Health Policy Paper
Health Care Delivery and Practice Assessment
The quality of healthcare delivery in the United States is often influenced by a range of socio-cultural, economic, legal, and ethnic disparities. The distinction gives birth to inequalities, which hinder a status of the health-care policy. Specifically, according to the health delivery assessment, the active treatment is provided only to the citizens of highly-developed states. The issue calls out the so-called legal demand barrier, which precludes the vulnerable and needy groups of the population from obtaining medical assistance (Ensor & Cooper, 2004). Moreover, the citizens that belong to ethnic minority groups are documented to have the poorer state of health, than native Americans. The national initiative offers few ways of fighting disparities. Specifically, it encourages conducting a cross-population monitoring that should include an adjustment for ethnicity. Moreover, it is claimed that clinical experience must be stratified by socio-cultural aspects (Fiscella, Franks, Gold, & Clancy, 2000).
The Role of Regulatory Agencies in Health Care
Current nursing reports reveal that the role of regulatory agencies in the health-care domain has descended to a minor one since the quality of citizens’ health is not adequately monitored by them. Due to the national survey that aimed at assessing the general state of medical assistance in the United States, almost 45 % of the population did not perform the tasks that were recommended to them by medical services. The citizens state that the process of conducting the prescribed medical procedures was not examined by regulatory agencies (McGlynn et al., 2003).
The Primary Implications for Health Care Policy and Their Effects on Patients
Due to the existence of multiple socio-cultural, economic and legal prejudices that exist in clinical settings, the effective medical treatment is inaccessible for many population cohorts. This aspect serves as a primary disadvantage of health policy and should be eradicated by the local governments.
The Usage of Marijuana for Medical Purposes in Florida
In 2014, the Republican, Randolph Bracy, issues a new policy that supported legalization of marijuana use for medical purposes in Florida. The document provided a sophisticated justification for employing the weed with an aim of treating multiple serious diseases. According to the new legislature, it was suggested to include marijuana in the range of medical prescriptions and preclude prosecution of the Floridians, who use the weed, according to doctor’s recommendation.
The act that was offered for legalization included a detailed description of medical assets of marijuana. According to this regulation, the weed may be prescribed to the patients, which suffer from cancer, HIV/AIDS disease, epilepsy, nausea, as well as diverse chronic and sclerosis conditions (Ferner, 2015). The medication that treats cancer and HIV/AIDS effectively is scarce. Therefore, the value of the marijuana is quite considerable.
Indeed, the beneficial properties of this medication have been clinically asserted. From the ancient times, the Indians were using cannabis and marijuana as significant substances that relieved pains and treated diverse ailments. The herbal therapy that included these grass types had a positive influence on the health of the citizens which suffered from headaches and insomnia. Despite some countries issue the legal allowances for the use of marijuana in small amounts, its usage is immensely restricted today.
One may distinguish three critical applications of marijuana for medical purposes. Specifically, it is employed with the aim of physical treatment as well as spiritual and psychological therapies. Concerning the necessary physical remedy prescriptions, the doctors dwell on relief of multiple chronic and muscle pains, nausea prevention, and metabolism restore. Moreover, in the context of mental treatment, the experts claim that the correct and orderly consumption of marijuana precludes addiction cravings. Furthermore, it can serve as a crucial anticonvulsant, which might be widely employed in the patients with seizures or epilepsy. It is also used as a tool for reducing mood disorders and prevents Post-Traumatic Stress Disease, depressions, and obsessions. Finally, marijuana has long been used in spiritual acts. According to the experts, it contributes to the effective eradication of inner disbalance, confusion, and reduces anger.
The use of marijuana for medical purposes finds much support among the citizens of Florida, which especially concerns the patients, who suffer from the identified illnesses. According to the national survey, which was issued in 2014, approximately 90 % of voters approve the use of the medication, if it is prescribed by a doctor. However, when Bracy’s legislative act was officially offered for voting, in November 2014, the regulation was supported only by 58 % of Floridians. Since the approval of the law requires 60 % of votes, the statement failed. Nevertheless, the project is still favored by Floridians. In his speech, the director of local policies in Florida, Robert Capecchi stated that the legislative act might provide a consistent support for many sick citizens of the state. Therefore, it is offered to pass the regulation for voting in 2006 (Ferner, 2015). Today, Republicans express sincere hope that the act will succeed in the next session.
