Abstract
The significance of implementing the latest approaches to the provision of the nursing services of the finest quality within a specific community cannot possibly be underrated. However, compliance with the key quality standards seems to have deteriorated over the past few years in the realm of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). Therefore, the necessity to check the key issues that emerge in the specified environment, as well as locate the means of improving the present-day state of affairs within the NCSBN environment, emerges. By introducing the latest technological advances for facilitating a fast and efficient information transfer among the members of the organization and its subordinate services, one will be capable of promoting change in the NCSBN organization.
Healthcare Initiatives for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing
The promotion of high-quality nursing care is essential for promoting health among the target population, especially when it comes to the operation of the organizations as great as the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). The organization in question has issued a range of innovative regulations and created several innovative programs over the course of the past few years. However, the further implementation of these programs will require cohesion between the present-day healthcare initiatives and the current laws that the nursing system works according to.
Among the key quality initiatives, which have recently been promoted within the organization, the improvement of communication with the patients deserves to be mentioned first. According to the recent report filed by the organization, despite the incorporation of new technology into the framework of the organization’s operations, the process of receiving feedback from the patients and the organizations related to the NCSBN still leaves much to be desired).
Moreover, the specified problem affects the quality of long-term care across the United States (Kluge, 2013). The specified phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that communication between the patient and the corresponding healthcare services needs major improvement. As a response to the specified problem, the LANE framework has been administered to the healthcare facilities. Based on the specified initiative, the quality of care and, consequently, the quality of life will be improved considerably by promoting careful collection of feedback from the patients, a consistent communication process between the healthcare staff and the target audience will have to be promoted (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 48).
Another initiative, which the organization in question has launched recently, the one concerning the promotion of better nursing education, deserves to be mentioned. While the quality of nursing remains rather high in the United States (Armstrong, 2010), it still could use admittedly numerous improvements. Specifically, the issue of nursing education needs to be addressed. According to the recent estimations, in most cases, growth occurs on a linear scale in the nursing setting. The specified characteristics of the nursing environment affect the proficiency of the nursing staff to an impressive degree.
Finally, the initiative known as the inclusion of innovations in nursing education needs to be brought up. A comparatively recent addition to the overall list of the quality initiatives promoted in the NCSBN, the innovation in question can be deemed as rather important to the quality of the nursing services delivered by the corresponding experts. The study carried out by Spector (2012) has shown that the rigid hierarchy principles, which exist in the present-day nursing setting, affect the collaboration rates negatively; as a result, a complete restructuring of the information management processes has been suggested.
It should be noted, though, that the specified initiatives are likely to trigger major expenses within the organization. Consequently, a new and improved cost policy must be adopted within the organization. It is essential that the quality of the services provided should remain just as high as it is now; therefore, the cost policy should be geared towards searching for investors. Particularly, the organization may consider promoting the product of a certain company in pharmacy or healthcare. Thus, both contributing to raising awareness and raising funds for the NCSBN existence.
In fact, the information concerning the recent initiatives of the NCSBN organization listed above allows for identifying the key differences between the organization that is supported by the state government and the one that enters the healthcare market on its own. For instance, the need to plan the budget very carefully and to design a very elaborate cost strategy becomes part and parcel of a free-market healthcare system. While the specified characteristic creates the premises for a more flexible fiscal policy, it deprives an organization of the support that it may need in the face of a crisis (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2013, p. 28). Additionally, the need to adopt a cost-benefit approach in order to adapt to the rapidly changing environment of the global market emerges. Finally, the organizations such as NCSBN are self-regulated; while the state government does have a distant effect on the key processes that occur within the NCSBN organization, the latter still can be defined as an independent.
Despite the fact that law and medicine have seemingly few elements in common, a range of law quality initiatives has been issued along with the general ones in order to improve the present-day nursing setting. For instance, the initiative concerning the legalization of medicinal marijuana (Kaplan, 2012) can be viewed as a very debatable issue.
Another legal initiative, which has affected the realm of nursing services in general and the operations of the NCSBN organization in particular, the limits of the involvement, which a nurse or physician must display towards the patient, needs a closer examination (Scope of practice FAQs for consumers, n. d.). On the one hand, the specified regulation can be interpreted as a major improvement in the nursing services delivery, as it allows the nurse to be objective in the decision-making process. On the other hand, the lack of connection between a nurse and a patient may lead to a drop in engagement rates among nurses and, therefore, in the efficacy of services.
