Policy, Politics, and Global Health - Essay Example

Policy, Politics, and Global Health Introduction This essay advocates for a policy that improves the health of the public and/or the nursing profession. In doing so, both a top-down and a bottom-up approach will be utilized for bringing the nursing perspective to policy makers and stakeholders. In addition, the values and ethical perspectives underpinning the worthiness of the policy will be identified as well as criteria to evaluate the success of the policy will be developed. A. Analysis of the Values and Ethics of a Policy Issue 1. Analysis of a Health or Nursing Profession Policy Issue That Impacts a Group of People And Requires a Policy Change It is projected that the healthcare sector will face a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs). The current and the projected nursing shortages is attributed to the fact that fewer people are identified to enter into the nursing profession. In this regard, it has been observed that nursing schools in the US are continuously struggling to increase their capacity to meet the growing demand for caregivers. The reasons for evolution of this problem are identified to be manifold. The increased demand for healthcare due to growing population is estimated as one of the prime reasons behind the upsurge of this healthcare issue. Another noteworthy reason is attributed to the constantly increasing healthcare cost which is reckoned to unfavorably impact the wages and the recruitment of nursing staff. The implication of this healthcare issue is ascertained to be vigorous and profound on the aspect of quality care. It is believed that the shortages in the nursing staff will result in inadequate care to patient followed by longer stay of the patient in the hospitals. On the other hand, it is also proclaimed that the issue will contribute towards increasing the stress level of nursing staff (Patterson, 2011; Omachonu & Einspruch, 2010). a. Discussion of the Reason behind the Selection of the Issue. Health workforce is the most important element of achieving the goal of quality care. Healthcare workers are recognized as the core of the health system. The role of healthcare workers in meeting the needs and demands of healthcare is indispensible and requires no definition. Thus, the health workforce shortages is an overwhelming issue that needs to be address by the policy makers for promoting the health of the community (Anand & Bärnighausen, 2011). b. Discussion of the Issue’s Relevance to Health or the Nursing Profession. The health workforce is an essential requirement for achieving the broad goals of delivering safe and effective care. Thus, the imbalance in the health workforce is likely to have a considerable impact on the patient care delivery system. Furthermore, the health workforce shortages are ascertained to distort the nurse to patient ratio in an unfavorable manner. Correspondingly, nurse to patient ratio can be defined as the number of patients being provided with care facilities by a single nurse. In this regard, the health workforce shortages is perceived to increase the work pressure of nurses as they will be required to meet the care needs of increased number of patients. Consequently, it is also claimed that the shortages will increase the mortality rate of patients followed by longer stay of inpatient. Ultimately, the healthcare cost is projected to rise. Health workers deficit is further claimed to hinder the achievement of providing and guaranteeing safe, high quality nursing care. Thus, the issue of health workforce shortages is of high relevance within the context of healthcare sector (Patterson, 2011; Omachonu & Einspruch, 2010). 2. Analysis of Personal Values That On the Policy Issue Almost all individuals have had experience at hospital. I am drawn to the thought that the shortages will adversely impact on the customers’ safety as well as quality of care provided to them. Thus, I firmly believe that it is the responsibility of policy makers and healthcare professionals to ensure adequate safety of those individuals seeking healthcare needs as well as to ensure that these individuals who are in need of health care are not harmed in any of the way. a. Discuss The Ethical Principle That Underpins Your Perspective. In order to support the idea underpinning my point of view, it will be vital to reflect upon the principle of beneficence. Accordingly, beneficence generally signifies a moral obligation to behave or act in certain manner for the welfare of others. Positive beneficence seeks to take actions that would promote benefit to others and motivate an individual to act reflecting kindness, charity, mercy, love and humanity. Thus, recognition of beneficence is the primary obligation of those individuals who are associated with the healthcare towards the patients. B. Discussion for Evaluation of the Success of the Work 1. Policy Brief (A Top-Down Approach) In order to evaluate the success of the work, the top-down approach will involve ministry and county council along with municipalities. 2. A Community/Organization Plan (A Bottom-Up Approach) A bottom-up perspective to evaluate the success of the work will entail schools, colleges and universities. C. Developing a Policy Brief for the Issue Discussed in Part A 1. The Decision Maker (Name and Title) Who Will Receive the Policy Brief This policy brief is being developed to give policy makers/local senator an introduction to the issue of health workforce shortages assessment (HWSA) and provides policy recommendations that highlight opportunities for government officials to use HWSA for important new decisions outside the health sector to minimize risks, unanticipated costs, promote patient safety, retain nursing staff and to help create healthier communities. a. Reasons for Seeking the Decision Maker’s Attention. Public Health Nursing in the US is currently experiencing a critical shortage of health workforce which has ascertained to serve as a threat to the health of the nation. Nonetheless, nursing shortages have been experienced in before as well but the current shortages are recognized to be greatly worse than the country has ever been experienced. More importantly, the shortage of health workforce is projected to increase in the coming years, which is perceived to have more vigorous impact