NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Sample Answer for NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues Included After Question
Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.
For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.
- Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.
By Day 3 of Week 3
Post an explanation of how competing needs, such as the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients, may impact the development of policy. Then, describe any specific competing needs that may impact the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected. What are the impacts, and how might policy address these competing needs? Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 3
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by providing additional thoughts about competing needs that may impact your colleagues’ selected issues, or additional ideas for applying policy to address the impacts described.
Submission and Grading Information
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 3 Discussion Rubric
Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6 of Week 3
To participate in this Discussion:
Week 3 Discussion
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Competing needs arise within any organization as healthcare workers seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet hospital goals. Either targets or goals require establishing priorities and allocating resources. For example, a policy addressing adequate nurse staffing is essential to meet the patient and workforce needs while minimizing hospital cost. However, utilizing in more nursing staff might result in economic inefficiencies along with misallocated resources.
The shortage of staff is connected with negative impacts; including lower quality and quantity of care because there are few resources to offer. Work overload to the existing nurses lead to burnout, and eventually compromising patient safety. Nursing shortage policies are constantly supported by current literature and they vary from country to country. However, there is continuous effort to modify certain aspect such as pay agreements, emergency hiring plans and RN residency programs to improve working environment for nurses (Park & Yu, 2019). Nurses should also voice their opinion on ways to resolve competing needs; the culture of silence creates a culture of acceptance and continues to suppress nursing professional knowledge (Kelly & Porr, 2018).
Competing needs that may impact nursing shortage is aging population in which baby boomer entering the age of increased need for health services. Which would require more students to enroll into the nursing program today and hire more educators to provide students with proper training. Another contributing factor is nurse burnout, statistics shows a national turnover rates is 8.8% to 37% (Lisa et al., 2020). Nurses are experiencing burnout daily and leaving the profession for better opportunities or advancing in their career. Ensure an optimal nurse to patient ratios to improve nurse staffing and improve quality of care delivered. Lastly, workload and work environment has forced hospitals to reduce staffing and implement mandatory overtime polices to ensure nurses would be available to work when the number of patients admitted increased unexpectedly. Furthermore, increase the workload to decrease on health care costs.
A policy might address these competing needs by ensuring an optimal nurse to patient ratio which can improve care outcomes for patients and ensure patient safety. Healthcare policymakers’ involvement in developing a staffing policy in every organization to improve working conditions (such as working hours, violence in workplace, managing workload) for the nurses staff to improve competencies and better job satisfaction. Ensure adequate government funding to allocate resources for training and clinical skills without causing strains on the government and organization budget. Also, devote resources toward increasing nurses wages; a token of appreciation for their dedicated and hard work.
References
Haddad, L.M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T.J. (2020). Nursing Shortage. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/
Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6. doi: 10.3912/OJIN. Vol23No01Man06. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. In Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2019.08.003
A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
This is insightful Youland. In every organization, there are always competing ought to be addressed to ensure efficiency in the operational processes. Specifically, in healthcare institutions that involve the development and implementation of different policies, there are always competing needs be fully addressed by the management or policymakers. Competing needs arise within any organization as healthcare workers seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet hospital goals (Minvielle, 2018). In every healthcare organization, leaders and workers often have their specific goals. The differences in their objectives or goals may lead to competing needs. As leaders and workers set their targets, there are always priorities; besides, there is always the need to consider the available resources that may facilitate processes and procedures towards meeting these goals. A policy addressing adequate nurse staffing is essential to meet the patient and workforce needs while minimizing hospital costs. However, utilization of more nursing staff might result in economic inefficiencies along with misallocated resources (Wicks & St Clair, 2017).
Before embarking on allocating resources, there is always the need for healthcare management to consider their priorities to address the competing needs. In most cases, healthcare institutions consider their priorities before distributing resources to different processes. To effectively formulate policies that would ensure incorporation of the best practices as well as the efficiency in the general operational processes, the management needs to involve nurses and other healthcare professional teams (Park & Yu, 2019). In other words, making a decision on where to allocate resources should involve the entire workforce. A policy might address these competing needs by ensuring an optimal nurse-to-patient ratio, improving care outcomes for patients, and ensuring patient safety. Besides, a policy may be formulated and enough resources allocated to ensure a significant reduction in the number of healthcare-acquired infections and the improvement in patient outcomes.
