Safe Nurse Staffing Essay

I am a Nursing Student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a resident of Roxbury. The purpose of this memo is to propose a healthcare policy on adequate nurse staffing levels. The State of Massachusetts is highly understaffed a situation which requires immediate measures to correct this disarray (MNA, 2017). The policy will involve an audit in all the public hospitals in Massachusetts this will help determine the number of nurses needed. This policy should be implemented as it will offer a solution to the long-term problem of limited nurses in health centers to a surplus of patients. Research indicates that nurses are essential for quality healthcare for both private and public health centers. Adequate nurse staffing levels are critical

Since the IOM report in 1996, more research has been done showing better client outcomes with more favorable staffing of registered nurses (Cho, Ketefian, Barkauskas, & Smith, 2003, pp. 71-79). Therefore, S. 991: Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2003, 108th Congress: 2003-2004 was introduced in the Senate. This bill was to amend part D (Miscellaneous) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to:

I am writing to you in regard to safe patient ratio bill titled Safe Nurse Staffing for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act. My name is Angelina David and I am a registered nurse and practicing in the surgical intensive care unit. I am also enrolled in the Adult nurse practitioner program to further advance my knowledge in nursing. One thing I have learned is that as nurses no matter what the level of care or which facility you are practicing; patients’ safety is our number one priority. Patients’ safety and their quality of care have improved over the year. However, oftentimes nurses are still placed into a situation where it is unsafe to practice because they are required to care for more patients than it is safe.

Firstly the members of congress, executive branch, or members of outside community draw up a bill. After that the members of the house only will have to introduce the bill on the floor of house of representative. Then the bill is sent to the committee. Only bills that are necessary and reasonably appropriate make it to the next step, which is the rules of a committee for debate. Then it goes back to the floor of the house for a debate and members of the house then will vote for the bill. If the bill is in favor by most of the members of the house, hence the bill is sent to the senate. The senator introduces the bill on the floor. If the majority of the committees agree then the bill goes to the entire senate to consider the bill. As it follows the same process of the house, there is a debate and if majority votes for the bill then the bill is returned back to the house of representative.

Now that the bill has been passed through the House, it is ready to go through the proceedings of the Senate. First, the bill is again introduced but now by a senator who must be recognized by the presiding officer and announce the introduction of the bill. A bill that has passed either house of congress is sometimes called an act, but the term usually means legislation that has passed both houses and become a law. Secondly, the Vice President of the US, who is the presiding officer of the Senate, assigns the proposed law to a committee for further study ( the Senate has about 15 standing committees). The committees or one of its subcommittees studies the bill and may hold hearings. The committee may approve the bill as is, revise the bill, or table the bill. Now the bill goes to the Senate to await its turn on the Senate floor. Normally the bill is considered as introduced unless the bill is urgent in which case the leaders of the majority party might push it ahead. At this time the Senate considers the bill. Here senators can debate a bill indefinitely, unless voted otherwise. When there is no further discussion, the Senate votes. Most bills must have simple majority to pass. At this point of development, the process is especially exemplary because the bill in the Senate is now considered by debate to better illustrate its strengths and/or weaknesses. To summarize, the bill has now been passed by both houses of congress.

1 Understand the requirements of legislation and agreed ways of working to protect the rights of individuals at the end of life.

Many nurses face the issue of understaffing and having too much of a workload during one shift. When a unit is understaffed not only do the nurses get burnt out, but the patients also don’t receive the care they deserve. The nurse-patient ratio is an aspect that gets overlooked in many facilities that could lead to possible devastating errors. Nurse- patient ratio issues have been a widely studied topic and recently new changes have been made to improve the problem.

