Healthcare Policies in the United States
Healthcare is a major concern in the United States, thus contributing to the growth of socio-economic and political sectors (Zieff et al., 2020). Many healthcare policies have been implemented in the United States to improve healthcare services and patient outcomes. Many healthcare organizations transform their healthcare systems to manage health problems transparently to reduce morbidity and mortality rates. In the U.S, healthcare policies were implemented to reduce chronic illnesses provide quality and less costly healthcare services through the introduction of insurance covers, especially to those patients who cannot afford healthcare services. This discussion focuses on barriers to nurses’ participation in the development of healthcare policy at the state level in the United States and why they are barriers.
Barriers to Nurses’ Participation in the Development of Healthcare Policy
The barriers to the nurses’ participation include; lack of involving the nurses at the upper levels of the healthcare system, inadequate political and policy development skills, inadequate supportive organizational structure, and negative perspective on the nursing profession that leads to low involvement in the health policy (Safari et al., 2020). In the United States, most nurses are actively involved in other politics compared to the healthcare policies because the majority have no idea how they can positively influence the healthcare system, especially due to lack of engagement. These barriers have led to a decrease in staffing, increased turnover, increased workload, and low-quality patient care and health services.
Reasons why they are Barriers
The barriers, as mentioned earlier, have negatively impacted the healthcare policy development process. The constantly changing healthcare systems, lack of nurses’ involvement in the highest level of the health system, inadequate knowledge in political and policy development have led to low outcomes on healthcare services. For example, the lack of a supportive organizational structure that focuses on the nurses’ safety and needs has led to increased workload due to many nurses leaving the workforce system. An increase in workload leads to negative nurses’ attitudes towards patients, thus increasing the negative perceptions in the nursing profession and reducing the chances of achieving the health policies’ goal, which is improving the quality healthcare system and patient outcomes.
References
Safari, M. B., Bahadori, M., & Alimohammadzadeh, K. (2020). The related factors of nurses’ participation and perceived benefits and barriers in health policy making. Journal of Nursing Research, 28(4), e103. https://journals.lww.com/jnr-twna/fulltext/2020/08000/the_related_factors_of_nurses__participation_and.6.aspx
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