Health Care Policy and Nursing Associations

This essay discusses the importance of nursing associations and health care policies in improving the quality of health care. It highlights the American Nursing Association's policies and the challenges they face in implementing them. The essay also argues for health care to be considered a right and not a privilege, and the need for shared responsibilities between governmental and non-governmental bodies. The importance of insurance schemes and the failure of markets in providing efficient health care are also discussed.

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Language Essay
Student’s Name
University

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Nursing associations are formations of groupings by nurses who have jointly come
together to achieve the same purpose. Most professionals form associations to address issues
concerning their welfare. Freiler et al. (2013) defines health care policy as steps, procedures and
guidelines set up to work towards bettering the condition of health care in a society. These
policies are embedded to visualize the goals to be achieved in short, medium and long term basis.
To implement a policy therefore needs inclusivity, public participation and empowerment of the
society.
American Nursing Association has over the years come up with policies drafted for
legislation. Researchers from American Nursing Association came up with the issue of
considering the trustworthiness of nurses in improving quality health care. Lorenc et al. (2014)
argue that incentives have purely been based on profitability, pressures from the markets, power
wrangles in organizations and salary increments. A different approach which includes the
judgment of nurses in administering their professional services to patients is crucial. They argue
that high quality care depends on the nurse-patient relationship, it is all about the discretion
engaged and not the guidelines set. The authors have drafted a bill for review by congress and
are in the process of bringing more like-minded scholars and researchers, policy makers and top
health staff on board to visualize their policy. They are however still mobilizing support.
There are however missing gaps in making the policy a success. Considering, its non-
profit approach, media coverage has become an impediment. The group has faced criticism with
media reports scrutinizing on areas of financial support. Shankardass K., Renahy E., Muntaner
C. & O'Campo P. (2015) have based their criticism on the fact that Medicare is a capitalistic
approach and not a cause of social justice. They argue that funds are needed for nurses to study
in form of incentives and scholarships. Nurses need drugs and equipment to facilitate their

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efficient delivery of services and therefore their approach of trustworthiness is not sufficient
reason for policy drafting. The association has also faced hurdles in convincing nurses from
states such as Georgia and California. The group is however still liaising with members of
congress and health stakeholders.

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The World Health Organization recognizes health care as a right to every individual. It is
considered as a basic necessity and should be accessible to people of all ages. Health care alone
cannot stand out without alignments in areas such as sanitation, proper and decent housing,
access to clean water, food security and sensitization on matters related to health. Constitutions
all over the world have adopted and implemented in their local laws the right to health care of
their citizens. Implementing this therefore means that infrastructure should be adequate. Physical
infrastructure includes: hospitals and community health centers; goods such as fully equipped
facilities and availability if drugs in those facilities Muntaner and Lynch (2015). The reason that
I support healthcare being a right and not a privilege is that human right standards can only be
achieved if healthcare is accorded. Equity can only be achieved if every individual is not
discriminated on matters of health. Age, gender, sexual orientation, language, income status,
nationality, race, and religion should not be impediments to access to quality health care.
States and governments should ensure that they fund and financially support the health
care system in their regions to ensure that quality of medication is optimum; standards and
control mechanisms have been adhered to. There should also be a follow up to ensure that
services are centered on the patients. Through social justice, the right to health care is an
elaborate tool. Medical goods and services should be disbursed in a need basis manner. There
should be shared responsibilities from both the governmental organizations and the non-
governmental bodies. An aspect of collectivism over individualism should be assimilated to
ensure that equity is assured. Insurance schemes that are people centered, with minimum
capitalist goals should be educated on citizens. Statistics show that uninsured people have a high
mortality rate compared to insured people. Having insurance schemes is not a full solution, under

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insured people cannot access full medical covers due to huge costs of drugs and services from
medical facilities.
It is important to note that medical costs can render individuals who have worked there
entire life bankrupt. Retrenchments, loss of jobs, divorces, and fatal accidents may raise medical
bills to patients and lead to loss of lives. As indicated by Petticrew M., Platt S., McCollam A.,
Wilson S., & Thomas S. (2013) the most solid contention for arrangement intercession starts
with the distinguishing proof of circumstances in which markets fall flat or don't work
proficiently. This precisely speaks to the U.S. medicinal services framework. Besides, wellbeing
arrangements regularly come as a result of open social approaches instituted by the
administration and an applicable case is the development of medical coverage scope. This is an
essential advance to subsidizing medicinal services as a fundamental human right. Maybe
Medicare isn't a 'one size fits all' medicinal services alternative, however it surely offers a system
for people in general subsidizing of medical coverage as an essential human right, went for
giving scope to every single American native, controlling social insurance costs and killing
individual and budgetary misfortune because of restorative uses. With a few alterations, it could
offer a practical arrangement.

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References
Freiler A., Muntaner C., Shankardass K., Mah C.L., Molnar A., Renahy E., et al. (2013).
Glossary for the implementation of Health in All Policies (HiAP). Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health, 67(3), 1068–1072.
Lawless A., Williams C., Hurley C., Wildgoose D., Sawford A., & Kickbusch I. (2012). Health
in All Policies: evaluating the South Australian approach to intersectoral action for
health. Canadian Journal of Public Health., 103(71), 15–19.
Lorenc T., Tyner E. F., Petticrew M., Duffy S., Martineau F. P., Phillips G., et al. (2014).
Cultures of evidence across policy sectors: systematic review of qualitative evidence.
European Journal of Public Health, 24(6): 1041–7.
Muntaner C. & Lynch J. (2015). Income inequality, social cohesion, and class relations: a
critique of Wilkinson's neo-Durkheimian research program. International Journal of
Health Services, 29(1): 59–81.
Petticrew M., Platt S., McCollam A., Wilson S., & Thomas S. (2013). “We're not short of people
telling us what the problems are. We're short of people telling us what to do": An
appraisal of public policy and mental health. Journal of Public Health, 8(1): 314-320.
Shankardass K., Renahy E., Muntaner C., O'Campo P. (2015) Strengthening the implementation
of Health in All Policies: a methodology for realist explanatory case studies. Journal
Health Policy and Planning, 30(4): 462–473.