NURS 510- Policy Organization and Financing Healthcare Week 3 Discussion
NURS 510- Policy Organization and Financing Healthcare Week 3 Discussion
Politicians’ main interest is to be re-elected to continue maintaining their political positions. The interest of being reelected every campaign has greatly impacted the policymaking process. Politicians would rather support what looks good in the eyes of people to ensure they do not lose quorum (Milstead & Short, 2019). Since President Trump became the president of the United States of America, he has been against the Affordable Care Act. As a result, he has tried to repeal the policy but the efforts have failed. President Trump’s administration has not given up since many trials to repeal the Affordable Care Act are expected. Most probably, the repeal trials have failed so that politicians can safeguard their likelihood of being re-elected. This paper explains how the cost-benefit analysis in terms of legislators being re-elected affected efforts to repeal/replace the ACA. It also explains how analysis of the voter views may impact politicians’ recommendations about the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2019
I have been a nursing supervisor for the last 5 1/2 years. My role includes overseeing 80 direct reports, project management, and hiring manager. I feel that I have gained exposure to three of the four pillars over this time. I have gained experience in professionalism, inspirational motivation, and interpersonal relationships through my role. My master’s degree will help me most with the fourth pillar, business competency. Already my courses have provided me with frameworks to lead projects and promote practice changes. I have been able to reflect on past projects and identify areas I could have been more efficient and effective. I also look forward to better understanding healthcare economics, legislation, and finances. My biggest struggle as a nurse leader is the lack of exposure to the operations and business side of hospital practice and decisions. I look forward to expanding my knowledge to make me an effective leader.
. How The Cost-Benefit Analysis in Terms of Legislators Being Re-Elected Affected Efforts to Repeal/Replace The ACA
The ‘Obamacare’ commonly known as the Affordable Care Act was launched by President Barack Obama. The policy has enabled most Americans to receive health insurance. However, the repeal process has failed perhaps because election matters a lot to politicians. Just within a year of Trump’s inauguration, Republicans began the debate to repeal ‘Obamacare’ and revise the long-standing Medicare and Medicaid programs (Obama, 2017). Because replacing the ACA would result in many people losing their insurance and this would limit medical care, it would impact negatively the 2018 election. Many leaders who supported the repeal would lose their seats. The leaders could not support the repeal upon realizing that it would negatively impact their reelection. A clear picture here is that political leaders do not care about how repealing the Affordable Care Act would affect Americans but how it would affect their reelection chances (Taylor et al., 2017). Therefore, it is clear that not just election results matters to politicians but also the threat of upcoming elections.
The Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2019
Politicians’ interest in being reelected also impacted the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2019. This bill was introduced by the representative for Illinois’s 9th congressional district who is a Democrat (Congress.Gov, 2020). The bill is still in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced to Congress on 21st October 2019. It must be first considered by the committee before it is send to the House or Senate as a whole. Politicians will have to examine this bill to identify whether or not it will impact the upcoming election. This bill touches part D of Medicare, which is a voluntary program that helps pay for outpatient prescription drugs (Congress.Gov, 2020). This section, therefore, might affect many Americans. How this bill will influence the next election will determine whether or not it will be passed as a part of the law that governs Medicare operations in the United States. The cost-benefit analysis in terms of politicians being reelected therefore has a significant influence on their recommendations and positioning of legislative policies (Dickinson & Reinmuth, 2017, October).
References
Congress.Gov. (2020). H.R. 4769: Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2019. Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/
Dickinson, M. J., & Reinmuth, K. (2017, October). Trump, Congress, and Health Care: All Politics Is National. In The Forum (Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 431-450). https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538105740/The-Trump-Presidency-Outsider-in-the-Oval-Office
Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Obama, B. H. (2017). Repealing the ACA without a replacement—the risks to American health care. Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, 72(5), 263-264. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1616577
Taylor, D., Olshansky, E., Fugate-Woods, N., Johnson-Mallard, V., Safriet, B. J., & Hagan, T. (2017). Corrigendum to position statement: Political interference in sexual and reproductive health research and health professional education. Nursing Outlook, 65(2), 346–350. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2017.05.003
Week 3 Discussion
DQ1 Identify three components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that went into effect in 2014 and discuss their impact or potential impact on the practice of nursing and medicine. Be specific as to what the provision states, who it affects, and the impact that it may have.
DQ2 Describe a type of health care spending that you consider wasteful or services that you consider have little or no benefit. Explain why you find the spending wasteful, and if eliminated, what impact it may have on the American public.
Optimizing patient outcomes is often the intention of all care facilities and this can readily be achieved through adopting systemic approaches that are based on evidence-based practice (EBP) (Calitri et al., 2014). At the Mercy Medical Center, the need to improve quality as identified by deficits in benchmark performances has sparked off debates on the adoption of new strategies to address these inefficiencies in care (Harvey & Kitson, 2015). As such, quality improvement at the facility that is most likely to optimize care is based on increasing the safe nurse-to-patient ratio. The subsequent discussion delves into the elaboration of proposed quality improvement initiative and how it can be implemented at the facility.
Proposal
Adequate staffing in a care facility is an integral part of the operationalization of activities in hospitals (Strehlenert et al., 2015). Often, health organizations that focus on translating evidence-based practice into care to optimize quality outcomes must consider the aspect of staffing (Brown & McIntyre, 2014). Particularly, the number of nursing staff must be commensurate to the number of patients the facility admits. However, at the Mercy Medical Center, there is a deficit in the number of nurses that provide care to patients and this limits the achievement of the performance benchmarks as defined by local and state regulations.
Currently, patient-centered care approaches at the facility are compromised due to an inadequate number of nursing staff. Mercy Medical Center has a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:8 against national recommendations of 1:4 (Lee et al., 2017). The deficit is exacerbated by high rates of nurse turnover at the institution. The high rate of nurse-to-patient ratio is unsafe for optimal care and the nursing staff at the facility are overwhelmed which has also raised concerns of patient neglect (Strehlenert et al., 2015). As such, there is a need to address the highly unsafe nurse-to-patient ratio by employing new members. In its short-term goal, this proposal aims to bridge the gap of staff deficits by reducing the ratio from 1:8 to 1:6. The long-term goal will be to achieve the recommended level of 1:4 in the next two years (Hill & DeWitt, 2018).
The proposal on safe nurse-to-patient ratio at the Mercy Medical Center aims to address the underperforming metrics related to medication errors, readmission rates, patient safety as well as the length of stay. It is established that Hospital CEO’s Dashboard report of the facility does not conform to the standards of care as established by regulatory authorities both at the state and national levels (Harvey & Kitson, 2015). Failure to meet the performance benchmarks also relates to poor management trends at the facility, especially where nurses do not receive competitive remuneration packages as compared to their peers in other facilities within the proximity of Mercy Medical Center (Ssegawa & Muzinda, 2016). This has seen increased turnover at the facility and the inability of the hospital to attract highly skilled nursing staff. For this proposal to meet its intended purpose, stakeholders involved must reevaluate the salaries of healthcare staff including nurses to ensure retention of the professionals (Brown & McIntyre, 2014). Besides, the facility also needs to employ general nurse practitioners and specialized nurses to seal the performance loophole currently witnessed at the hospital. This will be achieved through the formulation of an implementation plan to guide decision on practice.
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.
Read Also: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay