SITUATION: IS THIS SOMETHING THAT CAN BE LEGISLATED?
An identified community nursing issue is the need to protect public hospitals.
This follows the experience of nurses employed in public hospitals who are fighting to improve staffing, to win good contracts and to be able to stop work place violence. This calls for the establishment of a strong public health care system whereby the community can receive quality health care (Roux and Judith, 227). The strategy to achieve the same is via minimization of cuts and creation of more winnings on improvement.
Rather that spending more time blaming the existing policies, inadequate funds and the existing working environment, the nurses can take the initiative to transform the working conditions, staffing issues and signing of contracts in public hospitals (Judd, Kathleen and Megan, 261). However, this can only be achieved if the actions taken are under the law and can therefore an individual cannot be taken to a court of law.
BACKGROUND: DO YOUR RESEARCH
In order to improve staffing in public hospitals, it is important to ensure that patient-nurse ratio is at its minimum as well as employing adequately qualified staff. Staffing issues in public hospitals result from cases of inadequate and unmotivated staff. In ensuring that this change is fully effective, it all comes down to changing the nurses’ behavior. When a nurse is fully committed to his work, it promotes nursing leadership leading to the effective delivery of services.
Nurses working in public hospitals are also complaining of work place violence which include long working hours and attending to very many patients at the same time. In other instance, the patients in positions of authority such as supervisory positions get to harass their juniors to work and do not show any form of commitment in service delivery. Nurses in public hospitals should also be given the opportunity to advance in their education rather than being placed in the same position for a long time. This stagnant stage tends to demoralize employees leading to poor service delivery (Hatchett, 52-62). Minimized work violence ensures that nurses perform their duties as role models and patients get to enjoy patient centered service delivery.
It is also an unfortunate case whereby public hospitals are denied the opportunity to perform certain health care contracts based on the fact that they receive government subsidies and have few registered nurses. It is important to review the capacity of public hospitals to implement certain health care programs instead of keeping them out without an opportunity to utilize what they have. Rather than relying on volunteers, public hospitals should employ registered nurses and ensure that a conducive working environment is provided in order for them to be fully productive. This attracts investors to sign contracts that would solely benefit the New York community.
Transformation of public hospitals would require investment in marginal maintenance costs as well as additional infrastructure in teaching institutions to accommodate nurses who would be encouraged to continue with life long learning.
Identified stakeholders to support this bill would include nursing professionals, healthcare management professionals, the government, patients and physicians. However, physicians and healthcare management professionals may posse opposition following their desire to continue to influence the healthcare system of the United States.
RECOMMENDATION
Like any other group of professionals, nurses face several challenges as they get to perform their life saving duties. The good news is that some of these challenges have the capacity to be legislated leading to an experience of better working conditions. There are many bills that have been tabled in parliament hence the need to assign bill numbers in order to assign an aspect of priority to each bill.
Work cited
Hatchett, Richard. Nurse-led Clinics: Practical Issues. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Judd, Deborah M, Kathleen Sitzman, and Megan Davis. A History of American Nursing: Trends and Eras. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010. Print.
Roux, Gayle M, and Judith A. Halstead. Issues and Trends in Nursing: Essential Knowledge for Today and Tomorrow. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009. Print.
