30 Dec Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues Essay

The nursing shortages have been on a continuous rise in the last several years and is projected to be even worse in the years to come. Policy changes due to this nursing shortage, especially since the beginning of he COVID-19 pandemic, have staggered in and changed weekly due to resources, shortages, and funds available to keep up with the needs of the patients and staff. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ?Maintaining appropriate staffing in healthcare facilities is essential to providing a safe work environment for healthcare personnel (HCP) and safe patient care. As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, staffing shortages will likely occur due to HCP exposures, illness, or need to care for family members at home. Healthcare facilities must be prepared for potential staffing shortages and have plans and processes in place to mitigate these? (CDC, 2020). Heath care issues, such as the largest one we have faced in several decades, have the power to effect policy and encourage changes to existing practice when the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are impacted. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic healthcare professionals were faced with limited knowledge, plan, and resources on how to begin to battle this emerging virus. Frontline healthcare workers began to contract the virus, more of the population became sick, and resources quickly became limited. Healthcare policy began to change, and exceptions were made to fill these voids. Though these policies were changing not for the benefit of the nurse, but to tackle the increasing surge. One article reported that nurse ratios changed from 1:1 nursing need to 1:4 and that nurses who were positive for COVID-19 but asymptomatic should continue working (McLernon, 2020). This created new policies and exceptions to current practice in hospital nationwide and was directly related to the workforce, resources, and need for the increased population getting sick. The policies and practices changed for this current health issue/stressor were definitely not in favor of the healthcare professionals battling this pandemic on the front lines. However, showed that the workforce, resources, and patient needs have a profound impact on how healthcare policy changes and practices can be affected. ? References: ? Strategies to Mitigate Healthcare Personnel Staffing Shortages. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/mitigating-staff-shortages.html Lianna Matt McLernon | University of Minnesota | CIDRAP News ?| Nov 30, 2020. (2020, November 30). COVID-related nursing shortages hit hospitals nationwide. Retrieved December 21, 2020, from https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/11/covid-related-nursing-shortages-hit-hospitals-nationwide ? 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. 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.