Nursing C

Main Post for competing needs

How Competing Needs Influence Policy

Healthcare resources such as hospital beds, drugs, and nurses, are limited but expected to serve the ever-growing number of patients to satisfaction (Milliken, 2018). To achieve quality management health managers balance these needs. Based on the various needs of the healthcare organizations managers have to compromise to get to a solution. For instance, in a case where there are not enough hospital beds yet patients have to only leave hospitals after total healing, facility administrators develop policies that will allow patients to leave earlier than scheduled to accommodate other worse patients. Secondly, competing ideas result in stretching of previously set terms. This could involve longer working hours for nurses where there are shortages or even using alternative medicine where there are drug shortages.

The shortage of physicians is the number one stressor of the healthcare services in America. This shortage leaves patients without satisfactory care in states where there is restricted practice (Kelly & Porr, 2018).). Although there are experienced and qualified nurses, they are bound by the law not to intervene in areas that are preserved for qualified physicians. In some states, such as Texas, nurses can do little in even basic tasks such as family health.

Abolishing the restricted practice would be a fast solution to solving the problem of physician shortages. Nurses who have above ten years of experience can be permitted to intervene in minor surgeries and fully taking care of maternity health. This will lower the rate of disease progression as cases will be quickly attended and medication offered. Additionally, there will be ease of task execution by physicians resulting in quality output. However, this decision risks poor quality interventions as nurses do not have formal training on requisite skills to perform some relatively complex tasks (Hall et al., 2016). Furthermore, there will be a mix up of professionals where a nurses shortage could soon e experienced.

Another aspect of the policy that is influenced by the scarcity of resources is the development of health financing programs. Health resources do not only entail medicine and personnel. The ability of patients to achieve medical cover has a stake in shaping health policies. For instance, in 2014, a survey on the affordability of healthcare by the public in the United States of America informed the development of the affordable care act popularly known as the Obamacare, as a legal framework with the intention of helping the public access healthcare services without the obstacle of scarcity of money (Cheol et al., 2016).

Finally, in-house policies on healthcare have also been largely affected by the state of health resources. These in-house policies are aimed at stretching the reach of resources in the form of health machines, drugs, health personnel and even wards for treatment. For example, health managers can decide to increase the capacity of medical wards with the intention of accommodating more patients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Cheol Seong, S., Kim, Y. Y., Khang, Y. H., Heon Park, J., Kang, H. J., Lee, H., ... & Lee, E. J. (2016). Data resource profile: the national health information database of the National Health Insurance Service in South Korea. International journal of epidemiology, 46(3), 799-800.

Hall, L. H., Johnson, J., Watt, I., Tsipa, A., & O’Connor, D. B. (2016). Healthcare staff wellbeing, burnout, and patient safety: a systematic review. PloS one, 11(7), e0159015.

Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to Enhance RN Practice. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1).

Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical Awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1).

REPLY   QUOTE

Response from colleques

I agree in removing the restriction placed on Nurse practitioners in some states. Physician shortage is a growing concern in many countries around the world, due to a growing demand for physicians that outmatches the supply (Smith, 2019). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there is a global shortage of 4.3 million physicians, nurses, and other health professionals (Smith, 2019). When there is a shortage of physician to provide healthcare services to a population, a number of effects inevitably become evident in the health system, including: lower quality care, time constraints on doctor-patient interactions, increased workload for healthcare practitioners, overworked and stressed practitioners, unnecessarily prolonged wait time before consultations, higher prices for consultations (Smith, 2019).

Common policy recommendations include increasing primary care reimbursement, improving the stressful primary care work life, and graduating more nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) (Iglehart, 2013).

References

Iglehart, J. K. (2013). Health Affairs: Fast Forward into Health Policy Future. Health Affairs,

32(6), 1022–1022. Doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0468

Smith, Y. (2019). Physician Shortage. Retrieved from https://www.news-

medical.net/health/Physician-Shortage.aspx.