Advocacy and Politics: Nursing Staffing and Patient Safety Report

This report focuses on the advocacy for improved nursing staffing practices to enhance patient safety. It highlights the negative impacts of long working hours and inadequate staffing levels, including increased burnout among nurses and potential medical errors. The report references the American Nurses Association and discusses the need for direct care nurses to be involved in care planning. It outlines a communication plan that includes memos, social media, and collaboration with stakeholders like hospital management and the American Nurses Association to address these issues and promote safer staffing policies. The goal is to advocate for changes that ensure nurses have reasonable working hours and are actively involved in shaping their work environments.

Running head: ADVOCACY AND POLITICS 1
Advocacy and Politics
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

ADVOCACY AND POLITICS 2
Advocacy and Politics
Nursing issue: staffing
According to the American Nurses Association (2016), there are significant numbers of
nurses working in shifts that are longer than the standard 10 hours. Studies have significantly
linked long working hours with burnouts and increased medical errors which risk the lives of
both the patient and the nurse (Ropponen et al., 2019). Further, long working hours are
detrimental to the social and personal life of nurses. As a result, nurses would not enjoy their
jobs since a lot has to happen. However, ANA recommends that safe staffing can be determined
by directly involving direct care nurses, something which does not occur in American hospitals.
According to Govtrack.us. (2018), there is a need to develop a committee that comprises 55%
direct care nurses to initiate care plans for their units. It is for the lack of this involvement that I
have raised this as an advocacy issue.
Communication plan
We will sermon all nurses for a meeting through a memo. Also, we will invite other
stakeholders in the health sector to be a party in these initiatives. These include hospital
management and the American Nurses Association.
Communication strategies
Memos will be written to all nursing staff and the hospital administration addressing our
concerns. Social and mainstream media will also be used to communicate our advocacy goals.
Social and mainstream media will help us mobilize like-minded individuals to join hands in the

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initiative. Further, it will lead us to partner with a like-minded organization that seeks to address
the same problem.

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References
American Nurses Association. (2016). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY American Nurses Association
Health Risk Appraisal. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingworld.org/~495c56/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/healthy-nurse-
healthy-nation/ana-healthriskappraisalsummary_2013-2016.pdf
Govtrack.us. (2018). Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act of 2018 (2018 - H.R. 5052).
Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr5052
Ropponen, A., Koskinen, A., Puttonen, S., & Härmä, M. (2019). Exposure to working-hour
characteristics and short sickness absence in hospital workers: A case-crossover study
using objective data. International journal of nursing studies, 91, 14-21.