References
Minvielle, E. (2018). Toward Customized Care: Comment on”(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”. International journal of health policy and management, 7(3), 272. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5890073/
Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. In Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2019.08.003
Wicks, A. M., & St Clair, L. (2017). Competing values in healthcare: balancing the (un) balanced scorecard. Journal of Healthcare Management, 52(5). https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=10969012&AN=27028943&h=xt8qw%2fV9vHxEXGym8bL66d4PtA2v%2f%2bjudnSM4Nhe6H
A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Competing Needs and Impact of Policy
Policies are made to govern a certain practice and are necessary to hold persons accountable for their actions. Registered nurses (RNs) are constantly challenged to provide quality nursing care while resources are chipped away, sometimes along with their energy, pride, and ability to provide holistic patient care (Kelly & Porr, 2018), but are still expected to promote beneficence and avoid maleficence in all circumstances. Nurses and nurse leaders must establish policies that are ethical and just and not waver in the presence of competing needs. Policies and procedures provide a road map for day-to-day operations and are put in place to be followed for the betterment of the organization and improve practices. For example, a policy that focuses on staffing for nurses and nurse assistants is necessary to ensure that adequate staffing is available. The policy should provide parameters for nurse to patient ratio and a list of resources, steps, and protocols to assist where needed. The development of a policy in regards to the use of resources and being economical can also help to diffuse the fight between the need for staff versus the need for personal protective equipment (PPE).
The Impact of Organizational budget on the Nursing Shortage
I am constantly reminded that healthcare is a business just like any other and organization leaders are always trying to find new ways and ideas to satisfy the consumer but save the company money. Unfortunately, Health care is not like other businesses because people’s lives are at stake and when healthcare is faced with competing needs, one is likely to surpass the other and the other just might be as valuable as someone’s life. The shortage of nurses has a tremendous impact of any healthcare organization and can directly attack healthcare budget in more ways than one. For example, the shortage of nurse’s force countless hours in overtime to ensure that shifts are adequately covered to ensure patients receive the treatment that they need, because after all, patient satisfaction, safety, and best outcomes are the goal. On the contrary, these nurses who overwork themselves are more likely to perform at a level that is below satisfactory eventually resulting in mediocre patient care, documentation errors, medication errors and many other patient delivery errors. Researchers has suggested that overworked health care providers have reported a decline in mental and physical state, demonstrated inadequate patient care and nurse leaving/shortage (Leineweber et al., 2014). A study conducted on Nurses’ practice in relation to burnout concludes that adequate staffing and leadership and support for nurses are crucial for nurses wellbeing and mental health. (Leineweber et al., 2014).
To paint a picture; at my organization, if a patient has a complaint or is not satisfied with the delivery of care they received, often times letters are written to the CEO or Hospital’s president and they are forced to discount patient’s hospital bills to regain consumer satisfaction and prevent any contamination to the reputation of the Organization. Organizational budgets can force decisions between paying nurses or providing necessities needed for adequate patient care delivery such as PPE’s that as necessary for minimizing the risk of health care providers contracting diseases. If nurses do not feel safe, they may opt to leave their jobs, creating a bigger deficit for the organization, therefore a balance must be found between competing needs.
References
Alyahya, M. S., Hijazi, H. H., Al Qudah, J., AlShyab, S., & AlKhalidi, W. (2018). Evaluation of
infection prevention and control policies, procedures, and practices: An ethnographic
study. AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control, 46(12), 1348–1355. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2018.05.023
Kelly, P., Porr, C. (2018) Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to
Enhance RN Practice http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
Leineweber, C., Westerlund, H., Chungkham, H. S., Lindqvist, R., Runesdotter, S., &
Tishelman, C. (2014). Nurses’ practice environment and work-family conflict in relation to burn out: A multilevel modelling approach. PLoS ONE, 9(5). https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096991
A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
This is insightful Rashae; healthcare is a business just like any other and organization. As a result, healthcare leaders are always trying to find new ways and ideas to satisfy the consumer but save the company money. As a result, there are always planning processes meant to ensure effective utilization of resources and ensure effective patient outcomes. In the process of planning, there is always the need to consider priorities (Ansmann & Pfaff, 2018). For instance, a healthcare organization may be faced with different needs; however, through planning and setting priorities, they will be able to utilize their resources in a more profitable way.
