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Healthcare policy and the importance of engaging in legislation that impacts healthcare and nursing practice

Nurses need to understand their influence on healthcare policy and the importance of engaging in legislation that impacts healthcare and nursing practice.
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:
1. Explain your selected healthcare policy.
2. Address the background of the problem requiring the policy.
3. Address how the policy is relevant to your nursing practice or area of interest.
4. Identify if this policy impacts practice at the local, state and/or national level.
5. Evaluate how this policy could impact health care and further explain how this policy would influence nursing practice.
6. Provide evidence to support your stance on how you can implement the current policy.
7. Explain ways you can assist in implementing this policy as a nurse advocate.

Sample Answer

Policy Brief: Mandating Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratios

To: Healthcare Organization Policy Subcommittee

From: [Your Name], RN, Policy Subcommittee Member

Date: October 20, 2023

Subject: Advocacy for the Adoption of Standardized Nurse-to-Patient Ratios

Selected Healthcare Policy

The selected policy is the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (similar to federal bills H.R. 2530 and S. 1113). This policy mandates minimum, numerical nurse-to-patient ratios for specific hospital units (e.g., 1:1 in operating rooms, 1:2 in critical care, and 1:4 in medical-surgical units).

2. Background of the Problem

For decades, healthcare organizations have utilized "acuity-based" staffing models that are often manipulated to meet budgetary goals rather than clinical needs. Chronic understaffing has led to an epidemic of nurse burnout, high turnover rates, and increased moral distress. When nurses are overburdened, the risk of "failure to rescue" increases, leading to higher rates of patient falls, medication errors, hospital-acquired infections, and readmissions.