Write a letter to an official in your state or local government. (Choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate
Write a letter to an official in your state or local government. (Choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue.
TOPIC- RISING COST IN HEALTH CARE LEADING DIFFICULTY TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN QUALIFIED MEDICAL STAFF
Introduction
Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.As health care leaders, it is important to understand strategies for advocating and lobbying elected officials. This can lead to the development of policies or laws that can help drive improved equity and outcomes for all participants in the health care environment as well as a more sustainable financial future.
Background and Context
As a master's-level health care practitioner, you may be expected to implement plans to ensure that initiatives designed to take advantage of economic opportunities for the organization are rolled out successfully and can be sustained over multiple years. Additionally, it is important to be able to envision how an initiative could be implemented in different contexts and for different purposes to ensure the investment remains a viable and positive asset to your organization or care setting.As a master's-level practitioner, you will often be challenged to influence the health care environment in a variety of ways. This influence can occur on a micro-level (implementing change on your unit, institution, community, or local organizations) or at a macro level (implementing change via state or federal regulations and policy). One way you can influence the health care environment is by lobbying an elected official at the local, state, or national level to adopt policies or legislation that would support positive economic and health outcomes for patients, practitioners, and organizations within the health care environment.
Instructions
For this assessment, you will develop a letter to an official in your state or local government (choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue. Remember, when writing the letter, you must use your personal address and telephone number unless you are exclusively representing a group or your organization.Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.Overall, your assessment submission will be assessed on the following criteria:
- Summarize the health care economic issue that you are addressing.
- Keep this brief but try to include details about how the issue is currently impacting the elected officials’ constituents.
- Explain the positive outcomes that will occur if the issue is addressed and the negative outcomes that will occur if the issue is not addressed.
- Tailor this messaging to focus on the impacts in the communities and organizations that are relevant to the elected official you are writing to.
- Summarize key information from scholarly sources to support the importance of addressing the issue; the issue’s overall impact on health care at the institutional, local, state, and national levels; and proposed changes or actions to address the issue.
- Cite at least five current, scholarly sources that support your argument and help provide the elected official (who may not have a detailed knowledge of the health care environment) with an understanding of the issues, changes, or actions that you are proposing to drive improved outcomes.
- Identify the impact your issue has on health care institutions and health care providers at the local community, state, and national levels.
- Make sure to include information from both a health care and an economic perspective. An elected official may be more responsive to one perspective than another.
- Incorporate ethical, cultural, and diversity principles when picking resources and making recommendations for change in your assessment.
- Explain how personal, professional, and organizational experiences have informed the resource planning and risk analysis for working toward addressing the economic issue.
- Think about how your experiences (the experiences can be personal, professional, or from your team’s perspective or experience) affect how you have planned for the resources needed to implement your desired changes or actions. How did this impact your approach to conducting a risk analysis on the project?
- Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly communication standards.
- Remember to conclude your letter with a summary of your position on the issue and a compelling reason that the elected official should act in your favor and support your issue or initiative.
Additional Requirements
- Audience: Make sure you are addressing your letter to an actual local or state official.
- For most states, you can use the following resource:
- Open States. (n.d.). Find your legislators. https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
- For local officials, search your city’s government website for officials and their positions.
- For most states, you can use the following resource:
- Length of Submission: 1–2 double spaced pages. Your letter needs to be succinct and persuasive.
- Number of References: Cite at least five sources of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
- APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style.
Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center's Writing Support page.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
- Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
- Summarize the health care economic issue that you are addressing.
- Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
- Explain the positive outcomes that will occur if the issue is addressed and negative outcomes that will occur if the issue is not addressed.
- Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.
- Summarize key information from scholarly sources to support the importance of addressing the issue; the issue’s overall impact on health care at the institutional, local, state, and national levels; and proposed changes or actions to address the issue.
- Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization's resources and its ability to provide quality care.
- Explain how personal, professional, and organizational experiences have informed the resource planning and risk analysis for working toward addressing the economic issue.
- Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
- Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
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Lobbying for Change
Winston Barte
Nurs-FPX6008
Capella University
Dr. Whitney Rigdon
Date
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Winston Barte
Street Address
City
Phone Number
31st October 2022
His Excellency Greg Abbott
Office of Governor
State Insurance Building
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
(512) 463-2000
Dear His Excellency, Greg Abbott
RE: HIGH HEALTHCARE COSTS AMONG THE ELDERLY
Because of the excessive expense of healthcare for the elderly in our state, I am writing to seek
your assistance. Elderly Texans spend two to three times the national average on their
medication. That's not even the highest price in Texas for specific medicines. Older Texans on
limited incomes struggle to manage growing medical bills and the high cost of prescription
medications. More expensive treatment options are required for the elderly, driving up the cost of
care. Some insurance plans do not cover the high expense of skilled nursing facilities, adult day
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care centers, residential care facilities, or community-based services that patients may need after
being released from an acute care hospital. Texas has among the worst rates of sickness and
mortality in the country due to its high uninsured rate, strict Medicaid requirements, and lack of
resources. Texas ranks dead last among the states in terms of taking care of its elderly
population.