Nurse shortage has been a critical issue in most healthcare institutions. Researchers have suggested that overworked health care providers have reported a decline in mental and physical state, demonstrated inadequate patient care, and nurse leaving/shortage. Therefore, allocating more resources towards employing more nurses is always a priority (Hovland & Moltu, 2019). However, other priorities such as the reduction of medication errors may set in. Medication errors have been considered one of the major factors that contribute to low patient satisfaction and negative patient outcome.
Therefore, healthcare management may weigh their priorities before engaging in allocating resources (Kelly, 2018). To effectively formulate policies that would ensure incorporation of the best practices as well as the efficiency in the general operational processes, the management needs to involve nurses and other healthcare professional teams. With proper planning and allocation of resources, healthcare institutions are able to generate more profits and enhance operational processes in addition to meeting the needs of patients. Setting priories may help in the budgeting processes for the entire institution.
References
Ansmann, L., & Pfaff, H. (2018). Providers and Patients Caught Between Standardization and Individualization: Individualized Standardization as a Solution: Comment on”(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”. International journal of health policy and management, 7(4), 349. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5949226/
Hovland, R. T., & Moltu, C. (2019). Making way for a clinical feedback system in the narrow space between sessions: navigating competing demands in complex healthcare settings. International journal of mental health systems, 13(1), 1-11. https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-019-0324-5
Kelly, P., Porr, C. (2018). Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to
Enhance RN Practice. http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
How Competing needs impact policy development
Universally healthcare delivery is a challenging process healthcare providers strive to provide quality, safe care (Kelly& Porr 2018). Challenges faced by the healthcare industry are constant such as patient experience, invoicing, and payment mandates to provide better outcomes at reduced costs, together with the aging population, chronic diseases, comorbidities, and situations like the recent pandemic. To enhance safety, and quality care, we now have advancements in technology and use the EHRs (Electronic Health Records), a more comprehensive record-gathering data involving health and sick medical information which begins with a person’s life to the end of life (Walden University 2018). It is an essential aspect of healthcare delivery, improving outcomes and efficiencies, but do we have healthcare providers to meet this need with the increasing staff shortage? The organization is challenged with work overload, near misses, and medication errors, to name a few, that affect quality care. These competing needs trigger standardized policies, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was introduced to help people get health insurance and reduce healthcare spending. Tackle working conditions with recruitment and retention to prevent staff burnout.
Specific competing healthcare needs that impact staff burnout
The cost of healthcare with increasing costs of drugs, medical equipment, expensive nursing home care, and increase in provider reimbursement is constantly growing, leading to this burden being shared by the patients’ Furthermore, as outlined by Milliken (2018), nurses deliver quality healthcare with a professional goal involving ethics that directs nursing practice however, the current organizational challenge is the shortage of trained staff that hinders quality care due to staff burnout. Thus, the organization has contacted agencies for trained staff to bridge the gaps, implemented the W2W (When to Work) app involving self-scheduling, and developed a staffing pool for bank shifts to supplement the needs (Sikka, Morath & Leape, 2015).
How Policies might impact the competing needs
Healthcare policies help shape and protect the health and well-being of our population, an integral aspect of the healthcare system. They impact healthcare access, cost, delivery methods, and privacy. A policy addressing adequate staffing is required to meet patient, and workforce needs while reducing costs. Just as the ACA created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid to lower costs and improve healthcare quality, though unrelated to healthcare providers, it impacts the healthcare system. Similarly, the organization must implement and adhere to a policy on the number of hours a healthcare employee should work, designing a way by which quality care is achieved at a lower cost impacting the competing needs of the organization.
Conclusion
Current challenges within healthcare are constant. Our increasing aging population, the prevalence of chronic conditions with comorbidities, increased use of technology, and a range of other realities with a lack of training is impacting needs that contribute to staff burnout. A policy addressing adequate staffing is required to meet patient, and workforce needs while reducing costs.
References
Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6. https://doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06Links to an external site.
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical Awareness: What It Is and Why It Matters. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man01Links to an external site.
Sikka, R., Morath, J. M., & Leape, L. (2015). The Quadruple Aim: care, health, cost and meaning in work. BMJ Quality & Safety, 24(10), 608. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004160Links to an external site.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018). Public Health Informatics [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.