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.
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.
Resources
http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html
http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html
https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only
use at least 3 resources and make sure its within 5 years
The last health care stressor you have discussed for this class was about covid 19
Then have to respond to two peers and at least 2 references
Peer one
Most of the time, people who work in health care, like nurses, face ethical dilemmas. This is especially true when they have to choose between different needs and limited resources. Such problems make national health care problems, like health inequalities, worse. This paper talks about how different needs can affect policy making and the problem of health inequality.
In the US, policies like Triage have been made to help patients get the few resources that are available. There are beds, medical staff, ventilators, and other things that can save lives. But because there aren’t enough healthcare resources, it’s likely that these policies won’t be able to do what they’re supposed to. For example, the principle of social usefulness says that the patients who could be most helpful to society should be treated first. In other situations, the limited resources are given out based on who gets there first (Buckwalter & Peterson, 2020). The policy is hard to follow because of these distribution rules. These problems make it hard to make policies that make sure everyone gets the same amount of policies.
Health inequalities are also made worse by the fact that people are competing for the same resources. Miller et al. (2020) said that the problem of racial differences in healthcare is likely to get worse because there aren’t enough resources to go around. During a public health emergency, marginalized communities are more likely to get less help than they need. This is because the proposed rules for giving resources to the people who are most likely to benefit from them are not balanced. For instance, in the case of Covid-19, there may be a question about who is more at risk or who should be put first. So, the problem of competing for resources could be solved by making policies that deal with structural barriers and limits (Assari, 2018).
Peer 2
Different needs and how they affect how policy is made
Most of the time, policy making is based on what the patient, the institution, and the staff need. Most of the time, policies are made in response to an event or several events that may have happened and had a bad effect on how patients and/or staff did. Korownyk et al. (2017) said that a facility’s top priority should be to deal with nurse and provider shortages, because dealing with healthcare shortages will have a positive effect on policy making. Stabilizing the shortages of nurses and other health care providers is the most important thing to do. This would lay a solid foundation for good results in other areas (i.e., better patient outcomes, increased revenue, increased staff retention, etc.).
Healthcare in the U.S.
The shortage of nurses is not new, and it will only get worse as the population ages and more people need to work. When there aren’t enough nurses, patients don’t get the quality care they need, and there aren’t enough resources (especially support staff). Saban et al. (2019) say that nurses are expected to provide high-quality care while also making sure that patients are safe and happy. Even though it’s important for people to get good healthcare, a lack of nurses can make it harder for people to get the care they need. The number of nurses per patient has gone up, and there are fewer support staff to help with care. Because they have more work and care needs, nurses are spending less and less time with their patients.
The Effects of Policy
When there are so many nursing shortages, all hospitals should have strict rules about the number of nurses to patients. Such policies would help nurses give better care, feel less burned out, and have higher morale. Haddad et al. (2022) say that nursing shortages lead to mistakes, higher morbidity/mortality rates, and dissatisfaction with services. However, all of these problems happen much less often in hospitals with policies that limit the number of patients per nurse. Even though there aren’t enough nurses, they can give better care and feel less stressed out by the demands of their jobs. of the profession.
