Patients Rights - Law and Ethics for Nurses

Question: Describe about the Essay for Patients Rights, Law and Ethics for Nurses? Answer: Situation: When nursing homes do not keep up with the sanitation needs serious issues can develop. Inadequate sanitation methods can spread germs and bacteria and can affect the nursing homes in a negative way. The improper hygiene methods do not only affect the patients who are admitted for the betterment of their health but also the nurses who have the face the poor hygiene. This can cause havoc on the health of the patients and nurses (Buka, 2014). The facilities provided in a nursing home not only disregard the patient's need for personal hygiene and cleanliness, but the nursing facility itself may also be lacking cleanliness. The showers, bathtubs, and the washrooms are not adequately cleaned. This leads to the proliferation of germs that ultimately causes diseases and germs. Poor hygienic conditions are the most common problems they face. This has resulted in insufficiencies in the infrastructure of the nursing homes. However, limitations are placed by the Federal legislations concerning poor conditions of the nursing homes. There are no proper legislations for poor hygienic conditions. Therefore, for good sanitary conditions in the nursing home a defined law is to be made for the well-being for the nurses (Griffith Tengnah, 2014). Background: In the United States, poor quality of care has been a permanent feature of the 16,500 residential nursing facilities that provide care to 1.6 million people. Government surveys and data that are collected by the federal government continue to show that the nurses are working in the nursing homes experience problems in their care. In the year, 1998 and 1999 about 25 33 % of the nursing homes had posed a serious threat in delivering care and harming the safety of the nurses. In the year 1999, the inspectors of the United States found that 26% of the facilities are related to poor hygiene conditions of the nursing homes. 21 percent was related to poor care conditions, and 19% was related to environments that led to injuries. Most common deficiencies that are identified in the year 1999 are linked to the poor quality of care and concern towards the nurses who have the responsibility of taking care of the patients. In a recent study, it was seen that most of the nurses die due to poor conditions of work at the nursing homes. Other reasons include management and cleaning of dirty beds and washrooms. Such conditions of work are unhygienic and cause a threat to the life of the nurses. In the United Kingdom, the workplace health, safety, and welfare regulations have laid down the basic standards for maintenance of work and workplaces. In Australia, The World Health Assembly of Nursing and Midwifery states the working conditions that are to be maintained in the hospitals for the benefit and well-being of the nurses (Hayward, 2013). Assessment: The healthcare organizations are affected by the performance and profitability of the nursing turnover. The cost of losing a single nurse is almost equal to the twice the nurses salary. About $ 300,000 per year is the estimation of an average hospital to drop for each percentage increase in annual nurse turnover. If hospitals continue to lose their critical employees then it will affect the healthcare organizations in a number of ways such as, the quality of care is given to patients will decrease, the overall staff costs will increase, patients will not come to the health care organizations, overall there will be increase in medical staff turnover and increased rate of accidents of the nurses and the rate of absenteeism (Bakshi, 2015). Legislation concerning proper and hygienic conditions of work are necessary for nurses as they give them a sense of job satisfaction and they have a feeling that their initial job expectation is met. This will have an additional number of advantages s uch as the number of nursing candidates will increase, and the jobs will seem more attractive to the nursing candidates (Tingle Cribb,2013). The nurses association, patients, and nurses are the stakeholders that will support the bill for safe and hygienic conditions of work. They are the people who get directly affected by the unhygienic and dirty work conditions prevailing in the hospitals and nursing homes. However, there is a group of people who will not support the bill that is likely to become law. The hospital management group and the hospital authorities are the people who will oppose the Bill, as they are the group of people who will have to bear the infrastructural costs in improving the working conditions of the hospital and nursing homes. Recommendation: Subject: Meeting with the Representative Dear Mr. XXX, This is to bring to your kind attention that I have done a detailed study on the subject that should be considered as the most likely topic for becoming a law. I have drafted a proposal with regard to the inadequate sanitation methods that causes harm to the health and well-being of the nurses. According to me, this issue was of prime concern and The United States requires immediate legislation with this regard. I have chosen you as my representative for presenting this issue in the Parliament. I think you are the most suitable representative for this issue and you can discuss the issue in an efficient way before the lawmakers. I hope you will consider my proposal and agree to act as my representative in the Parliament. Hoping to receive a positive reply from your end as soon as possible and I will be highly obliged if you agree to represent my proposal. Thanks and Regards. Reference List: Bakshi, P. M. (2015). 030_Nurses and the Law. Buka, P. (2014).Patients' Rights, Law and Ethics for Nurses. CRC Press. Griffith, R., Tengnah, C. (2014).Law and professional issues in nursing. Learning Matters. Hayward, K. (2013). Cancer survivors need support from healthcare professionals.Nursing Standard,27(51), 32-33. Tingle, J., Cribb, A. (Eds.). (2013).Nursing law and ethics. John Wiley Sons. Westrick, S. J. (2013).Essentials of nursing law and ethics. Jones Bartlett Publishers.