant to My Nursing Practice or Area of Interest.

The California RN-to-Patient ratio law is relevant in my nursing practice. Comprehending patient safety in nursing is a significant step in reducing medical errors. Nurses are important in ensuring patient safety. Nurses interact directly with patients compared with other healthcare professionals. They administer their drugs, monitor patients, and collaborate with other healthcare professionals to promote patient safety (Vaismoradi et al., 2020). Since nurses interact with patients more, their vigilance at the bedside and a safe working environment are required to ensure they effectively promote patient safety. It is thus logical that assigning the right number of nurses to patients will ensure there is no burnout, thus promoting nurses’ ability to provide safe and quality care.

How Policy Impacts Practice Locally, State, and/or National Level

Congress has failed to enact laws to address nursing shortages, which have forced states to take action to ensure nursing staffing levels are at an optimum level to meet their patient needs. However, California is the only state in the United States with a law that sets a minimum requirement for nursing-patient ratios. This law to ensure a minimum standard and improve the quality of healthcare services has resulted in a significant interest as similar bills are now being considered at the federal level and in other states. This law was a major win for nurses’ unions. It is, however, a highly polarizing law. Nurse unions, which are the proponents of the law, argue that nurse-staffing ratios will enhance working conditions for nurses and safeguard the quality of nursing services (California Legislative Information, n.d.). This would reduce medical errors due to reasonable workouts and enhance nurse satisfaction, solving nurse shortage problems. Hospitals are thus mandated to employ a minimum number of nurses to deal with their patients and comply with the regulations.

How This Policy Could Impact Health Care and its Influence in Nursing Practice.

The enactment of this law has shown that nurses’ unions can advocate for better nursing ratios and the environment. If nurses come together and collaborate, they can advocate for the implementation of policies that will promote patient safety and the advancement of the nursing profession. The enactment and implementation of this policy was a professional gain for nurses. This law will return registered nurses to the bedside and reduce high nurse turnover rates. Optimum nurse-patient ratios will attract nurses from all over the nation to practice in California since they will be working in a safe environment. It will enhance nurse recruitment and improve retention. In addition to this, it will save hospitals from expenses and clinical disruptions due to high turnover rates among nurses (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). The most important is that optimum staffing ratios will prevent nursing burnout, improve patient safety, and save lives.

Evidence to Support the Current Policy

Medical research has revealed that optimum and safe nursing staff saves patient lives and promotes the quality and safety of healthcare services. Safe nurse-patient staffing ratios are important in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The optimum nursing staff can provide better care for patients, enhance their satisfaction, and reduce nurses’ burnout. Studies have proved that the correct nurse-patient rate can result in clinical improvements in patient care and reduce healthcare costs. More nurses on duty can enhance safety outcomes by reducing the number of falls, nosocomial infections, and pressure ulcers (Sharma & Rani, 2020). Better staffing ratios can reduce medical errors, length of hospitalizations, and patient deaths. Nurses can ensure the five rights of medications are adhered to if the staffing levels are optimum (Sharma & Rani, 2020). A correct number of nurses can also reduce adverse events, resulting in longer hospitalization days.

Safe nursing ratios can increase patient satisfaction. Better nurse staffing ratios result in high-quality care for patients. It improves care coordination and teamwork (Sharma & Rani, 2020). Nurses can have more time to educate patients, which will allow them to manage their conditions better. Nurse shortages require nurses to work for long hours under stressful working conditions. This can result in job dissatisfaction and extreme exhaustion, resulting in medical errors (Sharma & Rani, 2020). Correct nurse staffing ratios can thus prevent burnout, job dissatisfaction, and fatigue.

Ways to Implement this Policy as a Nurse Advocate

As a nurse advocate, I would encourage nurse leaders in my state and the country to collaborate and work towards a common goal of ensuring safe and quality patient care. One of the most effective ways of ensuring safe and quality care is through effective staffing (Sharma & Rani, 2020). I would encourage registered nurses throughout the country to be politically competent and lobby for their states to enact laws for minimum staffing requirements to promote safe working environments for nurses. Poor nurse staffing has resulted in deaths from preventable errors. Nurses should thus collaborate with professional nursing associations such as the American Nurses Association to bring positive change to the nursing profession. I would encourage nurse leaders in states where this law has not been passed to lobby their leaders to pass these laws.

Conclusion

Nurses have an important role in policy advocacy. They must be at the forefront of ensuring that effective laws are enacted to promote the safety and quality of patient care. The California nurse staffing law is a critical law that sets minimum nurse-patient ratios. This law is important since safe staffing ratios reduce medication errors, promote collaboration and communication, and improve job satisfaction. California is the only state that has enacted this law, and thus, nurses in other states must lobby for its enactment in their states of practice.

References

California Legislative Information. (n.d.). AB-394 Health facilities: nursing staff. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=199920000AB394

Dewanto, A., & Wardhani, V. (2018). Nurse turnover and perceived causes and consequences: A preliminary study at private hospitals in Indonesia. BMC Nursing, 17(S2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-018-0317-8

Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J., Jones, J., Pattison, N., & Monks, T. (2020). Nursing workload, nurse staffing methodologies and tools: A systematic scoping review and discussion. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 103, 103487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.103487

Sharma, S., & Rani, R. (2020). Nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse staffing norms for hospitals in India: A critical analysis of national benchmarks. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 9(6), 2631. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_248_20

Vaismoradi, M., Tella, S., A. Logan, P., Khakurel, J., & Vizcaya-Moreno, F. (2020). Nurses’ adherence to patient safety principles: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 2028. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062028

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Purpose of Assignment:
Nurses need to understand their influence on healthcare policy and the importance of engaging in legislation that impacts healthcare and nursing practice.

Nursing Policy Brief

Course Competency:
Debate current healthcare policy as it relates to nursing practice.
Scenario:
You are a nursing member of a healthcare organization on a policy subcommittee. The subcommittee has been asked to prepare an advocacy policy brief on a current policy that can be presented for facility adoption. As an active nurse advocate, it is important your voice is heard on a matter important to you as this is your chance to influence policy.

Instructions:
Prepare a policy brief. Identify and support your stance by addressing the following:

Explain your selected healthcare policy.
Address the background of the problem requiring the policy.
Address how the policy is relevant to your nursing practice or area of interest.
Identify if this policy impacts practice at the local, state and/or national level.
Evaluate how this policy could impact health care and further explain how this policy would influence nursing practice.
Provide evidence to support your stance on how you can implement the current policy.
Explain ways you can assist in implementing this policy as a nurse advocate.

Here are some ideas for the assignment:

Patient care policies
Newly implemented policies to to treat COVID and prevent the spread in-house
Employee health and safety policies
Security
Data privacy and IT security
Drug/medication handling
Administrative and HR policies
Social media policies
Bring your own device policy (smartphones)The lines between work and home are blurred these days, so creating a BYOD policy helps define what your organization does and does not allow on personal devices
Tobacco-free workplace
Code of ethics