Changing Nurse-Patient Ratio Staffing - Essay Example

Several studies have also shown a correlation between nursing staffing and improved patient outcomes (Aiken et al. 2010). As a result, there has been a growing need to improve the nurse-staffing ration in the country to prevent the deaths that occur due to lack of enough nurse personnel. Currently, California became the first state to introduce a threshold on nurse-patient ratio in all general acute care health care institutions as noted by Aiken et al. (2010). Many states have failed to pass this critical legislation due to the nature of politics involved in any legislative process.

Abood (2007) argues that any health care issue such as the legislation of nurse patient ratio has to go through different phases of policy processes, beginning with proposal all through to implementation phase. These stages are impacted largely by elected officials, organizations, individuals, and special interests. The divergent views and competing interest of the different factions normally make it difficult to pass any legislation regardless of how beneficial the health issue might be to citizens.

As a result, a nurse must use effective strategies to influence the different factions to accept and pass a given legislation. Below are the strategies that will be employed to influence legislators to pass the nurse patient ratio bill. . Having a direct lobbying with the legislators and committees at the legislative arena offers a good opportunity for persuading all members regardless of their party affiliation to adopt a common stand that will ensure the passenger of the nurse-patient bill whose aim is to improve the quality health care delivery in the country as did Maggie Flanagan.

Maggie Flanagan managed to convince legislators at the legislative arena to pass the Safe Patient Handling legislation by using her musculoskeletal injury to educate them on the importance of the legislation. In another case, after Karen Daley suffered a needle injury at her workplace, she courageous went all through to the legislative arena where she advocated for Safe Needle Protection policy, which was overwhelmingly passed by the legislators (Abood, 2007). Therefore, I intend to adopt a similar strategy to influence the passage of the nurse-patient ratio law.

To influence the passage of nurse-patient ratio, I will also have to know the key players in the legislative arena, both at the state and local levels, who have strong ability to influence the outcome of my proposed legislation. Voting decisions are impacted by many factors other than the issue itself. These include party politics, preferences of district voters, personal interests, and pressure from organized interest groups. In this regard, influencing the outcome and content of the intended policy change depends on how well the supporters and non-supporters of the bill are identified among the legislators.

This is important because it offers the opportunity to have directed contact with them and lobbying for their support in the passage of