Leadership Paper on Patient Rights in Hospital Settings, Free Example

Nurses play a very important role in the hospital setting. It is of significant importance to possess leadership qualities among nurses that ensure patient safety. Leadership qualities on patient rights can affect nurses' performance in ensuring patient outcomes. Hence, the safety and well- being of patients depends on the leadership qualities nurses poses. Many hospitals today are struggling with many lawsuits due to a patient breach of rights. Hence, it is important to improve patient care outcomes by ensuring that nurses are equipped with effective leadership skills. The role of nurse leaders is to ensure that patients receive the ideal care. At the administration level, nurse leaders must ensure patient rights are protected. They are involved in evaluating and training new nurses to ensure that they align their job to patient safety management. Therefore, this paper delves into explaining how leadership is important in promoting patient rights in hospital settings. It discusses the role of nurse leaders in ensuring patients' rights are protected and respected. Patients' rights include protection of their personal information, access to care, and the right to respect and dignity. It is the mandate of nurse leaders to ensure that these rights are followed to the later to ensure positive patient outcomes.

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Patients have the right to privacy and confidentiality in any health care organizations (HCOs). A patient expects that all communications and records provided at the hospital remain confidential. Hence, nurses should treat all patient information as confidential. They should not speak of their patients' information with other people or share their records. Many HCOs today have managed to protect patients' personal information using many methods. Nurse leaders are trained on the requisite record handling procedures. They are trained in how to keep book records and files systematically to avoid confusion. In the modern day, technology has improved how patient information is handled. With the computerization of files and records, nurses can use the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (Daly, Jackson, Mannix, Davidson, & Hutchinson, 2014). The HER system allows nurses to record patients medical data on a central computer system digitally. The digitalized system has enhanced the protection of patient's right to privacy and confidentiality. The Privacy Rule has also enhanced leadership on patient rights in hospital settings. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA), established the Privacy Act. The act regulates how health care providers handle patient medical data. Since the establishment, if the act, nurse leaders are federally required to protect patient information.

Nurse leaders are mandated to use two basic tenants to ensure the safety and confidentiality of patient medical information. The first is awareness of their surrounding and proper document handling protocol. Awareness of surrounding or situational awareness requires that nurses avoid discussing their patients' information openly. It is the responsibility of nurses to avoid discussing patient data either consciously or unconsciously. However, if it accidentally happens, HIPAA takes disciplinary actions on the nurse (Daly et al., 2014). Nurses can take personal responsibility in case of an accidental breach of patient information. However, HIPAA is not always so lenient and may impose strict regulations on such a breach. The second tenant is using proper documentation. It means that nurses are required to use proper handling procedures. It includes disposing of hard copies of sensitive patient records. Nurses should not leave hard copies of patient information carelessly. It should be disposed after use or locked up in a safety cabinet. When these two important measures are undertaken, patient outcomes are always negative. By using surrounding or situational awareness, nurses can avoid a patient breach of confidence. Consequently, proper handling procedures can be used to ensure the protection of patient information from leaking. Therefore, HCOs can use the two methods to avoid the numerous lawsuits that are piling up due to patient confidentiality breaches.

Patients have the right to access quality medical care and services. Leadership on patient access to care requires the elimination of prejudices and discrimination in any HCO environment. Patients should access medical treatment regardless of their race, sex, nationality, religious affiliations, economic status, and disability. The modern hospital care is faced with the challenge of enforcing equitable and improve patient care. The challenge is compounded by a lack to weave leadership skills and care management. Additionally, the challenge develops because of increased consumer expectations and demands (Himmelstein, Woolhandler, Almberg, & Fauke, 2018). The number of people in need of medical care has become increasingly many over the years. It is estimated the United States spends more on health care every year than any other sector of its economy. The U.S government has made striding steps to improve medical care by making it affordable. Through the establishment of health insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the government sought to make healthcare accessible. However, despite the nation's efforts to offer medical accessibility for all, most Americans cannot afford medical care. It is estimated that 44 million Americans have no healthcare insurance (Himmelstein et al., 2018). Without a health insurance cover, an individual cannot access medical care, especially in private hospitals. Therefore, without a health insurance cover, most people do not go for regular checkups. Moreover, in case of sickness, the uninsured have limited access to medicine and other services. Those who also find it hard to afford healthcare end up delaying treatment. As such, they succumb to diseases that could have been easily treated or avoided if detected early. Therefore, it is important that nurse leaders can identify such people and cater to them no matter the circumstances. The existence of so many non-profit hospitals today has also made it easier for the uninsured to access medical care.

