Advocacy Issues in Nursing & Healthcare Leadership

Under popular value-based care models, nursing rates are wrapped into the bigger hospital bill, making their contributions to business revenue invisible. Hospitals are rewarded for understaffing nurses because nurses are viewed as a cost in this financial model, no different than the gauze they use to wrap a wound or the IV pool they hang medications on.

Since the height of the pandemic, the number of nurse entrepreneurs has increased significantly, and the trend shows no sign of slowing, thanks in large part to the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which have made finding creative and lucrative business ideas easier than ever.

Coined by the Nursing Executive Centre of the Advisory Board, the experience-complexity gap describes the dangerously widening difference between the average nurse’s knowledge today and the rapidly increasing complexity of the patients they serve and the technology they must oversee. Put simply, patients have never been sicker, the technology required to keep them alive has never been more involved, and the nurses overseeing their care have never been less knowledgeable and experienced, through no fault of their own.

NPs in states that offer the most practice autonomy will find the easiest path to opening their own practice. Whereas NPs working in states with restricted practice must find a supervising physician to collaborate with them.

For many NPs, advocacy concerns a particular issue close to their heart, one connected to underserved patients who deserve additional support. For Dr. Jessica Peck, the issue is the fight against human trafficking.

As part of progress towards a more inclusive and just society, it is essential to recognize and challenge the stereotypes within nursing. These misconceptions have led to a lack of diversity in the nursing workforce and have prevented individuals from pursuing or excelling in their nursing careers. Nurses and the broader healthcare community must prioritize confronting these stereotypes and dismantling them with education, advocacy, and visibility of the diverse and capable individuals in the nursing profession.

Given that nurses are among the clinicians who face high rates of exposure to these types of stress, it’s reasonable to ask what role nursing could play in avoiding or preventing insurance denials. It turns out that the research shows there are many steps that nurses can take to reduce the probability that their patients will experience an insurance company’s denial of care.

Recent survey results show that a quarter to half of nurses feel emotionally drained, used up, fatigued, and burned out several times a week, or even every day (NCSBN 2023). Nearly a fifth of the current nursing workforce has stated their intent to leave the profession by 2027, with a significant portion of those statements coming from nurses under 40. With an aging population and an ongoing need for healthcare services, America can’t afford to lose this much of its vital nursing workforce.

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, nurses often find themselves at the epicenter of relentless demands. Extended shifts, emotionally charged situations, and the ever-present call of duty can make achieving a nurse work-life balance seem elusive.

While a nursing job in the US is often advertised as the start of a new American dream for these nurses, many find the experience a nightmare instead, thanks to the profoundly exploitative business practices many international recruitment agencies employ.