I am writing this letter to you to bring your attention to the need to overturn the legislation and policies that govern the fight against full practice authority for Advanced Practice nurses within the state. This includes the problem of a shortage or overabundance of patients per nurse and the regulation of this issue as part of the violation of the rights of such nurses (Cho et al., 2020). Of particular note is the Safe Patient Limits Act, introduced as LC33 8455/a to amend Chapter 7 of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia (Georgia General Assembly, 2022). The intent of this act is to control the allocation and construction of any healthcare facilities with the expectation of meeting the patient limits per registered nurse. I am writing you to emphasize the importance of this change passing and to call your attention to the pending legislation.
From my own experience, I am able to state that the problem of patient allocation exists in my place of employment and practice in our state, in the district from which you are nominated. Unfortunately, there is no way to provide specifics at this time, as all known cases are undocumented and would look like defamation. For the same reason, I am appealing to you personally in hopes of continuing your support of this bill.
Assigning patients to one nurse more than the limits during busy times does not allow medical staff to do their jobs in a quality and timely manner. This allocation is most often caused by non-ideal scheduling and control over the availability of sufficient staff by health facility management, as well as unstable periodic increases in the number of sick patients. Since the lives and health of our fellow citizens depend first and foremost on the quality of medical personnel, this act should have been passed immediately.
Thanks to your work and that of the committee, the addition to Title 21 of the Social Security Act, numbered H.B. 7744, which was passed in the second session of the 117th Congress, has made a difference. This addition prevented the situation from becoming even worse due to a decrease in the number of nurses, which would have caused the burden on registered nurses to be even greater (US Congress HB7744, n.d.). With the extension of flexible rules for the admission and initial training of nurses, as well as their certification, the healthcare sector has been partially relieved (Shadmi et al., 2020). In this way, healthcare has a real chance to deal with the abundance of patients due to the pandemic and subsequent events at a decent level.
Despite this addition, however, the workload level of registered nurses is still inadequate. Often, patients are not ranked and distributed unevenly, and not only the number but also the complexity and time commitment per patient are not taken into account (Shadmi et al., 2020). The Safe Patient Limits Act, now under consideration, has the potential to remedy this situation while also impacting the equally essential industry issues that will be listed below.
The penalties envisioned for violations of the rules of this act are optimal and sufficient. In this case, it does not make any sense to ask you to initiate a review of the penalties and legal liability of healthcare providers who refuse to comply with or violate the regulations outlined in the bill (Georgia General Assembly, 2022). The rules and regulations spelled out in the bill are logical and should have been made earlier, not just in Georgia, but at the state level.
Equally important is the regulation of training and initial orientation among regular nurses as well as among registered and trainee nurses. Each employee must be firmly aware of their rights and responsibilities, including adequately assessing the workload assigned to them (Cho et al., 2020). In the case of non-compliance with the nurse’s job description, it would be advisable to offer an urgent report to a higher authority or the governing governmental body in case of a lack of feedback from the management of the health care facility. It should apply not only to the registered nurses themselves but likewise to their colleagues, who can observe the situation but are not personally involved in it.
Furthermore, controlling not only the distribution of patients per nurse in intensive care, maternal child care, critical trauma, and others but a sufficient staff numbers is as vital as possible. In your subsequent investigations, I humbly ask you to pay attention to the regulation of the schedules of medical personnel, which often cause an excessive number of patients. None of our fellow citizens is entitled or willing to be turned away by the medical staff so that this overage may occur. Should your attention be drawn to this appeal, we may suggest that you expand this or the next act by submitting changes for consideration.
Such changes might include adding and expanding preferences for medical personnel to motivate applicants to be more interested in the medical specialty and for graduates not to refuse to work in the specialty. It could include offering tax breaks as well as salary increases to make the healthcare sector more attractive. Undoubtedly, such decisions are not made quickly, and we respectfully ask you to consider the potential for influence.
References
Cho, S.-H., Lee, J.-Y., You, S. J., Song, K. J., & Hong, K. J. (2020). Nurse staffing, nurses prioritization, missed care, quality of nursing care, and nurse outcomes. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 26(1), e12803. Web.
Georgia General Assembly. (2022). Legislation Georgia. Web.
Shadmi, E., Chen, Y., Dourado, I., Faran-Perach, I., Furler, J., Hangoma, P., Hanvoravongchai, P., Obando, C., Petrosyan, V., Rao, K. D., Ruano, A. L., Shi, L., de Souza, L. E., Spitzer-Shohat, S., Sturgiss, E., Suphanchaimat, R., Uribe, M. V., & Willems, S. (2020). Health equity and COVID-19: Global perspectives. International Journal for Equity in Health, 19(1), 104. Web.
US congress HB7744. (n.d.). LegiScan. Web.