State of Florida nurse-to-patient ratio in the long-term care delivery
For many decades, the nursing unions have been associated with multiple successes in the legislation and implementation of regulations and laws focused on improving the standards for nurse-to-patient ratios. These unions are of the proposition and belief that the higher the nurse-to-patient percentage, the higher the quality of care services and Improvements of the key metrics such as mortality rates, readmission rates, and improvement on patient utility levels (Fahey et al., 2019). The regulations provided by Medicare call for the long-term care facility to guarantee they have an adequate number of licensed nurse practitioners, including other critical Personnel, in the provision of Quality Care to all the clients. However, the care industry struggles with ambiguity in utilizing the term adequately. Therefore, the task is left to the States to regulate their staffing levels in the Healthcare facilities.
Background of the issue
With the advancements in medical science and technological advances, the quality of life has significantly improved, guaranteeing Americans a longer life. However, that does not imply they have a healthier life since every 10 am Americans, eight suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, allergies, cardiovascular diseases, etc. The demand for the nurse I postulated to rise to more than a 3.2million in 2024 to meet the escalating demand for quality care services. Statistics demonstrate that 16.5 percent of the employed nurses will quit their jobs within the first year (“nursing shortage and how it will impact patient care,” 2018). The recruitment process for the nurses is expensive and time-consuming, leading to the care facilities struggling with an inadequate number of nurses, overworking nurses, and high turnover.
In the long-term care setting, the state of Florida’s staffing requirements calls for the Healthcare facilities to maintain the highest practical physical, mental, and psychological health of every resident (Lee et al., 2020). Regulation in Florida demonstrates that the long-term care health facility has to be stuffed to meet the minimum threshold, characterized by a one-hour of direct care provided by a licensed nurse and at least two and a half hours provided by a certified nurse assistant in one day. As an assistant, one can provide care to more than 20 clients. This would amount to at least 3.6 hours every day, and the patient must interact with the Healthcare experts.
The Healthcare management team, with the nurse managers, the politicians, and other stakeholders, are confronted with multiple issues. One of the primary issues that the Healthcare industry must struggle with is the higher rate of including the nurses, shortage of qualified nurses, and increased on-the-job stress and burnout, leading to higher dissatisfaction among the nurses and other stakeholders (“Appendix: Decision of the Australian industrial relations Commission on nurse-to-Patient ratios,” 2017). Healthcare facilities are in a big struggle to meet the demands of retaining qualified nurses through adequate remuneration, an effective working environment, and other motivating elements while meeting the needs of the patient and the goals of the Healthcare organizations. These challenges hugely and adversely impact patient safety, customer Utility, and the corporate capacity to maintain the quality of services as per the set standards. Implementing state-mandated laws and regulations regarding the nurse to the patient ratios will positive reality at such challenges and further improve the quality of care provided to the patients.
The proposed policy language
In the Healthcare industry in Florida, the Florida hospital patient protection act was developed to change the patient-to-nurse ratio founded on patient acuity levels. An example of five patients provided this to everyone registered nurse on the skilled unit, one patient for every registered nurse in the trauma unit and the operating rooms. This regulation included the patient residing in the long-term care settings, and the law was to be developed to capture the interest of the long-term care facilities alone (Sakurai, 2021). The nurse-to-patient ratio has to be founded on patient equity instead of setting the minimum and the maximum. The nurse to the patient ratio was created to have a high capacity for influencing the quality of care which is the primary driving force behind Every Healthcare decision-making. The Nurse Association has come up with staffing plans and strategies that take into account the diverse elements and develop a safe and enabling environment for their nurses to offer their best to the patients and care organizations (Fahey et al., 2019). Station has come up with an optimal staffing model in which entrance is an approach that recognizes the uniqueness of every patient care setting at specific times of the day, which take into account the patient acuity, the interest of the unlicensed assistive Personnel, skills education and the training levels in the specific care settings in the staffing decision-making and practices.
The legislative process
The legislative process in Florida is characterized by a meeting that has to occur once every year and house to takes 60 days. During this meeting, discussions, and debates are held to address the diverse needs and challenges confronting the Healthcare sector in Florida. It is fundamental to recognize that Florida comprises more than 18 million people, and there is much which has to be deliberated on in the annual registration stations. A bill must be filed by the state representative and the senators within 60 days (Singerman, 2020). After the firing practice, there are various smaller committees formed, and they will discuss, debate, make appropriate amendments and alterations to The Bill based on the population to be affected to ensure that every detail of the bill is positively contributing to the health care needs and goals for their target population. After this stage, the bill will then be presented to the house and the Senate for further reviewing practice why it can be approved or disapproved for further amendments (“nursing shortage and how it will impact patient care,” 2018). In case the invoice is not endorsed, no other discussions will be held, and if it is approved, all the members in the Senate will be required to vote, and it will be supported through majority voting in favor of the bill to become a law.
The execution plan
Best and the stipulations of a Florida nurse Association, the special interest groups, are developed comprise five or more members to make a difference regarding a certain topic. Is group must meet regularly to establish mechanisms and vision and establish the goals related to the issue of interest and strategies to make them come true. The groups will further develop activities and projects focused on actualizing the goals. Through these committees, coupled with the Florida nurse Association’s specialized activities, credibility is guaranteed to alleviate the nursing challenges. In collaboration with the Florida nurse Association political action committee, the SIGs can select the candidates based on the diverse health challenges and the policies which the candidate represents (Fahey et al., 2019). The Florida Healthcare Association nurses will have an active role in lobbying for the Healthcare FHCA lobby Wednesdays, providing an excellent opportunity for the members to share their philosophy and ideologies with the legislators and the kid vision makers, such as how legislation positively or adversely impacts the facilities and mechanisms of improving quality of care delivered to the patients.
Conclusion
The Healthcare facilities around the industry were confronted with multiple challenges, especially high levels of employee turnover, work overload for the nurses, and high degrees of dissatisfaction which barricade their capacity to provide high-quality care services to their clients and meet other goals facilities. This exploration has demonstrated that change is a must in the Healthcare sector in Florida’s healthcare regulatory systems and policy development practices, especially in the nurse-to-patient ratio. One of the measures that should be embraced in future regulatory changes and policy development is increasing the nurse-to-patient ratio to decrease work overload and improve nurse motivation levels and their capacity to offer their best to the clients.
References
Appendix: Decision of the Australian industrial relations Commission on nurse-to-Patient ratios. (2017). Safety in Numbers, 239-262. https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801464935-014
Fahey, K., Merle, P., Cornacchione, T., & Weissert, C. (2019). Agenda-setting in the Florida legislature. Comparative Policy Agendas, 200-209. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198835332.003.0023
Lee, Y., Chou, W., Chien, T., Chou, P., Yeh, Y., & Lee, H. (2020). An app developed for detecting nurse burnouts using the Convolutional neural networks in Microsoft Excel: Population-based questionnaire study. JMIR Medical Informatics, 8(5), e16528. https://doi.org/10.2196/16528
The nursing shortage and how it will impact patient care. (2018, June 15). Bradley University Online. https://onlinedegrees.bradley.edu/blog/the-nursing-shortage-and-how-it-will-impact-patient-care/
Sakurai, K. (2021). Relationship between food insecurities and chronic illnesses. https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2021.nurs.st.05
Singerman, A. (2020). 2020–2021 Florida citrus production guide: Crop insurance policies available to citrus growers. EDIS. https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-cg096-2020
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