Running head: ANALYSIS OF A U.S.

Analysis of a U.S. Health Care Policy

Sherwin Llevares

Grand Canyon University: NSG-436

July 12, 2020

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Introduction

Being in a healthcare field it is important to recognize policies that involves health care.

The bill H.B 2260, is based upon the idea of emergency care within the healthcare facility. This

bill has a very direct goal as it aims to decrease mortality rate in facilities by providing CPR

training and first aid. This can cause multiple circumstances for the facility. In the end of this

essay, the policy will be explained along with the advantages and the disadvantages, major

stockholders will be clarified, the impact it has on nursing will be described, and a recommended

change that could be set forth.

Summary of U.S. Policy

The bill H.B 2260 focuses upon how all licensed health care institution must be required

to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training. The facility would provide

and pay for the training in order to ensure that all staff is certified for emergency care. It is

essential because it ensure that action can be taken for “resuscitation or first aid is accessible in

accordance with the resident’s guidelines for the DNR form” (H.B. 2260, 2020). Furthermore,

this bill helps protects staff member by not being held accountable for any lawsuits for

performing the lifesaving measures; as long as staff members act upon facilities protocol.

Major Stakeholders

Major stakeholders are a big contributor and influencer to policy making. In this specific

policy, the major stakeholders include the patient and their families, facility administration, and

the health care provider (Garcia, Harrison, Goodwin, 2016). Each of these stakeholders will be

impacted differently in their own aspect when it comes to the policy. For example, the facility

administrators’ roles are to implement the new policy within the facility. They must find the

resources such as money to train the staff and the professional educators to provide the training.
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It can be stressful for the administration staff as it can be difficult to be compliant with the new

policy due to the many resources it needs. In addition, it also affects the patient and their family

because it would increase the cost of living in the facility due to the demand for financial

resources the policy needs. This could potentially push clients away to a different facility where

the cost of living is lower. This ultimately hurts the facility financially. However, If the patient

decides to stay; then the new policy would be enforced and therefore the new funds would go

directly to the staff training. Lastly, the new policy would impact the provider as well. They

would be required to undergo a certification training for CPR and first aid. This affects their

schedule where they would have to find time to complete the training in order to be able to work

in the facility. By implementing the new policy it affects each of the stakeholder in their own

unique way.

Positives, Negatives, and Impact of Policy

This policy can impact the organization, employees, and patients in both positive and

negative. An obvious positive outcome would be that it reduces mortality rate within a healthcare

facility. In an observational study of the impact of CPR training on health care workers, it stated

that, “with previous BLS training event and re-education staff members it enhanced their

knowledge and skills” (Abolfotouh, Alnasser, Berhanu, Al-Turaif, & Alfayez, 2017). This is a

positive impact because it gives a reassurance to the patients that the staff are competent enough

to be able to perform such highly skilled lifesaving techniques. In addition, this bill demonstrated

that a “repeated educational programs can improve the attitude towards a CPR performance”

(Abolfotouh, et all., 2017). This allows nurses to be more confident in their ability of saving

someone’s life. However, like all policy, it does display a negative aspect such as the process of

training staff member. For example, allocating the funds to pay a professional educator to train
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all employees, and coordinating schedule availability for the staff to attend the class. Some

nurses may be reluctant to undergo another certification as it can be time consuming.

Furthermore, current nurses in the facility might be affected by this new policy because they

might need to get recertified before going back to work. However, being able to appropriately

train staff members with lifesaving methods, not only impacts facility but can also greatly impact

the community. The more nurses that are equipped to demonstrate lifesaving methods shows that

the facility values the patients’ lives which builds a rapport between the community and the

facility. Lastly, the greatest impact on this bill would be the decreased mortality rate for the

patient by increasing the response time for emergent care.

Nursing Practice Impact

The new policy will greatly impact the legislative and regulatory aspect of nursing care.

Under the Nurse Licensure Compact, nurses are “obliged to abide by the nursing practice laws in

the state where the patient is located” (“American Nurses Association,” n.d.). The enactment of

this bill in Arizona requires all registered nurses to receive CPR and first aid training within the

facility. This poses a threat to nurses’ jobs as facilities may have to lay off nurses to allocate

funds towards the new policy. In turn, there will be changes in the patient to nurse ratio. This

impacts nursing care due to increase stress of everyday task of having low nurse census which

can lead to nurse burn outs and safety concerns for patients.

Revisions of Policy

One recommendation of change that is advisable for this policy is the recertification

aspect. According to American Red Cross, “CPR skill retention declines within a few months of

initial training.” It is essential that nurses learn CPR but it is volatile and risky for them to get

certified and yet forget minor details that can impact the outcome of life saving measures. The
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recertification aspect to this policy should be added yearly due to new evidence-based practices

that improves life saving measures.

There are positive and negative aspects in this new policy. The implementation of this

policy can promote patient safety by providing competent nurses in emergency care. In addition,

the recertification in the policy can promote better patient outcome in times of emergency care.

In conclusion, this policy provides more benefit than disadvantages.

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References

Abolfotouh, M. A., Alnasser, M. A., Berhanu, A. N., Al-Turaif, D. A., & Alfayez, A. I. (2017).

Impact of basic life-support training on the attitudes of health-care workers toward

cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation. BMC health services research, 17(1),

674. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2621-5

American Nurses Association. (n.d.). Interstate nurse licensure compact. Retrieved from

https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/state/interstate-nurse-compact2/

American Red Cross. (2020). CPR renewal and recertification. Retrieved from

https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/cpr-training/cpr-renewal

Garcia, T. J., Harrison, T. C., & Goodwin, J. S. (2016). Nursing Home Stakeholder Views of

Resident Involvement in Medical Care Decisions. Qualitative health research, 26(5),

712–728. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315573206

H.B. 2260, 45th Legislature, 2nd Reg. Sess. (Az. 2020).