Eventually, the legal initiative known as the Campaign for Consensus can be listed among the key legal principles that NCSBN’s practices are guided by. The specified initiative is supposed to address the problems, which emerge in the course of aligning the standard APRN regulations with the current Consensus Model (Campaign for Consensus, 2015). Thus, the provision of the nursing services of better quality is facilitated by the NCSBN.
The legal principles listed above manifest the importance of improving quality services for the U.S. nurses and the related nursing organizations. As far as the NCSBN is concerned, the regulations mentioned above allow for a rapid increase in the quality of the healthcare services; specifically, the level of expertise that the NCSBN nurses have is enhanced easily once the regulations listed above are followed closely.
In addition, adherence to the aforementioned requirements will allow for improved communication with patients. The specified change in the design of the NCSBN services delivery is essential to the general performance of the organization and the wellbeing of its target patients. Indeed, enhanced communication process triggers a rapid increase in the rates of awareness among the patients; particularly, the issues concerning the means of identifying specific symptoms, locating the emerging problems so that they could be dealt with at the earliest stages of development, etc. Finally, the issue regarding the involvement of the therapist with the patient and the issues that the latter faces need to be addressed.
Despite the fact that general involvement in the patient’s course of recovery is traditionally encouraged among therapists and the healthcare staff, studies show that the latter may face considerable health issues themselves once focusing on the patients too much. Being under a permanent threat of developing depression, therapists and healthcare assistants need a more reasonable workload and a better thought out schedule. Indeed, studies show that emotional exhaustion stemming from the need to be sympathetic with every single patient often leads to the so-called burnouts. Defined as the “‘occurrence of emotional exhaustion, unusual fatigue, a cynical or detached working attitude and a feeling of decreasing competence” (Zielhorst et al., 2015), burnouts can be viewed as the cause of huge emotional distress.
Triggering the development of a range of psychological issues, most of which are extremely traumatic for the therapist in question, the specified issues are likely to affect not only the doctor but the patient as well. As soon as the therapist feels emotionally devastated, they will no longer be capable of providing the services of the required quality, which will inevitably affect the patient and their recovery rates. In the worst-case scenario, a degradation of the patient’s health can be observed 9).
The protection of the patients’ personal data is, perhaps, one of the key tasks for a nursing organization to take care of. Unfortunately, in the present-day realm of IT society, and the common use of digital data, the threat of cyber-attacks has become quite tangible. Though strategies for avoiding the specified threat are updated on a regular basis, the members of nursing facilities, as well as the patients thereof, are in constant jeopardy of having their personal data violated.
Therefore, it is crucial that the NCSBN organization should be not only equipped with the latest technological advances in IT technology but also provided with a safe data storage system. Password protection and the verification of the users’ ID (i.e., the nurses as the members of the healthcare facility) are imperative for promoting the safety of patient’s data.
One of the most significant healthcare services in the United States, the NCSBN, can be considered the prime example of what an organization working in the specified domain must represent and stand for. Despite the fact that some of the initiatives need further improvement and ore insight, the overall tendency for further evolution towards a patient-centered approach, which the organization displays, can be viewed as a rather favorable prognosis for its future development. It could be suggested, though, that NCSBN should adopt a more reasonable budgeting strategy.
Reference List
Armstrong, G. (2010). Quality and safety education for nurses update. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Web.
Campaign for Consensus. (2015).. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Web.
Kaplan, L. (2012). Medical marijuana and nursing practice in Washington state. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Web.
Kluge, L. (2013). Promoting quality care: Collaborating with your LANE convener. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Web.
Spector, N. (2012). The initiative to advance innovations in nursing education: Three years later. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 3(2), 40–42. Web.
Scope of practice FAQs for consumers. (n. d.). National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Web.
Teitelbaum, J. B., & Wilensky, S. E. (2013). Essentials of health policy and law (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Web.
Zielhorst, T., Brule, D. v.d., Visch, V., Melles, M., Tienhoven, S. v., Sinkbaek, H.,… & Lange, A. (2015). Using a digital game for training desirable behavior in cognitive–behavioral therapy of burnout syndrome: A controlled study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(2), 101–111. Web.