It is my role as a nurse manager to oversee the convergence of health policy and patient care. The health policies are in place to help nurses develop treatment plans, evaluate and collect treatment results, and manage patients’ conditions (Chiu et al., 2021). When my procedure conflicts with recent evidence, as a nurse manager, I would contact the appropriate administrator, discuss the procedures, and give my insights into the issue. Moreover, I would have gathered relevant evidence from approved health policy documents and other sources to defend the policies. The evidence I gather should sufficiently show how the policies impact both patients and nurses. I would follow up on the concerns I addressed to the administrators and offer help where necessary to ensure that my concerns are in line with policy or procedure.
Updating health policies and procedures is important because it ensures compliance with new laws and regulations stipulated by health organizations and the government. Updating procedures and policies is a way of anticipating the effectiveness and consistency of the policies in the organization since old policies may not necessarily comply with the new regulations (Kruk et al., 2018). Finally, updating policies and procedures ensures that an organization is up to date with technological and industrial-based best practices, therefore, avoiding risk. When one implements outdated health policies and procedures, there are inherent risks associated with this. Because the policies are no longer compatible with industry-recognized standards, those who adhere to the outdated policies and procedures may take acts that may result in patient injury and a malpractice lawsuit. The risks involved may include harm to the patient, either permanently or temporarily, and implementing the outdated policy or practice may clash with the industry standard, therefore, hampering the nurses’ ability to provide sufficient care to patients.
It is vital to ensure that standard health procedures are followed at all times. As the immediate leaders, nurse managers are responsible for bringing about improvements in the clinical environment (Kodama & Fukahori, 2017). As a nurse manager, I am responsible for ensuring that policies and procedures are up to date by doing periodic ward rotations to improve nurse services, promote excellent ward activities, and support nurses’ career development. Furthermore, as a leader, being proactive to challenges by prioritizing change and having a longitudinal picture of the wards assists me in developing methods to overcome nurses’ reluctance to change, ensuring policies and procedures are up to date.
References
Chiu, P., Cummings, G. G., Thorne, S., & Schick-Makaroff, K. (2021). Policy advocacy and nursing organizations: A scoping review.Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 22(4), 276–296.
Kodama, Y., & Fukahori, H. (2017). Nurse managers’ attributes to promote change in their wards: A qualitative study.Nursing Open, 4(4), 209–217.
Kruk, M. E., Gage, A. D., Arsenault, C., Jordan, K., Leslie, H. H., Roder-DeWan, S., Adeyi, O., Barker, P., Daelmans, B., Doubova, S. V., English, M., GarcĂa-Elorrio, E., Guanais, F., Gureje, O., Hirschhorn, L. R., Jiang, L., Kelley, E., Lemango, E. T., Liljestrand, J.,… Pate, M. (2018). High-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: Time for a revolution. The Lancet Global Health, 6(11), e1196–e1252.