Policy, Politics, and Global Health Trends Health, Medicine Coursework

Policy, Politics, and Global Health Trends
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Introduction
In this era where limited personnel are used to perform increasing workloads, there is a risk of a detrimental increase of mistakes, harm, and misjudgments. In the US, nursing is one of the fasted growing professions yet the country experiences significant shortages coupled with high turnover. As a result, the healthcare sector is particularly susceptible because the few Registered Nurses (RNs) who are employed are being asked to attend to more patients beyond their capacity. In response, the federal and state governments have formulated several mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, which are intended to enhance the quality of care and the safety of patients. However, some critics argue that mandatory nurse-patient ratios create unfunded mandate by increasing the general costs of care yet enhancement of quality and better treatment outcomes is not guaranteed. This paper examines the effect of RN staffing ratios on healthcare and existing policies that address RN staffing. The paper also explores a policy that addresses RN staffing ratio based purely on the input of RNs.
Why the selection of nurse staffing policy issue?
Since the 1950s, numerous researchers have reported connections between outcomes of patients and nurse staffing (Hartz et al., 1989; Shortell and Hughes, 1998). However, in the majority of these studies, the nurse-patient ratio was not treated as a primary variable but rather as a background variable. In the 1990s, it was hoped that the issue of RN staffing ratio would be addressed because there were sophisticated technologies that would capture the evidence linking the state of nurse staffing to patient safety and care. However, the 1996 IOM report on the significance of nurses and registered nurses on patients care indicated that, at that time, there was no proof that nurse-patient ratio affected patients’ outcomes (Clarke and Donaldson, 2008).
Currently, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that the inadequate number of Registered Nurses in the healthcare industry affects the delivery of healthcare. Some states such as California have responded by mandating hospitals to have a certain number of Registered Nurses in each unit. However, others have responded by allowing healthcare facilities to establish their own policies depending on their staffing situation. Furthermore, some policies have been criticized for addressing the shortage of nurses in hospitals by limiting access to healthcare. With the American population aging rapidly and the nurse-patient ratio increasing steadily, there is need to investigate, evaluate, and potentially propose policies that address nurse staffing.
The effect of nurse staffing on healthcare
When the debate of the influence of RN staffing on healthcare first emerged, it was only thought that nurse-patient ratio was a question of quality and care. However, in the last few years, studies have found out that the nurse-patient ratio also impacts the cost incurred by healthcare facilities and the health and wellbeing of nurses.
* Patient safety and outcome
In healthcare facilities, physicians are perceived by patients as being the most important p...