Introduction
The nursing workforce of the United States of America undergoes significant changes and faces many challenges. The overall aging of the population, as well as growing technological demand in the medical sphere, requires rapid adaptation of healthcare professionals to new realities. Rural medicine and underserviced communities lack the proper flow of medical professionals and financing, thus placing the lives of the citizens in danger. In addition, the difficulties inside the organizations that are determined by understaffing and burnout emphasize the need to revise current national policies concerning the nursing workforce and improve the situation. The challenges that particular organizations face today are linked to the macro-level decision-making and have to be addressed by the new legislation. In this report, a pending bill entitled S.1399 – Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019 will be analyzed with thorough attention paid to its impact on professional nursing, equitable care, and financing of the healthcare sphere.
The Importance of the Pending Bill
US Congress has introduced a bill aimed at the revision and extension of developmental nursing programs. S.1399 – Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019 is a document that allows for amending the Public Health Services Act as per the changes in nursing staffing. It was introduced into Congress on May 9, 2019, and was forwarded to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. On September 5, 2019, the bill was introduced in Senate and is now pending approval. In case of successful implementation, the law might provide a scope of benefits for the current nursing workforce situation in the country.
The importance of this bill to the citizens of the USA is determined by numerous intertwined factors. The evident reason for the bill’s introduction is the growing shortage of nursing staff across the states. It adversely affects the quality of medical services provided for the patients. The international standards of nursing professionalization are based on the identification of human resources as the main determinant influencing the quality of medical service (Gunn, Muntaner, Villeneuve, Chung, & Gea-Sanchez, 2018). People’s lives depend on the macro-level decision-making and national legislation that controls the ways in which healthcare develops. The bill aims at addressing the deficit of human resources in the sphere by introducing new programs. They will adjust “the distribution of the nursing workforce … in geographic areas that have been identified as having, or that are projected to have, a nursing shortage” (US Congress, 2019, para. 14). The appropriate number of professionals covering the needs of the community members will ensure the improvement of healthcare service quality.
Moreover, as new technologies and evidence-based methodologies enter the profession, it is imperative to ensure the usage of the newest data in practice. By doing so, the healthcare specialists provide the highest-quality services and use all the potential available for the latest research to help save lives and maintain the health of the citizens. According to the text of the pending bill, the links of the partnership between nursing schools and facilities will be established to meet the needs of particular organizations and communities (US Congress, 2019). Therefore, renewed programs of education and training will meet the demands of the rapidly developing medical sphere.
The bill addresses a significant issue in the US healthcare access, which is the quality and availability of care in rural and underserviced communities (US Congress, 2019). The renewed programs of workforce distribution, as well as loan repayment programs, will benefit the citizens in areas that lack financial opportunities or are located far from medical centers. Health issues of such patients from remote regions will be resolved with the help of efficient workforce distribution and financing. Therefore, there is a scope of issues that will be resolved by the bill if it becomes the law and will ultimately improve the quality of service for the citizens of the USA.
The Bill’s Impacts on Professional Nursing
Nursing understaffing is an issue of national concern that impacts the opportunities and achievements of the whole sphere of healthcare. According to Juraschek, Zhang, Ranganathan, and Lin (2019), the future of the nurse supply and demand is endangered by the growing need of a rapidly aging population for relevant care. The research findings demonstrate that by the year 2030, the United States will lack 918 232 registered nurse jobs (Juraschek et al., 2019). That is why it is crucial to provide urgent actions in order to mitigate the forecasts concerning the nursing workforce deficit and ensure the relevant distribution of human resources across the organizations.
As the title of the act implies, the primary area of interest of this bill’s authors is the reauthorization of the nursing workforce as an opportunity to reform the field of primary healthcare. The text of the act initiates changes to the Public Health Service Act with a specific aim to update the legislation concerning professional nursing staffing across the USA. The starting point of the bill is the revision of the role of education in the field of nursing. It is required to identify and meet the demands of training with regard to specific fields of work for the students of medical, educational institutions. The analyzed legal document initiates “developing and implementing internships, accredited fellowships, and accredited residency programs in collaboration with one or more accredited schools of nursing, to encourage the mentoring and development of specialties” (US Congress, 2019, para. 39). Such an approach to improving the educational system will encourage more young specialists to join the healthcare field, as well as will benefit the quality of performance.
