Posted: May 11th, 2022

NRS 440 Week 4/2 Nursing Research legislation

NRS 440 Week 4/2

Nursing
Research legislation that has occurred within the last 5 years at the state or federal level as a result of nurse advocacy. Describe the legislation and what was accomplished. What additional steps need to be taken to continue advocacy for this issue?

Please make the response be 600+ words or 2 page length. Please include citations and the references used for the work.

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– free essay sample

Nurse Advocacy Legislation

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Nurse Advocacy Legislation
Introduction
Nurse advocacy promotes quality care and improves the welfare of healthcare workers. Advocacy in the healthcare sector has led to legislation, including the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015. The purpose of the act is to mandate the healthcare sector to ensure sufficient nurses are available to take care of the patient (Wheatley, 2017). Nurse advocacy has also led to Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act of 2018 currently underway. Nurse advocacy is thus essential in boosting the welfare of nurses and patients through effective legislation.
Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015
Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 is federal legislation that requires all patients to receive safe and efficient care. It mandates the healthcare sector to ensure facilities have sufficient nurses to take care of the patients (Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015). The bill’s background is the deteriorating level of patient care due to the overwhelming number of nurses in a healthcare facility (Wheatley, 2017). For instance, elderly patients and pediatrics are at risk of developing complications if they do not get sufficient care.
Nurses are also at risk if they have an overwhelming workload in their shifts. Nurse burnout is one of the major causes of medical errors. The medical errors lead to slow recovery or complications that read to readmissions and longer hospital stays (Wheatley, 2017). A high workload, poor work conditions, and long shifts reduce job satisfaction among nurses. Therefore, nurses are likely to quit their job, thus straining the healthcare facilities even further.
The legislation results from nurse advocacy at various levels in both and state and the federal government. Before 2015, nurses were pushing for better working conditions. Advocacy involves taking into account the welfare of nurses and patients (Wheatley, 2017). Nurses also complained they had strained relationships with their families due to poor work-life balance. Therefore, nurse advocacy is effective in enhancing quality changes in the healthcare sector.
The legislation has made a significant impact on the healthcare system. One of the impacts is that healthcare facilities are now striving to improve nurses’ welfare through quality and reasonable patient-nurse ratio (Johansen et al., 2019). However, in the future, the legislation can accomplish more results if all states agree to enact it in the healthcare sector. Statistics indicate that less than 50 percent of the states have nurse staffing laws. For example, the Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act of 2018 is underway. The intention is to enhance nurse and patient safety (Johansen et al., 2019).
In the future, state governments should support the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 and other subsequent legislation. The aim is to ensure the nurses’ interests are taken care of (Johansen et al., 2019). Another additional step is that private healthcare facilities should embrace the legislation and avoid focusing on their profits. Public healthcare officials should recommend to the government to deploy more nurses in various healthcare facilities. The essay writers purpose is to ensure the sector has sufficient personnel who can meet the patient’s statutory requirement to the patient-nurse ratio.
Conclusion
Advocacy is one of the essential roles that healthcare workers should engage in. The purpose is to promote the safety of patients and the welfare of nurses. Without nurse advocacy, patients would be at risk of health complications and nurses on the verge of burnout. One of the major milestones that nurse advocacy is the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015. The purpose of the legislation is to mandate healthcare facilities to ensure nurse to patient ration is efficient. In the future, state governments should collaborate with the federal government to ensure they embrace the legislation that improves healthcare delivery quality.

References
Johansen, M. L., de Cordova, P. B., & Weaver, S. H. (2019). Nurse workforce environment staffing councils: an innovative approach. Nurse Leader, 17(2), 141-146.
Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015. H.R.2083. 114th Cong. (2016).
Wheatley, C. (2017). Nursing overtime: should it be regulated? Nursing Economics, 35(4), 213.

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