More than 4.5 million Texans are uninsured. U.S. Census data published in September shows
that despite California having over 40 million citizens and Texas having just 28 million, Texas
currently has more uninsured persons (Ehrenfeld, n.d.). Texas is one of 18 states that now reject
federal funding to assist those who are neither qualified for Medicaid in their state nor get federal
subsidies to purchase a commercial plan under the Affordable Care Act. One must be completely
disabled and unable to work, or within one year of death, to qualify for Medicaid due to a
disability.
Up to a third of Texans, including those with health insurance, could not afford necessary
medical care if they were ill. State deductibles for employee health insurance plans are greater
than those in New York and California (Ehrenfeld, n.d.). Complaints about rude, harried, and
muddled medical treatment in Medicare Advantage plans affect individuals of all socioeconomic
levels. Also, many people report difficulties in scheduling appointments with specialists.
Therefore, Texans are not receiving enough medical attention.
Many seniors on restricted incomes must decide between paying for food and medicine. Simply
put, Medicare will only pay for a specific portion of a patient's medical bills, and anything above
that must come out of the patient's pocket. Americans over 65 have higher out-of-pocket
healthcare costs and are less likely to seek treatment due to financial concerns than their
counterparts in other high-income nations (Jacobson et al., 2021). Some seniors may forego
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needed treatment altogether if they cannot afford the out-of-pocket expenses. When patients do
not get the treatment they need when they need it, it may worsen their diseases, postpone their
diagnosis, negatively impact their health outcomes, and drive up healthcare costs.
The experience of Texas demonstrates that policymakers should not look to a single demographic
or region when deciding how to rein in the expansion of healthcare costs. Instead, they should
consider many approaches that may be adjusted to fit the demands of the people and the
environment. A person should not have to earn the right to get medical treatment. Every Texan
senior should be able to afford peace of mind with comprehensive health coverage. There should
never be a time when a sick, senior citizen has to choose between purchasing food and buying
medicine that might save their life.
To combat this issue, our state government should pass the Inflation Reduction Act and give
Medicare the authority to negotiate the costs of expensive pharmaceuticals. According to the
Inflation Reduction Act, drug expenses will be capped at $2,000. Medicare will be able to
negotiate lower medicine prices with pharmaceutical corporations thanks to the law. As a bonus,
it will safeguard Medicare recipients, including the elderly and those with disabilities, against
astronomical medication costs.
Your Sincerely
Winston Barte
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References
Ehrenfeld, T. (n.d.). Texas health system problems.
Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/texas-healthcare-system-one-of-the-
worst-in-country
Jacobson, G., Cicchiello, A., Shah, A., Doty, M. M., & Williams, R. D. (2021). II. When costs are
a barrier to getting health care: reports from older adults in the United States and other
high-income countries. Commonwealth Fund.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/surveys/2021/oct/when-costs-are-
barrier-getting-health-care-older-adults-survey
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Lobbying for Change
Godfrey Onsongo
Capella University
NHS-FPX6008: Econ Decision Making Hlth Care
Joseann DeWitt
December 2022
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Godfrey Onsongo,
Capella University,
South 6th St,
Minneapolis, MN, 55402 Street.
6th December 2022.
The Office of the Governor,
106 DR. Vincent Michael,
St. Francis, MN, 55225.
Dear Sir,
RE: NURSING SHORTAGE
Nursing shortage
I am writing to create a concern for solutions to the challenging healthcare issue of nurse
shortage affecting the hospitals in Minnesota and globally. The nursing shortage is now a
worldwide healthcare challenge affecting the dissemination of care services to nurses by patients.
Recently, the nurse shortage has been reported as the main challenge to quality services in the
United States, creating big problems for the population's health. The nursing shortage problem is
contributed by poor or inadequate hiring and recruitment of untrained nurses, poor money
management in the hospital, poor utilization of nursing resources, and retirement of aging nurses.
Nurse shortage has affected healthcare performance in Minnesota and deteriorated the
population's health, affecting the production quality. The problem of nurse shortage creates
demand for recruiting new nurses and training the available ones to gain nursing experience.
World Health Organization provides an estimate of over one million nurses' jobs created during
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the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many nurses are aging and will retire in the coming
years, creating a big challenge in healthcare due to the lack of nurse trainers. Though
Minnesota's institutions can produce a higher number of healthcare nurses, the hospitals need to
recruit a new team and train them to achieve greater experience and skills. Moreover, the lack of
qualified nurses affects the hospital's performance in Minnesota and patient satisfaction,
including patient safety.
