A Mandate for Improved Nursing to Patient Ratios

This is because the healthcare reforms are vital entities in impacting healthcare national policies not only in America but the rest of the globe as well. As such, among other policies, shortage and employment of sufficient and experienced personnel is one of the main and most contested nursing profession public policy issues across the United States of America (Phillips & Miltner, 2015). This comes with a range of effects which the federal government in conjunction with the national and international healthcare dockets has tried to deal with for a long time. The public policy requires a policy change since many people, especially patients, have always received unqualified or less percentage of attention in the healthcare fraternity as a result of insufficiency of nurses and other healthcare personnel.

This has often led to many issues among them, a call for training of more nurses, improved pay for the nurses, and most importantly, a mandate for improved nursing to patient ratio. The scholars’ close analysis also depicts that the policy issue jeopardizes nurses’ professionalism both in short-term and long-term, in that their insufficiency leads to low productivity. On the other hand, the truth of the matter is that American nursing schools produce fully baked nursing professionals ready to deliver services for their nations and their people as well (Tourangeau, Wong, Saari, & Patterson, 2015). Also, the health of the people of America is always based on health organizations; both private and public. As such, the professionals who serve in such organizations are healthcare personnel, who are often products of healthcare studies hence being directly affected by the public policy.

In any case, the healthcare docket is always answerable to any problems or complains arising in healthcare facilities or programs. For instance, it is wrong to spend less in public health as it results in less good to the general population. I believe the government has majored on less important issues and focused less in medical care. For instance, spending on military far out ways any other spending by the US government. However, important sectors that will be of benefit to the greater US population such as spending on healthcare is neglected. I also believe that there is no justice as matters of healthcare are essential for every American. Further, the latest healthcare demographics reveal that in the United States of America, almost 67, 000 nurses have fallen victims of nonfatal employment-related injuries in the past one year.

A number of nurses in some states have to work two to three extra hours on a daily basis at understaffed healthcare facilities. Health-wise, long periods of working lead to the heart’s straining not only on nurses but also on every other individual. Over time, such conditions further place humans on fears being fatigued and burning out. Symptoms affiliated to such conditions include backaches, restlessness, bad temper, increased weight, headache, and increased blood pressure. These include financial implications which must be sought before its implementation since more nurses and other healthcare employees will be required for the effectiveness of the policy change. The decision makers are also in charge of evaluating the authenticity of the policy change, whether viable or not; but most importantly, to feature on the pros and cons of the policy as to which section should be altered, added, or truncated as well.

Challenges Regardless of the fact that change in the healthcare employees’ policy issue will be of great help to many states and the nation as well, there are a few challenges that come forth with the change. Firstly, financing the change is one of the greatest challenges. As a matter of fact, the federal government significantly slashed down the national healthcare budget in the past fiscal year of the country. This will, in turn, insinuate that states will have to call for extra nurses from other countries, a factor that will be more expensive thus inconveniencing the continuity and prosperity of other essential sectors such as security and transport. Primary Options As a result of the fact that the proposed policy change comes with significant effects, the decision makers are open to some primary options which will ensure that the policy issue is attended to effectively both in the short-term and long-term as well.

Firstly, it is not necessary that the policy should be fully attended to immediately. Instead, the decision makers have the mandate to effect the changes in bits. For instance, the proposed number of patients to be handled by a single nurse is four. Evaluating the Success of the Policy Brief The evaluation of this policy brief will greatly depend on the way in which it will be implemented. As a result, the decision makers hold more waters than any other stakeholder. However, it is to my belief that it will be of the best interest of decision makers to implement the policy change as stipulated. In the event such happens, the evaluation will rely most on questioners for patients and for healthcare employees as well; especially nurses.

Moreover, the decision makers will have to write a report on the outcomes of the policy change; a move which will help in the evaluation process. However, the situation is still not well taken care of as there is a need for safe staffing law which will produce improvements in the State’s long-term care facilities. Health care state officials acknowledge that the change will lead to experienced results for example reduced need for catheters, fewer ulcers, reduced critical hospitalization, and decreased urinary tract infections. Besides, safe staffing ratio regulation could specifically benefit the poor in the state and the nation at large. Health care facilities which serve patients consisting mostly of Medicaid recipients, as well as uninsured customers, would be more likely to exceed safe staffing laws.

Such facilities expose patients to many risks. This will play a significant role in my cooperation with California healthcare community as I will be able to decide on the research efforts to employ in our interaction so as to realize and adequately attend to their concerns in an amicable manner. In effectively working with my proposed community, I will approach them through first shedding light on the advantages of my proposed change in the healthcare public policy. This will further be followed on requesting them to work with me in implementing the change it will be of great benefits to the health of their people for an extensive period. The concluding part however, will be the emulation of the results of the latter, specifically on how effective the change would have been to my specified community (Brownson, Colditz, & Proctor, 2017).