Since one of the reasons for workforce shortage is burnout, it is necessary to address the issue of professionalization of the nursing sphere with the aim of the improvement of working conditions. As Gunn et al. (2018) state, “nursing professionalization is positively associated with numerous characteristics of the nursing workforce, which, in turn, are linked to improved patient, organizational, and health system outcomes” (p. 7). Therefore, attempts to improve the professionalization of the nursing sphere in terms of increasing income opportunities, prestige level, and career growth should be made. The bill under analysis offers a series of adjustments and improvements to the current nursing workforce legislation with an aim to reach the strategic national goal of increasing the number of registered nurses capable of meeting the population’s demand.
In addition, the current document does not only provide a system of procedures aimed at the improvement of the workforce situation but also introduces a detailed monitoring measure. According to the bill, biennial reports are required to be presented to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives (US Congress, 2019). The report should reflect the thorough assessment of the program implementation with an aim to determine the effectiveness of nursing workforce enhancement. Thus, the bill will be beneficial for professional nursing on multiple levels.
Equitable Care under the Influence of the Bill
Besides the priority set on the elimination of nursing workforce shortage, the authors of the bill pay significant attention to the enhancement of equitable care in different regions of the country. Indeed, the issue of access to healthcare facilities and services is crucially important for modern US society. In accordance with Juraschek et al. (2019), the problem of understaffing in the existing medical organization and the lack of a necessary number of specialists in particular communities impose poor-quality service problems. As a result, people are treated unequally and are exposed to health impairments, morbidity, and mortality.
According to the document, the new law should aim at “increasing access to and the quality of healthcare services” (US Congress, 2019, para. 13). The initiation of nurse-managed health clinics will ensure medical service delivery to rural communities, which are located in remote areas and lack sufficient care. Also, the same kind of facility is required for the populations that are determined as underserviced or vulnerable (US Congress, 2019). The provision of equitable care for all layers of society will increase the national level of well-being. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch of power to address this issue and find human and financial resources to ensure healthcare delivery to all US citizens.
Financial Impact
S.1399 – Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019 addresses the financial side of the implementation of changes to the nursing workforce enhancement program. In particular, the initiation of healthcare delivery programs for underserviced and vulnerable communities is assembled with financial aid procedures. The authors of the bill claim that “federal funds are intended to supplement, not supplant, existing non-federal expenditures” for all activities aimed at the delivery of qualified healthcare services to the targeted populations (US Congress, 2019, para. 9). In such a way, the communities that face financial challenges will have an opportunity to obtain qualified nurses with an opportunity to have loans from federal organizations. As a result, graduates from nursing schools will be attracted to the communities where their services are most needed. The intended changes will be carried out in a more efficient and timely manner due to the favorable conditions of funding as ensured by the document.
Conclusion
To summarize the analysis of the pending bill addressing the nursing workforce, it is relevant to emphasize that it is important that this document becomes law due to its numerous merits. Firstly, it meets the requirements of qualified and evidence-based education-driven healthcare that will benefit the patients across the states. Secondly, the bill will leverage the issue of human resource shortage in professional nursing by enhancing programs of workforce distribution and professionalization of the sphere. Thirdly, the document ensures the equitability of care by fostering access programs for rural and underserviced communities. Fourthly, the financial side of the nursing workforce enhancing is also covered in the document. Special loan programs ensure rapid implementation of the offered changes on the local level. Finally, the presence of multiple difficulties in the field of professional nursing and healthcare delivery necessitates significant changes in the current legislation.
References
Gunn, V., Muntaner, C., Villeneuve, M., Chung, H., & Gea-Sanchez, M. (2018). Nursing professionalization and welfare state policies: A critical review of structural factors influencing the development of nursing and the nursing workforce. Nursing Inquiry, 26(1), 1-12.
Juraschek, S. P., Zhang, X., Ranganathan, V., & Lin, V. W. (2019). United States registered nurse workforce report card and shortage forecast. American Journal of Medical Quality, 34(5), 473-481.
US Congress. (2019). S.1399 – Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019.Web.