Advocacy through Legislation: Hospital Inadequate Staffing in Texas

Advocacy Though Legislation
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Advocacy Through Legislation
Problem

Inadequate staffing is a problem facing hospitals in Texas. It causes fatigue among the workers who are forced to work beyond their shifts and attend to many patients, leading to fatigue. Exhaustion at work leads to poor service delivery and consequently poor outcomes. Inadequate staffing also gives room for errors in recording and communication. The average nurse to patient ratio is two to three patients per nurse in the ICU and four to eight patients in other departments.
The situation worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the rising number of infections and hospitalizations. 2021 recorded higher than average turnover rates owing to burnout and work-related stress. In Central Texas, one hospital system experienced a 25% turnover (Ochieng, 2021). If the staffing issue continues, more patients will remain unattended or experience delayed services. The workers also will continue to experience fatigue, leading to high turnover rates. Exhausted workers lack motivation, therefore offering poor services that lead to poor outcomes. Communication and medication errors are also common in understaffed hospitals.

Idea for Addressing Solution

Legislative advocacy involves airing the views of a group of people to leaders who would help to amend or enact laws in favor of the group. Therefore, advocacy is acting on behalf of oneself and others in the same situation (O'Connor, 2018). To address the issue of staffing through advocacy, the nursing representatives would have to communicate their concerns to legislators. They could reach the legislative officials through letters, tweets, or phone calls to make their voices heard. Direct lobbying is a form of advocacy that involves contacting a legislator and communicating to them about a particular issue. The lobbyists ask the official to vote in a way that promotes their interests. The team could also approach a legislator to introduce a favorable bill or stop one that could cause harm. The process requires patience and persistence as it takes time to push such an agenda.
Lawmakers should increase the nurse staffing mandate to ensure that all hospitals comply with the staffing laws. Furthermore, the law should be clear on the timelines for the committee to review and assess staffing concerns. They should also look into providing resources that are essential for service delivery.

Research the Issue

Evidence 1

Approximately fifteen states have addressed the nurse staffing concerns by implementing favorable laws. In Pennsylvania, for instance, Governor Tom Wolf voiced support for nurse-to-patient staffing rules. He was supported by forty-nine other state legislators who co-sponsored bills in the House and Senate to implement staffing ratios in hospitals.

Evidence 2

Some states pass bills that require the state to address staffing ratios, while others task the hospital committees to set the ratios for their facilities. California is one of the states where the government implements a ratio of one nurse to five patients (Van den Heede et al., 2020). Massachusetts passed an ICU-...