Leadership on patient's rights is dependent on respect and dignity. Patients have the right to respectful and dignified care in any hospital setting. Respecting the dignity and worth of an individual is of utmost importance because it produces positive patient outcomes. In their practice, nurses are mandated to provide respectful care to their patients at all times. However, it is often hard to understand patients' idea of what it means to be respected by medical practitioners. Several pieces of research have been conducted to investigate this problematic situation. One case study used on survivors of the cardiac attack to investigate their opinion of respect by medical providers. The study used interviewing method to conducts its research. The results showed that most patients believed that respect involved: dignity, empathy, access to information, and attention to one's needs (Beach et al., 2015). Hence, based on these elements, the patient's view of respect is based on the use of consciousness. Nurses and other medical providers should be more perceptive when it comes to the feelings of patients. Most studies have suggested that there is a strong correlation between respect and patient outcomes. Patients that feel are more respected will show improved clinical outcomes (Beach et al., 2015). Subsequently, satisfaction with the care and services provided will be greater with patients that feel respected. Thus, leadership in patient's right to respect and dignity is important in determining clinical outcomes and care satisfaction.

The importance of leadership on patient's rights is not to be underestimated. It is significantly important to provide leadership management in hospital settings. Leadership equips nurses with requisite skills to follow patients' rights. When the right leadership is exercised on patients' rights, improved health outcomes are achieved (Daly et al., 2014). The effects of leadership on patient outcomes is overwhelming. There exists a relationship between leadership and patient satisfaction, mortality, healthcare utilization, and safety. When the right leadership protocol is observed on patients' rights, satisfaction is achieved. Many studies have proved that patient, and family satisfaction is achieved when the rights of a person are full filed. On the other hand, patients that register dissatisfaction with a hospital are often mistreated or abused. Abuse is not necessarily physical but emotional and psychological. For example, nurses who show lack of empathy towards their patients subjects them to emotional trauma. A patient needs to feel well taken care of by being perceptive of their needs and emotions. Subsequently, patients should feel the worth of their money by getting quality care. Therefore, nurses must treat patient's information carefully, respect them, and offer quality care. Effective leadership styles are positively related to nurses' performance in respecting and protecting patients' rights. Nurse leaders also must provide support and resources that encourage the achievement of patient outcomes. It is important that all medical stakeholders participate in the leadership of patient's rights to improve health care safety and quality.

In conclusion, leadership on patients' rights in hospital settings improves clinical outcomes. The major patient rights include privacy and confidentiality, access to care, and respect and dignity. Patients have the right to privacy and confidentiality. It means that nurses are required to protect the patient's medical records. Nurses should not give any personal details or discuss medical data without the patient's or family's consent. If such a case happens then those involved should be reliable for their actions as is mandated by HIPAA. Likewise, patients have the right to access care regardless of their differences. Leaders stemming from the government to medical administrators are responsible for providing access to medical care. All individuals should gain access to medical services regardless of their socio or economic status. Furthermore, patients have the right to respect and dignity. Therefore, nurse leaders should ensure that patients are treated with the utmost respect to their dignity and individuality. The link between leadership and the protection of patient's rights exists. Leadership management is required in the practice of patient's rights by medical practitioners. For instance, nurse leaders can promote the awareness of patients' rights by motivation and training of nurses. Hence, it is important to have leaders either in government or the medical field that can champion for the rights of patients. When leadership on patient rights is effective, it promotes the improvement of patient outcomes.

References

Beach, M. C., Forbes, L., Branyon, E., Aboumatar, H., Carrese, J., Sugarman, J., & Geller, G. (2015). Patient and family perspectives on respect and dignity in the intensive care unit. Narrative inquiry in bioethics, 5(1), 15A-25A.

Daly, J., Jackson, D., Mannix, J., Davidson, P. M., & Hutchinson, M. (2014). The importance of clinical leadership in the hospital setting. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 6, 75-83.

Himmelstein, D. U., Woolhandler, S., Almberg, M., & Fauke, C. (2018). The US Health Care Crisis Continues: A Data Snapshot. International Journal of Health Services, 48(1), 28-41.