Community & public health nursing: promoting the public’s health

Nursing: Protecting and Compensating Healthcare Workers


Nursing is the practice of caring for patients or people who are hospitalized. Health issues are highly valued in society, particularly at the hospital level. The government always establishes laws and regulations that guide and, at times, protect health personnel. Unfortunately, there are situations when these health professionals' rights are jeopardized and their lives are jeopardized (Marmot et al., 2012). Nurses encounter a variety of issues, including remuneration, workplace aggression, understaffing, and occupational dangers. A law stating the cause of action to be taken should be enacted. It should the law should safeguard the well-being of the nurses and ensure that correct measures are taken to protect health workers. This paper seeks to propose a bill that will ensure nurses are protected and compensated in case of an accident or infection at their work place.


Workplace Hazards Faced by Nurses


Talking of workplace hazards, nurses are the most endangered group. To begin with, they are exposed to infectious diseases. Examples of these include hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and HIV (Allender et al., 2013). Some of these diseases are fatal and therefore put their lives in danger. In this perspective, nurses are also exposed to blood-borne pathogens. This might be caused by the lack of correct attire when carrying out duties. If this proposed bill could become a law, it would make sure that the companies go an extra mile to prevent these exposures. They would take necessary precautions to make sure that they are not penalized and are not forced to compensate workers by the law. However, it might be the failure of the company to provide its workers with the correct and high-quality working equipment. For example, the continuous use of latex may cause allergic reactions. Depending on the worker's body, some allergies are very severe to a point of threatening the life of the person. This might be caused by laxity in treatment of mild allergic reactions or prolonged exposure to the cause of the allergy. If this proposal could be enacted to a law, it would ensure that when such things happen to nurses, they are well compensated. This would motivate them to continue doing their job as it would be a gesture of appreciation. The law would protect them from being abused.


Chemical and Radiation Exposure


Another type of workplace hazard is chemical and radiation exposure. Nurses are always coming into contact with the sterilizing agents as they are required to sterilize equipment, especially used in surgery (Raihan, 2017). These sterilizing agents are dangerous chemicals when exposed to them for long hours. Chemotherapy drugs also expose risk to the nurses. Although the effects are not common to every person, the drugs might cause skin rashes and itching. The government should ensure that caution and safety measures are exercised. Radiation affects nurses most working in the radiology department. This means that they are at risk of getting cancer and other radiation-related infections. As a matter of fact, most radiation caused infections are fatal and irreversible, therefore causing permanent damage to the victim. The compensation bill proposed would ensure that any affected employees, especially nurses, are compensated or treated for free. Where the effects of the hazard reflect as fatal, the bill would determine ways of compensation and protecting nurses from such calamities.


Assault and Workplace Violence


Assault and workplace violence are common workplace hazards facing nurses in general, but specifically those operating in the psychiatric departments (Wu et al., 2012). The assault may be physical, verbal, or even emotional. When a nurse is undergoing emotional assault, it builds up into stress and later shows up in physical ways. For example, depression and headaches, as a result of this, the nurse will not be able to perform their duties as obligated. Their attention to patients will deteriorate, leading to poor performance. The proposed bill would compensate their long working hours with some off-duty days, allowing them to take good rest. If a nurse was injured by a patient through any physical assault, they would be compensated and given free treatment.


Hygiene-Caused Infections


Hygiene caused infections are another example of a hazard affecting the nurses. This is specifically hand hygiene, which causes severe contact dermatitis. Even though it's the mandate of the health workers to ensure they maintain high levels of hygiene, the environment around remains a threat. The protection and compensation bill would ensure that the environment surrounding the hospital is clean and sanitized. Nurses would be provided with hand sanitizers and gloves to ensure they are infection-free. It would also provide bonuses as rewards for undertaking the risks involved in this field. The above-discussed workplace hazards can all be eradicated or limited if the proposal could be enacted into law.


The Process of Making Laws


Laws are a set of rules that are generated and enforced by a governmental institution to control behavior. Laws are generated as ideas by a member of Senate or a representative who is referred to as the sponsor of the bill. The law-making process involves a set of stages. From the idea of the representative, it is taken to a committee for study, and if passed, the bill is now placed on the calendar to be voted on (Wawro&Schickler, 2013). It is debated upon and amended where need be, and if passed it's taken to the House of Senate. In this house, the bill is passed to another committee for debating and amendment. The bill is then passed by a simple majority (51 of 100). At the end of it, a conference committee from both house and Senate work together to solve any differences that may have arisen during the bill debating and amendment. The House of Senate concludes with the bill for the final approval before being presented to the president. The bill is printed by The Government Printing Office and is presented to the president to sign within 10 days. The nurses' protection and compensation bill would simply take this course and become a law.


Nurses as Advocates for Change


Nurses, being a very influential group in the community and political level, can take this proposal and legislate it into law. This will begin by taking an idea to the House of Representatives and supporting their bill (Anderson, 2014). For example, a law prohibiting their exposure to radiation and other harmful chemicals would be very helpful. It would also mention the compensation terms and how to do it. This will ensure that any company that exposes its health workers to such conditions is prosecuted and the employees will be compensated. Through the above-discussed law-making process, not only a single law can be made, but several. The law against assault and any kind of violence that nurses may be exposed to as they carry out their duty. This will ensure that they are comfortable in their working areas and therefore able to deliver as expected. The exposure of nurses to workplace hazards is an alarming concern that could generate a bill, which will be legislated to a law for the safety of the health workers.


The Power of Laws in Protecting Nurses


The protection and compensation bill would reinforce the rules and regulations and also protect the needs and rights of the nurses. The reason as to this is because the law, unlike the rules and regulations, is a stronger system of rules that has been set and has severe consequences if broken (Rothman, 2017). An employee can easily take the company to court and sue them. Also, the working environment would be highly improved as the law will be restricting any exposure to hazardous conditions or equipment. Laws will ensure that hospitals and private companies compensate their employees or reward them as a way of motivating them. They will be proactive in minimizing the risks involved in the field of nursing. For example, handling patients with cold and flu germs, nurses should be given vaccines and also antiviral masks that will ensure they are not exposed. Therefore, it will be a united role to make sure nurses are safe.


Conclusion


Overall, hospitals, the government, and health systems should always make it their objective to ensure that the environment around is favoring the health workers. This new law would really advocate for the same, in which case legislation of laws would be very effective (Collins et al., 2015). They should also have a safety officer who will ensure the safety of all nurses and health workers is paramount.

References


Allender, J., Rector, C., & Warner, K. (2013). Community & public health nursing: promoting the public’s health. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.


Marmot, M., Allen, J., Bell, R., Bloomer, E., & Goldblatt, P. (2012). WHO European review of social determinants of health and the health divide. The Lancet, 380(9846), 1011-1029.


Raihan, M. (2017). Thesis Paper On Sterilization of Medical Textile (Doctoral dissertation, Daffodil international university).


Wu, S., Zhu, W., Li, H., Lin, S., Chai, W., & Wang, X. (2012). Workplace violence and influencing factors among medical professionals in China. American journal of industrial medicine, 55(11), 1000-1008.


Wawro, G. J., & Schickler, E. (2013). Filibuster: Obstruction and lawmaking in the US Senate. Princeton University Press.


Anderson, J. E. (2014). Public policymaking. Cengage Learning.


Rothman, D. J. (2017). Strangers at the bedside: A history of how law and bioethics transformed medical decision making. Routledge.


Collins, S. R., Rasmussen, P. W., Doty, M. M., & Beutel, S. (2015). The rise in health care coverage and affordability since health reform took effect. Commonwealth Fund: Washington, DC.

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