Advocacy Through Legislation
| Problem | ||
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It is worth noting that diverse risks characterize the state of California. These include burdening health care costs, disparities in the quality of care provision, and an increase in the number of aging populations. The inverted pyramid kind of population in California has been a great concern that requires legislation to cater to the health needs of this population category. For instance, Meinert (2018) notes that California’s elderly population is likely to increase by more than 64% by 2035. One of the disadvantages of having a higher aging population that the young population entails the fact that an enormous amount of resources is needed to support the elderly. This leaves a fewer number of the working-age bracket. The result affects economic output. The effect of having an elderly population is also highly depicted in the nursing sector. For instance, the number of nurses to patient ratio is already wanting. Hence, having a large number of the elderly that requires care results in the nursing sector’s burden, which is already experiencing a shortage in nurse staffing. Consequently, research indicates that there is a growing Latino elderly population with disability (Meinert 2018). This has been attributed to a higher life expectancy among the Latino natives. The health resources in California have been proven inefficient to accommodate the increasing elderly population, including those with disabilities. Failure to bring legislation on board that caters to the elderly population needs will lead to a continuous toll in the nurse staff, which will interfere with health outcomes because the few young populations of nurses will be required to attend to more patients. This will eventually lead to nurse burnout and a lack of patient-centered care. |
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| Idea for Addressing Solution. | ||
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As per the article by Meinert (2018), it is evidenced that California is moving towards a population that is characterized by a more elderly group that the younger group. Hence, there is a need to create policy legislation that will alleviate the health care system the burden of caring for this elderly group, including those with disabilities. Such legislations can include the implementation of training for personalized nurse assistance to the elderly. |
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| Research the Issue | ||
| Rowe, Fulmer & Fried (2016). | The authors denote that the elderly population is at more health risk, and hence, private insurance companies have been reluctant to provide health insurance and nurse workforce for this population group. Therefore, one of the policy advocacies that should be implemented includes designing health insurance and paid training program to have competent geriatrics to offload the family the burden of taking care of the elderly population when they are in the care homes. The authors document that the cost of caring for the elderly population who requires assisted living takes a huge toll on the family resources. Such personalized health insurance plans and training as a government incentive will assist in taking care of the elderly and lessens the burden of caring for the elderly. | |
| Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries (2016). | The authors recommend training the available nurses on how to offer patient-centered care to the aged population. This has been one of the challenges that the nurses are forced to face. The authors’ view has also been backup up by the American Association for Nurses, which stipulates that there is a need to have specialized nurses who are exclusively trained on caring for the elderly (Anderson, Waddell, Brennan, Burnett, Anderson, & Short (2020). The training should include cutting-edge technology solutions that should automate some of the nurses’ services to reduce the workload on the already few nursing staff.
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| Stakeholder Support | ||
| The local government | California’s local government has been vital at offering support to the elderly through offering training to physicians and nurse students, after which the trainees are licensed to take care of the elderly. Therefore, this legislation would be an already thought through the process by the local government. Hence, they would easily rally behind it. | |
| Physician and nurse students | Physicians and nurse students have been at the forefront of taking care of the elderly and giving their views on the challenges they encounter. Hence, legislation to offload them the burden and the challenges they encounter in their line of duty would highly be supported by these stakeholders. | |
| Stakeholder Opposition | ||
| United States federal government | The united states federal government has already been against the issuing of certificate and licensed physicians and nurses who have undergone local government training on home care aides. They have categorized this as a shortcut to the nurse training, which might interfere with the quality of services offered. | |
| State board of nursing | It is worth noting that the State board of nursing requires all the geriatrics to undergo full training of not less than five years to be certified. Hence, they would oppose short term training of physicians and certifying them to care for the elderly. This might interfere with the level of competency offered. | |
| Financial Incentives/Costs | ||
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It is worth noting that the US health sector needs more health care professionals to tackle the growing health need. The state of California even needs this demand to be met sooner. However, staffing and training of the nurse professionals require a large amount of funding to be put aside by the government. The California Healthcare Foundation (2017) denotes that California’s government requires a budget of $3.5 million to sustain the workforce in the health care sector. With the proposed intensive training of nurses and incentives to motivate their output, the budget allocation is likely to double. Therefore, there is a need for all stakeholders, including granters, to chip in in order to cater to the huge burden of care.
