Module 2: Professionalism (Week 3)
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Moral Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Analyze the impact of competing needs of workforce, resources, and patients on policy development
- Analyze the impact of competing needs on healthcare issues/stressors
- Analyze policies and practices for healthcare issues/stressors
- Critique organizational policies and practices for ethical considerations
- Recommend policy or practice changes to balance competing needs and ethical considerations
| Due By | Assignment |
| Week 3, Days 1–2 | Read the Learning Resources. Compose your initial Discussion post. |
| Week 3, Day 3 | Post your initial Discussion post. Begin to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 3, Days 4-5 | Review peer Discussion posts. Compose your peer Discussion responses. Continue to compose your Assignment. |
| Week 3, Day 6 | Post two peer Discussion responses. |
| Week 3, Day 7 | Deadline to submit your assignment. |
Photo Credit: on_WAL_CBLE0001_er1_EN.mov – Freeze frame
Learning Resources
Required Readings
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Silver Spring, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only
Note: Review all, with special attention to “Provision 6” (pp. 23–26).
Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man01. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2012). Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2009b). Working with Individuals [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Discussion: Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.
For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.
- Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.
Sample Paper – Week 3 Discussion
NURS 6053 – Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues
Organizational Policies
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Organizational Policies
How Competing Needs Impact Policy Development
Health care systems in the world face a significant challenge of how to deliver wide access to health services while enhancing the quality of care and controlling costs. The health care providers are highly determined to offer quality care (Kelly & Porr, 2018). However, the health care needs are growing with the increase of the aging population hence the need for more technology to enhance better treatment. The health care providers are not enough to fulfill these needs which cause work overload, hence medical errors which affect the quality of health care. The competing needs can trigger the development of policies that will standardize the running of the health care system. For instance, the Affordable Care Act was introduced to cater for the increasing health care costs so that patients can get quality care even if they are from middle-income homes.
Specific Competing Need that Impacts High Health Care Costs
There are several areas where high health care costs emerge. Examples are increased in the cost of drugs, increase in provider reimbursement, expensive nursing home care and high costs of durable medical equipment which increases expenses in health care costs and sometimes the expenses being transferred to the patients. Nurses should deliver quality health care. Nurses have a professional goal and connected ethical responsibility which should direct the nursing practice (Milliken, 2018). However, this is not the routine in practice. Nurse shortage is one of the problems which hinder that leading to overload which comprises the quality of care. Therefore one of the solutions is to employ more nurses. Other solutions would include using new staff and scheduling system through developing a staffing pool which will help in supplementing the staffing needs (Sikka, Morath, & Leape, 2015). An institution can also use more staff efficiently in an attempt to reduce labor costs and deliver quality care. For instance, In Freeman White blog post, Kristyna Culp estimated that use of nurse to move the sick to and from the emergency unit as compared to utilizing transport employees would increase hospital costs with $111690 annually. The estimation approximate that pay rate of $19.50 in a transport staff hourly and $45 per hourly for the nurses and an encircling expedition transport time of 30 minutes for every sick person. Moreover, an organization can reduce employee turnover. It is costly to train a new employee. Apart from donating competitive pay, and packages of benefit, some ways of maintaining the current staff are streaming process to simplify staff workload, rewarding and recognizing the staff as well as treating the employees with respect and promoting them (Julie, 2016).
How Policy Might Impact the Competing Needs
Policies can be intended to improve the quality of care and reduce health care costs at the same time. The organization should come up with policies regarding the number of hours that any health care provider should work. In that policy, they can design ways the institution will do to achieve quality care at low costs. The Affordable Care Act, for instance, designed some tools to reduce health care costs. For instance, it created The Center for Medicare and Medicaid innovation or CMMI used for testing delivery methods to lower costs and improve the health care quality of the individuals who benefited from federal health insurance programs (Kivlahan, Orlowski, Pearce, Walradt, Baker, & Kirch, 2016). This is one way of improving the health care quality but it is not related to health caregivers. Generally, it impacts the entire health care system.
References
Julie Henry (2016) 7 ways hospitals can reduce staffing costs without jeopardizing quality https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/7-ways-hospitals-can-reduce-staffing-costs-without-jeopardizing-quality/421236/
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).
Kivlahan, C., Orlowski, J. M., Pearce, J., Walradt, J., Baker, M., & Kirch, D. G. (2016). Taking a risk: early results from teaching hospitals’ participation in the center for Medicare and Medicaid innovation bundled payments for a care improvement initiative. Academic Medicine, 91(7), 936-942.
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1).
Sikka, R., Morath, J. M., & Leape, L. (2015). The Quadruple Aim: care, health, cost and meaning in work.
By Day 3 of Week 3
Post an explanation of how competing needs, such as the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients, may impact the development of policy. Then, describe any specific competing needs that may impact the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected. What are the impacts, and how might policy address these competing needs? Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 3
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by providing additional thoughts about competing needs that may impact your colleagues’ selected issues, or additional ideas for applying policy to address the impacts described.
Submission and Grading Information
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 3 Discussion Rubric
Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6 of Week 3
To participate in this Discussion:
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