Evidence-Based Policy: Taking a Stance

Safe staffing for nurses has been an ongoing issue, but has been particularly bad since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until the present. On January 19, 2019 Assembly Bill A2954 was proposed. The purpose of the bill is to require acute care facilities and nursing homes to implement certain direct-care nurse to patient ratios in all nursing units; sets minimum staffing requirements; requires every such facility to submit a documented staffing plan to the department on an annual basis and upon application for an operating certificate; requires acute care facilities to maintain staffing records during all shifts; authorizes nurses to refuse work assignments if the assignment exceeds the nurse’s abilities or if minimum staffing is not present; requires public access to documented staffing plans; imposes civil penalties for violations of such provisions; establishes private right of action for nurses discriminated against for refusing any illegal work assignment (NY State Senate 2020). I support this legislation for many reasons. The main reason being adequate nurse staffing has been proven to improve patient care which ultimately leads to better patient outcomes (Kim & Bae 2021). I would suggest a change to nurse staffing ratios by following the guidelines from the American Nurses Association (ANA), which encourages critical conversations to be discussed with hospital administration on the effects of poor staffing on patient care as well as nurses physical and mental health (ANA 2021). Although critical conversations are necessary and can be beneficial to improving staffing, retaining staff in the acute hospital setting, is not currently easy due to the ongoing pressure of heavy workloads and inadequate staffing. One way I could work with state legislators on advancing this policy is to write a letter suggesting to state legislators to encourage hospital administration to ensure payment equity for nursing services (ANA 2021, p.10). By increasing nurses pay to reflect the workload they are taking on, hospitals may be able to retain more staff, therefore improving ongoing nurse staffing issues.

**** THIS WAS MY PROFESSOR ORIGNIAL INSTRUCTIONS IF THIS HELPS:

Health care policy is the basic framework that affects nursing practice and/or the practice environment. Therefore, for this discussion board you are to:

1. Investigate a health care/nursing policy of interest to you and your nursing practice, for example: safe staffing, safe patient handling, nursing shortage, health care fraud, workplace violence, implication of the electronic medical records, etc.

Choose a different topic from the one discussed in previous modules.

2. In your initial post, support your post with at least three current articles/respected webpages about the issue.
3. Choose a position to either support or oppose the legislation/policy and explain your rationale.
4. How would you suggest a change related to implications to your nursing practice?
5. How would you work with your legislators to advance this policy?
6. Respond to your peers with different issues and take a stance on their issue with an explanation and support of the literature.