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| Legislature: Information Needed and Process for Proposal | ||
| Name and complete contact information for the legislator. | legislator
Karen Bass Contact information Los Angeles, CA Office 4929 Wilshire Blvd Suite 650 Los Angeles, CA 90010 Phone: (323) 965-1422 Fax: (323) 965-1113 |
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| steps to present the legislation to the legislator. | The first step in the creation of the Bill will include the creation of a petition. This will be involved coming with a complete draft that clearly states the legislation, its pros and cons, and why it should be implemented as a way of improving the health care sector. The second stage will involve presenting the petition to the relevant health care ministry. This is where the petition is vetted to determine its credibility. After vetting and verification, the petition can be presented to Karen Bass, who can assist in the Bill formulation and table it in parliament for debate.
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| Process of introducing the idea as a Bill | The first step will involve the senate bill presentation. This is whereby the senate will be given the Bill, and she or he will present it to the parliament for debate. After presenting the Bill, a first hearing can be scheduled. The first hearing involves a sitting where the pross and the cons of the Bills are tables. After this stage, a different section of the Bill can be amended if need be. After the amendment, they can be a second hearing where the amended Bill is tabled to the senate committee or the house at large. After the hearing, the Bill can be tabled to the parliament for vetting. After verification, it can be sent to the president for signing the Bill and then passed into law if the president signs it.
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| Christian Principles and Nursing Advocacy | ||
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It is worth noting that Christianity has played a major role in the establishment of better health care from time memorial. For instance, Christians are required to be compassionate towards the sick and the suffering, as recorded in Matthew 25:40. Hence, Christianity support strategies or health outcome that leads s compassion on human suffering and alleviate the suffering. From the Christian worldview, nursing advocates are required to show compassion to patients suffering irrespective of gender, age, race, or socioeconomic status. This is because the bible commands them to show companion without discrimination, as denoted by Cuellar De la Cruz & Robinson (2017). Therefore, nurses who believe in Christianity as a religion are likely to advocate for legislation that leads to better health outcomes and alleviates human suffering. For instance, nurses are mandated to demonstrate the aspect of God’s underlying love to patients by giving the best services that can lead to a better health outcome. The nurses who are Christians also have the mandate of offering mentorship and training while demonstrating the best virtue to the younger students in the working environment, as denoted in the Christian virtues. This is because Christians are required to demonstrate good virtues and faith in the workplace. |
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References
Anderson, A. L., Waddell, A., Brennan, P., Burnett, C., Anderson, C., & Short, N. M. (2020). Advancing health policy education in nursing: American Association of Colleges of Nursing Faculty Policy Think Tank. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(3), 100-105.
California Healthcare Foundation (2017). Aging in Place: The Case for California Expansion. Retrieved from: https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-AgingPACECaseExpansionCalifornia.pdf
Cuellar De la Cruz, Y., & Robinson, S. (2017). Answering the call to accessible quality health care for all using a new model of local community not-for-profit charity clinics: A return to Christ-centered care of the past. The Linacre Quarterly, 84(1), 44-56.
Meinert, M. (2018). Seniors will soon outnumber children, but the US isn’t ready. Retrieved from: https://news.usc.edu/143675/aging-u-s-population-unique-health-challenges/
Nickitas, D., Middaugh, D. J., & Aries, N. (2016). Policy and politics for nurses and other health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Rowe, J. W., Fulmer, T., & Fried, L. (2016). Preparing for better health and health care for an aging population. Jama, 316(16), 1643-1644.