Policy Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Policy Making - Essay Example The contacts can be found in a government directory. The next step is initiating contact. This involves calling the offices or traveling to the offices personally. If an appointment is granted, the plan moves to the next part which involves correspondence on material. This is the part where any question that will be posed to the policy makers during the visit get availed to allow ample time for preparation. In addition, the policy makers will get a copy of the policy recommendation report to allow them to prepare for the discussion during the visit. After providing the material in focus, the next stage will involve setting up a date for the visit and the itinerary. The itinerary is generally focused on arrival at the policy makers’ offices and a schedule of the debates that will take place. The itinerary will be approved by both sides (we, the visitors and the policy makers). The visit will last for not more than two hours (Bensley & Brookins-Fisher, 2008). Overview of Recomme ndations The key strategies of the recommendations are proper patient-to-nurse ratio staffing, proper shift managements, and proper overtime management. The importance of these aspects of nursing is that they are the backbone of proper nursing environment. On proper nurse-to-patient ratio, the problem was that nurses in many hospitals were overwhelmed by the work they had to do. In some cases, one nurse had to tend to over sixty patients. This is a dangerous situation because nurses who are overwhelmed by their work get fatigued and, as a result, produce poor quality results (Kenner & Finkelman, 2012). On proper shift management, the problem identified was that nurses had to do very long shifts and in most cases worked on the same working quadrant for a long time. The long shifts made the nurses fatigued and demoralized them. The notion of working in the same quadrant over a long period of time made their work seem repetitive. Repetitive work makes the nurses numb to developments in the workplace. These developments are such as patient condition deterioration or any routine procedures that may need to be changed. My recommendation at this point is that the nurses should work shifts of less than eight hours and that the hospitals should do frequent rotation of the nurses in the wards (Kenner & Finkelman, 2012). On overtime management, the problem identified was that nurses did much overtime work. Daytime nurses tended to stretch their shifts into the night and vice versa. Other nurses took weekend jobs. The problem with overtime work is that it exhausts the nurses and confuses the doctors who will have already changed shifts. My recommendation is that nurses should be allowed as little overtime work as possible due to the nature of their work. Their work is sensitive and demands a lot of keenness (Kenner & Finkelman, 2012). Analysis of Empirical Evidence Empirical evidence showed that nurses who worked for long shifts had alarmingly poor results with many nursi ng related conditions attributed to them. Generally, nurses who worked long shifts complained of loss of concentration in work and stress. Doctors who worked with nurses, who worked long shifts, complained of laxity among those nurses and reduction in the quality of the nurses’ work. The case was worse among nurses who were registered and their unregistered assistants. In such cases, there was a breakdown in communication. Registered nurses who