A bill is a new law's proposal, or a proposal to alter a law that already exists, which is brought before parliament for discussion. A bill is introduced for examination, amendment, and debate in the House of Lords or House of Commons. At this point, the two Houses agree on the contents of the bill; the next step is the presentation to the monarch for approval. H.R. 2083/S.1132 (Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015) was generated to give sick protection by generating nurse-staffing levels that are safe in medical institutions. Nurses are ordinary human beings and, therefore, prone to make mistakes (Martin, 2015). Having a ratio of nurses to patients that is not balanced can create issues related to the mortality rate of patients, burnout in nurses, problems of patients' safety, and dissatisfaction of the job by nurses. This paper discusses the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015, its major provisions, and the problems associated with it.
Representatives David Joyce and Lois Capps and Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the bill to begin staffing plans for nurse's registration, which utilizes a committee that is composed of direct care nurses. The main objective of the proposal was to ensure the safety of patients, improve the retention of nurses, and decrease readmissions (McHugh & Small, 2013). The American Nurses Association endorsed the bill, and it utilizes a balanced method to control the level of staffing. With no appropriate levels of staffing, there is increase infection levels in patients; they stay longer within the hospital, errors in medication, increased injuries, and high mortality rate. When the number of nurses is low, it means that they would do more work leading to burnout. The nurses eventually become dissatisfied with their job leading to reduced retaliation of skilled nurses in hospitals.
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In the end, having enough nurses could make the difference between a patient dying or living, making this an essential healthcare issue. The bill takes into consideration the clinical level experience, professional certification, and education preparation possessed by a registered nurse. It also takes into account the stability, amount, and complexity of the sick. The bill provides that nurses who are registered are not supposed to work in areas that are not suited for their skills. The bill's primary purpose is to protect both patient and nurse from to ensure that health is provided to its highest levels (Griffiths et al., 2016). The bill ensures that patients are protected from adversities at the hospital. It also ensures that it helps the health institution cut cost on unnecessary complications that may arise from the understaffing of nurses.
The reason why this bill has stalled is that it has some issues associated with it. One of these reasons is the many variables affecting the results of patients and nurses' staffing. The care needed by a patient and the unit being complex on the basis of their condition. There is the level of experience of staff, census of the issue, and if every other department in hospitals is affected by the ratio of patient to nurses. Another problem is the incapability to evaluate the contribution of a nurse in terms of work. Factors such as patient transfers, admissions, discharges, and the sick leaving the units would mean that a nurse attends to more patients within a day. Another issue is that of finance, where there could be a reduction of the amount of position of staff, for instance, and patient care associate. This could burden nurses and generate a negative effected other than the intended purpose of the balancing ratio.
The principal supporters of this bill are the nurses in general who feel like this bill offers more advantages to nurses and patients. The general public also supports this bill because of the experiences they face when admitted or seeking medical attention. They all site the advantages this has to both patients and nurses. There is a part of better and faster healthcare delivery to patients. Nurses also sited that it would reduce their workload and hence reduce fatigue during hospital hours. The bill enhances nurse and patient satisfaction and outcomes. It also addresses the issue of understaffing because a healthcare institution is to try to save on cost.
Some people are also opposed to the bill siting the variations associated with patient outcomes and staffing of nurses. There is also the issue of different experiences of nurses that comes into play. Their argument is that experience nurses can handle more patients and can guide the nurses available. The people opposed to this bill also site that there are few nurses in the market, and therefore it would be pointless in having to pass it as law. They also claim congestion in hospitals. Another claim is that there would be a lack of funds to pay for the increased number of nurses within healthcare institutions. The argument is that this would make access to healthcare even more expensive.
Critical stakeholders in the bill would benefit from an increase in inadequate healthcare provision to the public. They would also see the benefits of safety within the healthcare institution. Cost benefits such as reduced spending as a result of patient overstaying within the institution is an advantage. The only con would be an increase in salaries due to increased nurses within the hospital. Nurses must play a role in making sure the bill goes through. They can make sure that the bill passes through providing their opinion about the proposal and how important it is to them. The nurses should also make sure that they are involved in order to come up with feasible solutions and make joint decisions to make sure that the bill is passed.
In light of the above, it is clear that H.R. 2083/S.1132 (Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015) has more advantages. It provides for the protection of both the patient and the nurse. However, it has few people that are opposed to it and other issues that have stalled its enactment.
References
Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Drennan, J., Dall’Ora, C., Jones, J., Maruotti, A., ... & Simon, M. (2016). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: Strengths and limitations of the evidence to inform policy and practice. A review and discussion paper based on evidence reviewed for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Safe Staffing guideline development. International journal of nursing studies, 63, 213-225.
Martin, C. J. (2015). The effects of nurse staffing on quality of care. MedSurg Nursing, 24(2), S4-S4.
McHugh, M. D., Berez, J., & Small, D. S. (2013). Hospitals with higher nurse staffing had lower odds of readmissions penalties than hospitals with lower staffing. Health Affairs, 32(10), 1740-1747.