on the health of the nation. On the other hand, the population of the country is growing which is further identified to exert pressure on the healthcare system of the country due to the increased health care demand. Furthermore, the impact of the health workforce shortages is not only projected to have an adverse influence on the healthcare needs of patients but it is also anticipated that decreasing enrollment of nursing staff will also increase workload for the nursing staff currently being employed to render their services to patients. It is anticipated that in the coming years the nursing staff have to face increased level of stress and fatigue due to the imbalance in the nurse to patient ratio. Consequently, the aspects such as quality care are projected to suffer while the duration of inpatient stay in hospital is perceived to increase. Thus, in this time of growing pressure on public health to respond to issues dealing with emergency situation and extensive rise in chronic illnesses the issue of health workforce shortage must be addressed (Patterson, 2011; Omachonu & Einspruch, 2010). 2. Discussion of the Main Challenges of Addressing Health Workforce Shortage Issue Health workforce shortage is recognized to be a complex issue that can be attributed to multifaceted factors. In this regard, ageing population of health workforce, poorly funded health care system, inadequate wages, bureaucratic hiring practices, a lack of sufficient public health advocacy and a radical decline in nursing faculty are a few prominent challenges which need to be effectively overcome in order to deal with the issue of growing health workforce shortage in the US. Of these challenges, the supply challenge for meeting the growing demand of nursing staff has seen to receive the most widespread attention. 3. Discussion of the Primary Options/Interventions for the Decision Maker There are various options/interventions which the senator can employ to address the issue of health workforce shortages. First, it is essential for senator to focus on making decisions that would promote recruitment and training of an expressively larger pool of nursing students. However, in order to ensure that recruitment and training are successful, it is essential to commit substantial resources both financial and non-financial to the expansion of nursing faculties as well as the extension of existing nursing schools. Nonetheless, in doing so, it will create a need for a large economic investment. At the same time, compensation for faculty needs to be decided at a level that draws sufficient number of faculty and facilitates in retaining them. More specifically, there will be a greater need for capital expenditures for creating an ideal training environment for students. Since senator is the public representative to federal and state, it is feasible to seek for well-funded federal, state and private programs to help cover the costs of nursing education. It is of utmost importance that the workplace environment wherein nurses are placed once they are recruited needs to be supportive that would facilitate in meeting their requirements both as care providers and as human beings. Any failure may impose serious challenges and may accompany experiencing entry as well as early exit from the profession on a regular basis that might not only cause heavy financial loss but it may also have a serious impact on the quality of care delivered to patients. 4. A Persuasive Course of Action for the Decision Maker It has been identified that the health workforce are amid the most important components for achieving the goal of improved public healthcare. In order to effectively deal with the complex issue of growing health workforce shortages, certain imperative courses of action are needed to be taken. In this regard, it is crucial to increase financial support for the public health agencies in order to enable them to increase salaries and wages of health workforce. Adequate support needs to be provided to leadership development programs to motivate and retain public health workforce. Scholarship funding as well as loan forgiveness schemes need to be designed to support nurses who are inclined to pursue advanced public health nursing education. It will further prove to be effective to develop successful marketing campaigns directed to attract new nurses and other health workforce to enter the profession, as well as retain veteran nurses and other interested in changing career into public health. Schools, colleges and universities along with public health training centers should be encouraged adequately to seek both state and local health agencies to deliver educational opportunities for health workforce. Providing incentives in terms of aspects such as tax credits for retaining nursing faculty can also facilitate in effectively dealing with the issue of growing health workforce shortages and ultimately promoting in achieving quality community care. D. Creating Plan 1. Identifying an Organization/Community That Has Expressed Interest in the Health Workforce Shortage Issue The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) which is a not-for-profit organization devoted towards improving and promoting the health has expressed interest towards the issue of growing health workforce shortages in the US (The American Geriatrics Society, 2014). a. Summarize Evidence Supporting Why the Organization/Community Has Expressed Interest in in the Health Workforce Shortage Issue. The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) has expressed its interest towards the health workforce deficit due to several reasons. According to AGS, a career dedicated on caring for older adults is often perceived to a large extent as financially unattractive for health workforce. In such circumstance, AGS believes that shortages of health workforce will have a substantial impact on the care needs of older people. It argues that supply of geriatricians is already in jeopardy and health workforce deficit will ultimately deprive older adults from receiving the care they need (The American Geriatrics Society, 2014). Accordingly, the organization has stressed that the current demands for geriatric care in the healthcare system is already overwhelmed and further shortfall in the health workforce to meet the projected healthcare needs for elder will have more adverse impact on care needs of older people. Correspondingly, AGS believes that policy makers should pay adequate attention towards the issue of declining health workforce in order to ensure that high-volume of health care services is received not only by the elder people but also the older adults. 