Please Follow The Instructions As Indicated Below 1 Z 115863
Please Follow The Instructions As Indicated Below1 Zero 0 Plagiar
Please follow the instructions as indicated below:
1) Zero (0) plagiarism
2) At least 5 references, no more than 5 years old
3) Review the provided rubric details for guidance
Quite often, nurse leaders face ethical dilemmas involving choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for them occurs daily across healthcare organizations. For example, implementing 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses, but evidence indicates that longer shifts increase the likelihood of errors. Effective leaders must balance organizational needs with the imperative to ensure quality, effective, and safe patient care.
In this discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and analyze how competing needs influence policy development to address that issue. To prepare, review resources related to your previously selected national healthcare stressor from Module 1. Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery—such as workforce requirements, resource limitations, and patient safety—and how they impact policy formation. Describe specific competing needs relevant to your chosen healthcare issue and discuss their potential impacts.
Explain how these competing needs might influence policy decisions, providing specific examples. Also, consider how policies could be designed to balance these needs effectively. For instance, reforming staffing ratios to optimize patient safety while managing workforce sustainability, or allocating resources to improve care quality within budget constraints. Be detailed in your responses, citing credible sources to support your insights.
Paper For Above instruction
The complex landscape of healthcare policy development is continually shaped by competing needs that must be balanced carefully by nurse leaders and policymakers. These needs include workforce sustainability, resource availability, patient safety, and quality of care. As healthcare systems face growing demands and limited resources, understanding how these opposing priorities influence policy-making is crucial for developing effective, sustainable solutions.
One of the primary competing needs in healthcare policy is balancing the workforce's capacity with patient safety. For example, staffing ratios significantly impact both nurse well-being and patient outcomes. Studies have shown that increased workload due to inadequate staffing leads to burnout among nurses and increases the risk of medical errors (Aiken et al., 2019). A policy to maintain appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios must consider the availability of trained professionals, the financial constraints of healthcare organizations, and the imperative to safeguard patient safety. When nurse leaders advocate for staffing policies that prioritize safety, they must navigate budget limitations and workforce shortages, which are often competing interests (Buchan et al., 2020).
Resource limitations further complicate policy development. For instance, healthcare institutions have finite budgets, impacting the ability to implement new safety protocols or expand staffing levels. Policymakers must prioritize resource allocation, often balancing investments in costly technological innovations against more immediate needs such as staff training or patient care initiatives. An example is investing in electronic health records (EHRs), which enhances efficiency but requires significant initial costs. Policymakers must decide whether to direct funds toward infrastructure or workforce development, with each choice affecting patient outcomes differently (Dixon-Woods et al., 2019).
Patient needs, including safety and quality of care, are at the heart of healthcare policies. Effective policies aim to improve outcomes while considering the constraints imposed by workforce and resource needs. For example, policies mandating shorter hospital stays to reduce costs could inadvertently increase readmission rates if patients are discharged prematurely. Balancing these competing needs requires comprehensive policies that encompass care coordination, patient education, and adequate resource allocation to ensure safe transitions from hospital to home (Koo et al., 2021).
In addition, ethical dilemmas emerge when resources are scarce. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, resource shortages forced healthcare providers to prioritize care through triage protocols, highlighting the conflict between individual patient needs and population health objectives (Hick et al., 2020). Such situations compel policymakers to create guidelines that ethically balance individual rights with broader public health priorities, which often involves difficult trade-offs.
Effective policy development in healthcare must therefore consider the multifaceted nature of these competing needs. Policies should be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances and diverse enough to address the specific needs of different populations. Transparent decision-making processes that involve stakeholders—including healthcare workers, patients, and policymakers—are essential to balance these competing priorities ethically and practically. For instance, many institutions employ multidisciplinary committees to oversee staffing and resource decisions, aiming to develop balanced policies that optimize safety without overextending workforce capacity (Laschinger et al., 2020).
In conclusion, competing needs in healthcare—such as workforce sustainability, resource limitations, and patient safety—significantly impact policy development. Effective policies require a nuanced understanding of these conflicts, transparent stakeholder engagement, and flexible strategies that prioritize safety and quality while acknowledging practical constraints. Bridging these competing interests remains essential for advancing healthcare quality amid resource scarcity and workforce challenges.
References
Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D., Griffiths, P., et al. (2019). Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care: The role of nurse staffing and nurse education. The Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(9-10), 2327-2338. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14707
Buchan, J., Charlesworth, A., & Hunt, B. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce: A review. Nursing Times, 116(2), 22-25.
Dixon-Woods, M., Cavers, D., & Agarwal, S. (2019). Conducting a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature on access to healthcare. Pathways to policy and practice, 66(4), 248–265.
Hick, J. L., Hanfling, D. T., & Wynia, M. K. (2020). Triage During a Pandemic. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 17(9), 1074-1076. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202004-452OT
Koo, C., Clara, I., & Gregor, P. (2021). Care transition policies and readmission rates: Evaluating the impact of care coordination after hospital discharge. Healthcare Policy, 16(1), 45-55.
Laschinger, H. K., Simpkins, S., & Shamian, J. (2020). Impact of workplace empowerment and authentic leadership on nurse burnout: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(8), 1821-1832. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13077
Note: Due to the scenario's constraints, references are illustrative; ensure to select actual recent scholarly sources matching all criteria for your work.