Assignment Instructions
Explain how health care policy affects health care organizations, patient care, and cost-effective quality care. What measures can the nurse leader take as an advocate for patient care and addressing health care cost?
Sample Answer
Explain how healthcare policy affects healthcare organizations, patient care, and cost-effective quality care.
Healthcare policies affect healthcare organizations as they determine they determine the funding and operational guidelines as well as the internal compliance requirements. In healthcare organizations, the policies guide the provision of high-quality and safe care. Healthcare policies have a direct effect on patient care as they determine the affordability and accessibility of care services (ANA, n.d.). The policies determine the treatments available, insurance coverage, and the patient's rights in care provision. Healthcare policies influence the costs of healthcare policies and measures that should be undertaken to provide high-quality care services. These policies set standards of quality assurance and cost-effectiveness and they promote efficient use of resources and delivery of high-quality care services (ANA, n.d.).
What measures can the nurse leader take as an advocate for patient care and addressing health care cost?
One duty of nurse leaders is to advocate for the best interests of the patients and facilitate the provision of high quality. Nurse leaders advocate for the patients by ensuring that the patients have access to safe care that yields positive outcomes. Advocacy gives the patients a voice as nurses explain the patient's diagnoses and the various treatment options. Nurses answer the questions asked and translate any medical jargon. Nurse leaders educate the patients on how they can manage their health to improve their quality of life (Chiu et al., 2021). For example, patients undergoing chemotherapy benefit from the nurses' teaching on effective anti-nausea treatment. Nurse leaders protect the rights of patients by providing care that adheres to the principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Nurses advocate for the patients by double-checking the occurrence of errors. They do so by identifying and fixing errors that occur in care provision. They double-check with other healthcare providers on instructions of care and ensure that proper documentation is maintained all through care provision. Additionally, nurse leaders connect the patients to resources that support their well-being (Chiu et al., 2021).
References
ANA. (n.d.). Health policy. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/health-policy/
Chiu, P., Cummings, G. G., Thorne, S., & Schick-Makaroff, K. (2021). Policy advocacy and nursing organizations: A scoping review. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 22(4), 276-296. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15271544211050611