2. Three CBPR Principles That Could Use To Work with the Organization/Community to Address a Policy Change Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is generally rooted to the social justice as well as action research conducts both of which recognize the exceptional strengths and outlooks of community partners and intends to create noticeable benefits for communities participating in research (Simonds et al., 2013). Include a long-term procedure and pledge to sustainability Emphasis on the local prominence of public health issues and on ecological views that relate to varied determinants of health Construct on the strengths and means within the community a. Explanation of the Ways to Approach and Collaborate With Organization/Community. In order approach and collaborate with AGS, its members will be asked to consider the findings of my work as well as register their perspective about finding validity for their regional community. My work also focuses on the nurse to patient ratio which will be delivered to the members of the organization in order to re-confirm healthcare shortages as public health issue. b. Discussion Of How The Goal Of The Community/Organization Aligns With The Goal For This Policy Issue. The primary goal of AGS is to improve the health, independence and quality of life of all older people. Correspondingly, the goal of this policy issue is also focus on promoting health of every American people in the most effective manner by ensuring adequate health workforce available for providing quality care. c. Discussion of the Action Steps to Achieve Your Goal from Part D2b. In order to achieve the aforementioned goal of attracting and retaining adequate number of health workforce, first, it would be necessary to generate adequate awareness among the students and general people regarding the prospects of health workforce. Next, schools, colleges and universities need to be provided with adequate support so that considerable effort is made by them to develop qualified health workforce. d. Discussion of the Possible Roles/Responsibilities of Community/Organization Members, Including Problem-Solving and Capacity-Building Roles. The participation of the members of the AGs will be crucial. The members will be asked to assess the findings of the health workforce issue. Besides, their support for generating adequate public awareness amid the students and the general people will be sought. e. Discussion of the Key Elements of Developing a Collaborative Evaluation Plan. A CBPR partnership works in collaboration with non-profit youth empowerment and health educators at the local level to address the issue of health workforce shortages. In order to develop a collaborative evaluation plan, the presence of a strong, autonomous community partner organization prior to the development of the partnership was focused. Patient autonomy is highly valued prior to the development of the partnership. In order to promote social justice, the partnership focused on fair distribution of healthcare resources. It will be made sure that professional and individual responsibility towards the patient is duly met. The tenet of utilitarianism focus on maximization of human benefits and where it is not possible elimination of human pain is highly considered. E. Analysis of the Strengths and Challenges of the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches an Achieving Policy Change(s) to Support the Issue Top-down approach entails government, ministry and municipalities. The top-down strategy that involves government, ministry and municipalities will be liable to decide to change some factors in order to reduce the risk of growing health workforce shortages. Top-down strategy can facilitate in legislating certain measures that would ultimately help in overcoming the issue of health workforce shortages as well as promoting the health of local public. This strategy can also facilitate in reducing the tax liability for faculty staff relating to development and raining of health workforce which may facilitate in attracting more and more faculty members to develop their career in the employment and also help in retaining them. One of the major challenges is that different groups may understand differently from the information provided that may impose threat to the policy change. The use of authority may also appear that may unfavorably impact the initiative of policy change. On the other hand, bottom-up approach may facilitate in seeking the commendable policy change. The schools, colleges and universities through their significant endeavor can lay a considerable impact on the local community and can aid in attracting a large number of individuals to pursue nursing training and development. Nonetheless, bottom-up approach may also unfavorably influence the policy change as these schools, colleges and universities may reveal their reluctance towards such policy change. Conclusion To summarize, the objective of the essay was to create a plan for working with a community/organization to address the policy issue. It can be stated that the implementation of the policy change will facilitate in overcoming the challenges of health workforce shortages and will further promote towards achieving the standard goal of seeking quality of patient care. References Anand, S., & Bärnighausen, T. (2011). Health workers at the core of the health system: Framework and research issues. Health Policy, 1-7. Omachonu, V. K., & Einspruch, N. G. (2010). Innovation in healthcare delivery systems: a conceptual framework . The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 15(1), 2-20. Patterson, J. (2011). The effects of nurse to patient ratios. Nursing Times, 107(2), 22-25. Simonds, V. W., Wallerstein, N., Duran, B., & Villegas, M. (2013). Community-Based Participatory Research: its role in future cancer research and public health practice. Prev Chronic Dis. The American Geriatrics Society. (2014). About us. Retrieved from http://www.americangeriatrics.org/about_us/who_we_are/ Read More