The initiative of marijuana use for medical purposes is fiercely condemned by Floridian opposition. The primary disapproval of the act legislation is issued by the organization Drug-Free Florida, which is headed by the U.S. senator Mel Martinez, Bill McCollum, and Lamar Alexander. The opposing structure has lately released an official critique of Amendment 2, which supported marijuana legalization. Due to it, a susceptibility to marijuana treatment is too broadly outlined in the document. Consequently, almost every average Floridian could get the drug, even if he suffered only from a slight headache. Secondly, the regulation of marijuana use provides caregivers with the official right to issue the grass to the patients. However, the opponents of Republicans state that is quite easy to receive a license of a caregiver even for the drug dealers. Thus, the legalization threatens the quality of public health in the state. Finally, the representatives of Drug-Free Florida acknowledge that Amendment 2 did not impose any age limitations on the patients. Therefore, marijuana may, in fact, be purchased even by an average teenager in Florida, according to the act (Florida right to medical marijuana initiative, 2014). Consequently, it may be claimed that the act of marijuana legalization still needs some consistent elaboration.
Assessment of Nursing Delegation Statement
The study case provides an evaluation of the delegation nursing statement, which aims at a distribution of professional responsibilities. The skill of imposing the occupational duties on the colleagues requires some elaborate personal abilities such as critical judgment and understanding of dome crucial health-care conceptions. In the analyzed case, a nurse Joserine sustains the procedure of delegation in a wrong way. Primarily, the worker set a personal goal in the course of the commission, which did not entirely correspond to professional ethics of nursing that embraces health care as an initial priority. Instead, the nurse aimed at reducing his workload. Second, Joserine did not assign a professional mentor to the nurses that received the tasks, which violated the rules of delegation statement (Joint statement on delegation, 2010). Finally, the worker did not match the professional skills of the delegated nurses to the new tasks. Thus, he decided to impose the role of the activities improvement specialist on the nurse of an orthopedic unit, which provoked a disparity between the ordinary duties of the worker and her new role.
According to the regulations of task delegation, the registered nurses, who assign the duties to the other workers, are fully responsible for the consequences that might be inflicted by the distribution. Therefore, in the case with Joserine, the accountability for the committed act should be fully prescribed to him. The efficient delegation requires a complete understanding of the patients’ needs as well as the nature of nurses’ duties and qualifications. Quite often, however, the staff of a clinic receives some additional tasks from the registered nurse if the latter notices that all of their primary assignments are completed. Still, it should be noted that the effectiveness of clinical work may be reached if the tasks are performed by respective specialists. Otherwise, the delegation may result in medical mistakes and lack of progress. Therefore, before being promoted to the position of a registered nurse, every medical worker has to be verified against the qualities of accountability, responsibility, and authority (Weydt, 2010). The breakages and inconsistencies in the nursing work that evolve as the direct consequences of task delegation should lead to dismissing a registered nurse from the post.
References
Ensor, T., & Cooper, S. (2004). Overcoming barriers to health service access: Influencing the demand side. Health Policy Plan, 19(2), 69-79.
Ferner, M. (2015). Florida Republican aims to legalize medical marijuana. Web.
Fiscella, K., Franks, P., Gold, M., & Clancy, C. (2000). Inequality in quality: Addressing socioeconomic, racial and ethnic disparities in health care. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 283(19), 2579-2584.
Florida right to medical marijuana initiative. (2014). Web.
Joint statement on delegation. (2010). Web.
McGlynn, E., Asch, S., Adams, J., Keesey, J., Hicks, J., & Kerr, E. (2003). The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine, 34(8), 2635-2645.
Weydt, A. (2010). Developing delegation skills. The Journal of Issues in Nursing, 15(1), 1-5.