The legislation was originally submitted on February 7, 2017 and sent to the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee. On April 6, 2017 it was submitted from the subcommittee to the House Veterans Affairs committee for a full voice vote. In order for the bill to become a law, an idea must be presented to a member of Congress. There may be a companion bill, one in the House one in the Senate. There are several steps in passing legislation and many areas where a bill could fail. Associations and lobbyist are often involved in drafting legislation. They are also involved in lobbying members. The bill is then sent to a specific committee for the first review where either changes or made or the bill is rejected. If a bill is accepted, it is sent out from the committee to full House or Senate vote. If it passes, it will go to the opposite side of the legislative branch for a second vote. The bill most be voted on in the same way in both chambers in order to be passed. If a bill passes both the Senate and the House of Representatives, it goes to the President to be signed and made a law. If the President veto’s the bill, a two-thirds majority can override the president and make the bill a law without him or her. Every bill has a two -year deadline to either pass or die by default. The speaker of the House of Representative is in charge of the agenda for the House to vote on. Although the Vice President is the “President” of the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader sets the agenda for the

A discussion regarding the health care reform or even health care in general can be somewhat controversial. The definition of health is drastically different depending on whom you speak to. Many would define health as " a person's absence of disease, others would describe good health based on the status of mind, body & social well-being" (GCU Lecture, module 2, 2012). According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, health is defined as "The overall condition of an organism at a given time". An individual's overall health affects the nation, this is where stakeholders come into value. According to Keele, Buckner & Bushnell a stakeholder is either an individual or an organization that either invest time and

In the Senate, member can speak as long as they want. Once the debate is over the Senate will then vote on the bill. If fifty-one members vote in favor of the bill then it will be passed. The bill will then move on to a conference committee, which is made up of member from each House. The committee works out any differences between the House and Senates versions of the bill. The revised bill will then be sent back to both Houses for their final approval. Once approved, the bill is printed by the Government Printing Office in a process called enrolling. The clerk from the introducing house will certify the final version.

Two major forms of staffing guidelines will be discussed, nurse-to-patient ratio and staffing by acuity. This paper will discuss the history of each staffing form. It will point out the benefits and negative features of both practices, describe how hospitals deal with staffing and discuss the states that have laws requiring certain guidelines be followed.

All things first start with an idea. This idea, then becomes an action and this action in turn has a result. This same concept can be applied to the legislative process. The first step begins with an idea, this idea is shared and if it gains the support of the masses this idea will then become sponsored by a representative. Once this idea has sponsorship it then proceeds to the congressional level where this idea gets the new title of a bill. Upon the name change from idea to bill also comes the benefit of becoming a proposed piece of legislation. For a bill this means that it will be sent to both the House of Representatives and Senate awaiting it’s future through debate. If the debate proves favorable for the bill, that is both the House of Representatives and the Senate approve then this bill is sent off to the desk of the president. From the moment the bill arrives at the desk of the president a countdown of ten days begins, this is

Nurse staffing refers to the ratio of nurses to patients in a particular unit. The current global nursing shortage is simply wide spread and dangerous lace of skilled nurses who are needed to care for individual patients and the population as a while. A study on the nursing shortage by Linda Aiken of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, fund that an estimated 20,000 people die each year, because they have checked into a hospital with overworked nurses. (The American Nurses Association, Inc., 2010).

According to Dictionary.com a nurse is a person formally educated and trained in the care of the sick or infirm. The encyclopedia states that a nursing diagnosis may be a part of the nursing process and is a clinical judgment about individual, family, or community experiences or responses to actual or potential health problems that life processes. The actual nursing diagnosis could possibly be a factor before one can even become a certified nurse. The nursing diagnosis is a critical part of making sure all the knowledge for the practice is obtained precisely. Risk factors for nurses are currently at its highest peak, because of a lot of new diseases that have spread overtime. Although local hospitals and the government have been able to

Once it is at the Senate it goes through the same process had as the House of Representatives, a section of the Senate members go and decide and add their changes to the bill, or decline it. If passed it goes to the next part to the rest of the Senate, who then take their turns adjusting and changing or declining the bill. Then after the whole Senate has review and changed the bill of necessary is goes back to the House of Representatives, who then look over if they like the changes the Senate made to the bill. If the House of Reps find things they do not like, then it is not declined, but goes to a Conference Committee making up parts of the Senate, and parts of the House of Representatives their