Policy Organization and Financing Healthcare – WK RESP 2

You will provided with a topic and 2 responses to the topic. please comment to each response. please provide reference to each response.
Topic information attached
Any clinical example made should be reference to emergency department
Policy Organization and Financing Healthcare – WK RESP 2
Topic : What are the barriers to nurses’ participation in the development of health care policy at the state or national level or in an organization in the United States? Why do you think these are barriers? Support your opinion with a rationale or example.
Response 1: Jessica
When I think of nursing, I think of advocating for our patients. When I think of nurses being involved in the development of health care policy, I think of nurses advocating for everyone who will benefit from the policy. With advocating for public policy my biggest barrier is time, “advocacy is time-consuming and requires a significant commitment on the part of the nurse” (J., M. D., B, G. D., Freida, H. O., & T., O. E. (2015). According to the article, “Factors influencing nurses participation in health policy-making process”, “findings of present review revealed that insufficient knowledge on the health policy making is one of the important reasons of nurses’ non-involvement in health policy making” (Hajizadeh, Zamanzadeh, Kakemam. 2021).
These two barriers are reasons why many nurses don’t get involved in policy making in my opinion. We often are too busy to take the time to be involved in policy making. We have families, full time jobs, work extra hours just to make ends meet. Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system, it only makes sense that we get more involved because often, we are the ones who put the new policies into action. Not knowing how healthcare policy is developed is another barrier that goes along with not having enough time to invest in developing healthcare policy. As nurses we tend to stick with what we know how to do and developing new healthcare policies typically isn’t one of those things.
Nurses should be more involved with developing healthcare policy because we see how theses polices affect patients daily. We are familiar with our populations needs within our communities. We would be hugely beneficial to the development of new healthcare policies.
Response 2: Ashley
Some of the barriers to nurse’s participation in the development of health care policy include lack of education, fear of retribution, and time. While nurses are healthcare professionals that are well educated in their profession there may be a lack of knowledge in understanding policy at the state or national level.
Unfortunately, the Nursing policies are often written by individuals that have little knowledge in the healthcare field. Nurses being able to have a voice in the policies that affect their work environment will be ideal not only to their careers, but the patient care provided. For example, the nurse to patient ratio should be a policy that should be written by and voiced by nurses while they have the experience of what it is to work with 6 individuals with unique patient care plans.
The barriers of lack of knowledge, fear of retribution and time hinder allowing a safe environment for nurses to work in. I believe that nurses should be encouraged to participate despite these barriers, Because, who better than nurses, know what is to work in the field?
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Solution
Reply 1: Jessica
I agree with you that two of the main barriers that hinder nurses from being consistently involved in advocacy and the development of health policy is the lack of adequate time and the lack of sufficient knowledge related to policy development and advocacy. Considering the two barriers to nurses’ active involvement in advocacy and health policy development which include the lack of adequate time to be involved in advocacy and health policy development and insufficient knowledge related to advocacy and health policy development, numerous interventions can be adopted. The most effective interventions to enhance the involvement of nurses in advocacy and health policy development would include the utilization of adequate nursing staffing ratios in healthcare facilities so as to reduce my workload and ensure that nurses have time to be involved in advocacy and policy development. Nurses also require sufficient education on advocacy and health policy development, including continuous training and seminars to boost their involvement in such activities (Williams et al., 2018).
References
Williams, S., Phillips, J., & Koyama, K. (2018). Nurse Advocacy: Adopting a Health in All Policies Approach. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(3). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol23no03man01
Reply2: Ashley
I agree with you that the lack of time and lack of adequate skills related to advocacy and health policy development are the main hindrances for nurses’ participation in the development of such healthcare policy. Nurses require to be provided with opportunities for continued education, especially advocacy and health policy development. Healthcare facilities should consistently provide nurses with consistent education and training, such as through seminars and workshops on the strategies that such nurses can utilize to be more involved in health care policy development and advocacy. Healthcare facilities also need to ensure that they have the right nurse staffing ratios to avoid understaffing. Having the right staffing ratios can therefore help nurses to have adequate time to be involved in advocacy and health policy development (Anders, 2020).
References
Anders, R. L. (2020). Engaging nurses in health policy in the era of COVID?19. Nursing Forum, 56(1), 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12514