Things to get involved about....

From the ANA Government Affairs:
http://www.rnaction.org/site/PageNavigator/nstat_take_action_HS.html

Yesterday, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL- 9) introduced H.R. 952, The Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act of 2015, requiring skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to have at least one direct care RN on duty 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Currently, nursing homes are required to have a registered nurse (RN) on duty for 8 hours per day regardless of the size of the facility. Congresswoman Schakowsky was shocked to learn that for 16 hours a day, not a single RN may be in a nursing home.

The absence of direct care RNs for any period during the day reduces the quality of care received by nursing facility residents.

Nursing facility residents and our health care system cannot afford this understaffing any longer! Join Congresswoman Schakowsky in supporting continuous direct care RN staffing to ensure that some of our most vulnerable Americans have the care they need and deserve in nursing facilities.

Contact your Representative TODAY and ask them to co-sponsor, H.R. 952, The Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act.

Together we can make a difference!
Your ANA Government Affairs Team

Other Issues they are fighting for to protect our practice:

Affordable Care Act >>
APRNs & DME >>
APRNs & Veterans >>
Home Health >>
Nursing Caucus >>
Safe Patient Handling & Mobility >>
Safe Staffing >>
Title VIII (Nursing Workforce Development) Funding >>

Do Nurses even Advocate for themselves?

Or is it just a job and no Advocates needed?

When nursing is just a job, just a way to pay the bills, or get that new toy, with NO real calling to care for patients; a disservice is done not only to your profession but to those you have sworn to keep alive and comfort.

It is a CARING PROFESSION and when treated as just a job, the true meaning of being a NURSE is lost.

If it is just a JOB, You are in the wrong profession.

Now, often those that treat it so are the first to WHINE about poor staffing and the often difficult situations we walk into on a daily basis. But, they will never get involved to protect themselves and make for better workforce conditions. They are probably the ones who also seem to be less available when help is needed.

In this so simple and easy POINT and CLICK world, getting involved has never been made easier.

Being involved can improve the situations we walk into every day. Safe staffing and safe lifting bills sit on the books of many State Houses of government, waiting for those it affects to CARE and be a part of the process. They can Never become LAWS without support.

Every day, every decision we make can affect the lives and deaths of our patients. We need to have the same care for making our profession everything we want it to be when just doing the job is not making it better.

If you can't take the few minutes it takes to care for your profession, Don't whine about what you Don't care enough to change. Just keep taking it and Shut Up, Keep being the SHEEP most managers want.

Who Advocates for Nurses?

Who considers nurses and safe staffing when medical errors and patient falls, etc occur?

Do Agencies like JCAHO and OSHA and AHCA and any other alphabet soup protecting patients consider the situations leading to risks in patient safety. Staffing discrepancies being the leading cause, in addition to increasing stress and the poor satisfaction of nurses as well as disgruntled patients and families. It all goes together but it is never considered when making changes or regulating national patient safety goals.

When are nurses workforce situations considered?

Who advocates for nurses?

As a nurse who always considers being a patient advocate the frontline of nursing care, this situation needs to change.

Political Possibilities if Nurses get involved

I propose and hope to see in my lifetime these changes and I am HOPING that you will HELP me by getting involved in protecting your practice and your future.

1)     A federally funded nursing retirement plan: This could not only improve the influx of people into the profession, but also be a great benefit to nurse retention, especially if it includes past service and years of experience. This could bring nurses back to the bedside; if they were assured of having a dedicated plan for the years of service (Nurses who have left the profession after i.e. 12 years of service come back for eight years and have a full retirement). AARP recently noted that less than 60% of nurses have retirement plans. This federal plan would be portable from job to job. Facilities could enhance retirement benefits or provide other inducements to the profession with the funds currently in use. IF railroad employees, teachers, firefighters, and police officers can have full retirement after 20 years, WHY have nurses been left out? The nurses I have presented this idea to most frequently ask me that question. WHY is this idea not already in practice?

2)     Increased political awareness and interest for nurses. Facilities should have a dedicated position related to nursing politics. I have talked to many coworkers and they agree that knowing more about how their local, state, and federal politicians vote on issues regarding nursing would affect not only their voting participation but how and who they voted for. (i.e. IF you believe patients and families have a right to know what SAFE staffing ratios are and how those ratios affect patient safety and care, in addition to how the facility they are currently admitted to staffs their floors, then a politician votes against a bill that promotes these issues, Would you vote for that politician??).

3)     An agency that monitors the dangers and RISKS that nurses are often subjected to: to have written protocols and standards of what constitutes patient safety in relation to acuity and ratios. (i.e. What constitutes a 1:1 patient, a 2:1 patient, a 4:1 patient???). One that monitors how often those standards are not met and why. How to make it better to keep nurses at the bedside.

4)     National Nursing Licensure

5)     Better Health Care Coverage—since we provide so much of it, it should be a reward.

So much more, these are only a few of the issues I would like to see instituted and implemented and truly believe it will affect the future of nursing. So many agencies and groups protect patient safety and there are no real protectors of nurses and their work conditions. Such an agency will only enhance patient safety. The CAN (Center for American Nurses, part of the ANA) is a start, but so far, no one is really affecting change in workforce conditions, thus the NURSING SHORTAGE.