Outcomes of Addressing or Failing to Address Nursing Shortage
The hospital management can address the solution to the nurse shortage by ensuring the
recruitment of new nurses, training the existing nurses to acquire more skills, ensuring
encouraging nurse retention. Addressing the nurse shortage in hospitals has a great positive
impact on the population's health. Enough nurses and caregivers in the healthcare facility help
reduce workloads and create patient satisfaction. Ensuring a balanced patient-to-nurse ratio will
promote patient safety, less the time it takes for the patient to acquire care services in the
hospitals, reduce medication errors, and reduce patient overcrowding. However, the failure to
address the nurse shortage problem in Minnesota's state government will decrease patient
satisfaction in all healthcare facilities within the region. Poor patient satisfaction decreases the
performance of the healthcare setting. Nurse understaffing will create more adverse effects
through medication errors affecting the population's health. Lack of enough healthcare nurses
will also increase the hospital work burden, overcrowding of patients, and mortality rate. Lack of
enough nurses in the healthcare setting reduces the time taken for patient and nurses' examination
and consultation, affecting the quality of services and clinical decisions nurses make. Lastly,
failure to address the problem of nurse shortage in healthcare facilities will increase staff work
burden, stress, and exhaustion to the available nurses (Ghafoor et al., 2021).
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Scholarly Sources Regarding the Importance of Addressing Nursing Shortages
Several researchers have investigated the problem of nurse understaffing in healthcare
facilities and the benefits of addressing the problem. Tamata et al., (2021), stated that the nursing
shortage is a global healthcare challenge that needs to be addressed to balance the demand for the
increased number of patients. Addressing nurse shortage through recruitment and nurse retention
requires the health ministry to set up principles and guidelines. Also, there is a need to set up
policies for recruitment in the healthcare setting and minimize the problem of nurse resignation.
According to Buerhaus, (2021), there was increased demand for more healthcare workers and
nurses resulting from the need to provide treatment and care services to patients due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring proper management in the healthcare setting will encourage
nurse retention, create a conducive working environment for nurses and promote quality care
services delivery. Ryan et al., (2019), investigated the nursing shortage problem stating the
effects of aging nurses retiring from the nursing profession. The lack of qualified and certified
nurses will demand more trainers and healthcare instructors who provide mentorship to newly
graduated nurses. Therefore, the investigation requires more nurses to be trained by aging nurses
before they retire. Marć et al., (2019), stated that nurse understaffing has no measure for the
impacts of the lack of nurses in healthcare institutions.
The estimated impacts of the nurse shortage include increased mortality rate, poor
population health, and loss of finances by the patients through admissions and readmissions.
Nursing shortage affects the hospitals' performance and hence requires the stakeholders to
cooperate to address the problem (Ghafoor et al., 2021). The affected stakeholders in the
healthcare setting include the general population, regulation health ministries, healthcare
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management, and nurses. It is important to ensure a good working environment for the available
nurses to be satisfied enough.
Experiences that have Informed the Resource Planning and Risk Analysis
From my experience in the last two years working as a professional nurse, the outbreak of
COVID-19 has increased the demand for healthcare nurses and caregivers. The pandemic has
increased healthcare expenditure spending through recruitment and retention of healthcare
nurses, salary increments, and nurse workload. More patients crowd into the healthcare facilities
demanding treatment services. The situation in the hospital that I worked with in the remote area
faced a lot of challenges in maintaining the available workforce. Some of the nurses resigned due
to poor working conditions. The hospital spends more than $ 4 million to recruit more nurses and
replace the outgoing ones. The hospital requires good financial management to maintain the
available nurses. Hospital management requires effective transformational leadership that
provides a conducive working environment and motivates the available nurses to reduce the
problem of resignation.
In addition, a strategic plan should be made through website advertisement, mentorship
and training, and ensuring partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health to help recruit
newly graduated nurses to achieve skills (Rogers, 2021). The problem of nurse shortage creates
coordination of the health ministry in Minnesota to address the problem. Also, due to the
COVID-19 outbreak, there is increased demand for care services; hence, the Minnesota health
department should review the process of acquiring a service delivery license.
Yours faithfully,
O, Godfrey
.
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References
Buerhaus, P. I. (2021). Current nursing shortages could have long-lasting consequences: Time to
change our present course. Nursing Economics, 39(5), 247–250. Buerhaus, P. I. (2021).
Current nursing shortages could have long-lasting consequences: Time to change our
present course. Nursing Economics, 39(5), 247-250.
Ghafoor, Y., Yaqoob, A., Bilal, A., & Ghafoor, M. S. (2021). Impact of nurse shortage on patient
care. Saudi Journal of Nursing and Health Care, 4(4), 114–119.
https://doi.org/10.36348/sjnhc.2021.v04i04.003
Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing
shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 66(1), 9–
16. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12473
Rogers, R. (2021). Pandemic Recovery in Nursing: Labor Shortage and Financial Devastation. .
https://digitalcommons.gardner webb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1027&context=nursing-msn
Ryan, C., Bergin, M., White, M., & Wells, J. S. G. (2019). Ageing in the nursing workforce–a
global challenge in an Irish context. International Nursing Review, 66(2), 157–164.
https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12482
Tamata, A. T., Mohammadnezhad, M., & Tamani, L. (2021). Registered nurses’ perceptions on
the factors affecting nursing shortage in the Republic of Vanuatu Hospitals: A qualitative
study. Plos One, 16(5), e0251890. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251890
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