Legislators and lobbyists - Research Paper Example

LEGISLATORS AND LOBBYISTS Legislators and lobbyists Nursing and healthcare proves to be a vital aspect in the running ofa nation in regards to continuity. In fact, experts argue that healthcare should be a basic need since without proper healthcare, life ceases to exist. It is therefore very important to know what our legislators’ positions on this very sensitive issue are (Busher). As per this context, I will use the state of Pennsylvania as my case study to elaborate on the position taken by the legislator concerning nursing and health care issues.

Pennsylvania is one of the states where nurses are serving their patients in a new setting, that is, in the state legislature. In assessing nurse staffing effectiveness, the standards require organizations to use data from the use of nursing-sensitive clinical and human resources indicators, such as adverse drug events, patient falls staff turnover rate, use of overtime, patient and family complaints, and staff injuries on the job (Dailey, 2005). It is hence worth noting that the legislature makes many laws that govern the actual day-to-day duties of a nurse, and those laws may affect nursing care in a negative manner.

With this in mind, there should therefore be a link between nursing and politics (Dailey 2005). The state of Pennsylvania has played its part in realizing to full effect the importance of nursing and health care. Lobbyists and legislators have highlighted its importance and championed for improvement of the health care systems in place. They have tried to create meaningful consumer access to Advanced Practice Nurses through greater representation as primary care providers in insurance company provider networks.

With greater representation, real solutions come about, bringing quality care and appropriate allocation of resources. Nurse legislators can represent the interests of their colleagues in a way that no one else can (Johnston, 2003). The state of Pennsylvania has also seen its legislators champion for the expansion of consumer access to care by Advanced Practice Nurses by eliminating existing statutory barriers that prohibit Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists from performing their full scope of practice in all settings, for all populations.

These experts offer an untapped resource for the entire state whereby they help improve health care. They therefore should lie utilized fully to the extent of their capabilities. In addition to this, a bill has lain passed to allow prescriptive privileges for nurse practitioners in Pennsylvania and a bill that affects the usage and education of unlicensed assistive personnel. This is all in the effort to increase the number of medical practitioners in the state. With its recent reports on patient safety and health care quality, the Institute of Medicine provided a call to action for the health care industry to reduce substantially, the frequency of preventable medical errors and resulting adverse events (Dailey, 2005).

In the wake of these reports, health care organizations have rallied around the safety issue, introducing a variety of measures to reduce error. Nevertheless, what lies done to solve the nurse-staffing problem, and the compromised patient safety and health care quality that lie in its wake? Nurses have lain described as the canaries in the coalmine. Many have suffered sacrifice before the now widespread realization that there is something wrong with the work environment. Nurses leave hospitals because they are overworked and overburdened, often with tasks that were once the responsibilities of less skilled workers (Nathanson, 2005).

They similarly have neither the managerial support nor the control over their environments, through delegated authority, to marshal and deploy scarce resources in order to manage the often challenging and sometimes critical patient care situations which they may face at any hour of the day or night. Another key resolution by legislators is to end the further creation of unintended barriers within statute rhetoric by adopting language rules that use a more inclusive term than physician does for legislative intent.

This involves giving credit where it is due (Nathanson, 2005). Members of the public owe much to these practitioners in terms of respect and in accordance with their health. Other bills in line to become law in the state of Pennsylvania include a bill to give whistleblower protection to nurses and other health care professionals who are concerned about something that has happened in their hospital but may be too afraid of repercussions to speak up (Busher). The legislators have then come together and agreed that more nurses should get involved in politics.

This would mean paying closer attention to issues that involve nursing and health care and then speaking up on those issues with a better understanding. This way they would make a substantial change in the way that health care is delivered throughout the state. References Busher, K. (n.d.). PA State Nurses Association Places a Call-to-Action for Improved Health Care. Nursing Jobs Travel Nursing Home Health Care Jobs Nursing Employment Applications at Nurseuniverse.com. Retrieved May 14, 2013, from http://www.

nurseuniverse.com/Nursing-Job/2458.html Commonwealth of Pennsylvania registered lobbyists, session of 1993. (1993). S.l.: s.n. Dailey, A. (n.d.). Nurse Legislators: Representing Health Care in State Government - NurseZone. Nursing News, Nursing Jobs, Nursing Journals & Travel Nursing Resources at NurseZone.com. Retrieved May 13, 2013, from http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/more-news/Nurse-Legislators-Representing-Health-Care-in-State-Government_28078.aspx Johnston, W. (2003). The nurses.

New York: Bantam. Nathanson, M. D. (2005). Health care providers' government relations handbook: shaping policy to win. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.