CLC – When Patient Advocacy Meets Policy: Lobbying for Health Care Change Presentation
CLC When Patient Advocacy Meets Policy Lobbying for Health Care Change Presentation
Outline of Lobbying Remarks
Health improvement initiatives are meant to improve the quality of healthcare services the patients receive. However, enacting such healthcare policies requires proper support from the relevant bodies. This section addresses the outlines for lobbying the remarks appropriate for the target audience. Also, the intention of the bills and the need to support the bill. Before passing the bill, the involved legislators must understand the scope of the bill and the key health issues to be addressed. In this case, the bill aims at addressing the issue of understaffing among the nurses characterized by a high patient-to-nurse ratio. Little attention has been given to the role of the nurse-to-patient ratio as a process of improving the quality of healthcare services patients receive. In most cases, the quality improvement initiatives focus on the environment and practices and neglect the staffing aspect. The high cases of burnout among the nurses are sometimes contributed by the work overload which can be addressed by employing more nurses and ensure they take care of a manageable number
of patients.
Appropriate for the Target Audience
The target audiences in this case include the nurses. The nurses interact directly with the patients and so understand their unique
health needs and the socio-cultural factors likely to affect their treatment outcomes. On the other hand, nurses cannot have time to engage with patients when many others are waiting in line. The bill aims at improving the working conditions for the nurses in the hospital. Also, it will promote the employment of the nurses to maintain the proposed nurse-to-patient ratio. Other than the nurses, the other audience for the bill is the patients since they are the beneficiaries of the standardized nurse-to-patient ratio. The patients will have low cases of medical error and have enough time to express their health concerns to the nurses.
Bill’s Intent
The intention of the “safe staffing for quality care act” bill is to promote quality healthcare delivery to the patients. A standard nurse-to-patient ratio ensures that the patient receives the required attention in the course of care delivery. Also, a high number of patients being served by one nurse causes burnout among the nurses. Besides, the nurses may end up administering wring medications to the patients due to fatigue considering that they have to attend to many patients.
Goal of Supporting
The need to improve the quality of nursing care is important. The increasing number of patients with chronic illness imposes significant pressure on the nursing staff. The nurses are likely to be exploited and suffer burnout especially when no laws are protecting them in terms of the number of patients they are supposed to attend to in a day. The goal of having a standard nurse-to-patient ratio is to create a conducive working environment for the nurses working in all healthcare institutions within the state (McHugh, Aiken, Windsor, Douglas & Yates, 2020). Furthermore, the bill aims at ensuring an adequate supply of the registered nurses to meet the needs of the growing patient populations.
Studies have indicated that having a proper nurse to patient ratio helps in the realization of the clinical and economic improvement in the healthcare delivery (Griffiths, et al., 2018). On the other hand, it may appear more costly to have more nursing employed to take care of the patients. However, imposing a lot of pressure on the nurses due to low staffing is dangerous to both the patients and healthcare providers. The harm and costs linked to medical errors are enormous. The passing of the bill will mark an important progress towards improving the quality of healthcare service delivery and better outcomes for the patients.
References
Griffiths, P., Recio‐Saucedo, A., Dall’Ora, C., Briggs, J., Maruotti, A., Meredith, P., … & Missed Care Study Group. (2018). The association between nurse staffing and omissions in nursing care: a systematic review. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(7), 1474-1487.
McHugh, M. D., Aiken, L. H., Windsor, C., Douglas, C., & Yates, P. (2020). Case for hospital nurse-to-patient ratio legislation in Queensland, Australia, hospitals: an observational study. BMJ open, 10(9), e036264.