How can I make an impact in healthcare?

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A little background on me. I'm 27, a CNA, recently going back to school. I'm from the US.

I hope this is the right place to post this, I apologize if it's not. I was a lurker of allnurses for some years. Many of you have been helpful to me in situations I've found myself in.

I've had a passion to fix the healthcare system. In particular I often feel as a CNA that the geriatric population does not get the care they deserve. I want to fix that, I'm just not sure how. How do I influence our care standards so nursing homes have adequate CNAs? How can I help CNAs get better training and pay? How can I help RNs have less paperwork so they have time to focus on their patients?

My question is, what career path should I go down to influence and help fix these things? Would being a social worker make any sense here?

For a long time I always thought I wanted to be an RN. After careful consideration, I don't think that's the right path for me. I'm concerned about the high risk of physical injury and how my body will handle the intensity of nursing as I get older. But, I think this audience would have the right kind of insight to help me navigate what I should focus on.

Thank you for taking your time to read my post!

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The problem with LTC is that most of them are for-profit, so their primary consideration is maximizing their profits as much as legally possible. That means keeping staff and care down to a minimum. IMO, as long as that is the case, nothing is really going to change.

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Specializes in Acute, orthopaedic.

I've worked for a few places as a CNA, & short staffing was always an issue. I also felt helpless to do anything about it as a CNA. You're expected to provide top notch care and with minimal resources since the only thing the company cares about is the bottom line (money).

I think social work is a good choice if you want to try to make an impact and really advocate for the wellness of the employees. Happy nurses = happy patients and more money in the long run. Really though, it is something that needs to change at the system level. "Streamlining" aka "cutting corners" to save money is common practice these days all over the US. The accountants that run hospitals and LTC facilities do not care about the patients, they care about the money, and as long as that status quo remains I do not think there is much individuals can do.

If you want to make a difference at the organization you work for, then my suggestion would be to research data on how having more nurses and CNA's can lead to better reimbursement and better patient outcomes. Just saying "we need more nurses" to admin is not enough, at least in my experience, but if you can show them numbers you may be able to get some results. A good fix with a lot of these issues would be for employers to actually value their staff... Good luck with that, though.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

I would refer you to the general discussion board https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/differences-in-us-1045444.html. This is a wake up to how overstaffed we are compared to the world, how consumer friendly we are to the patients. The panacea we hear of government run healthcare wouldn't fly here, we are too pampered.

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Specializes in Acute, orthopaedic.

That's really interesting that we are overstaffed in comparison. Makes me think about how much time is wasted on the customer service focus that we have now & the HCAHP scores rather than providing quality care/education. All the documentation & necessary C.Y.A is also time consuming...

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

I guess the question we must ask is how bare bones of services are we willing to give up? We have "free" health care here, it's called the VA. Are we willing to lower our expectations to that? The second question is, are we willing to have a loser pays legal system? People can make false accusations to get a payout instead of having just cause. This drives up costs.

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Specializes in ICU.

"Fix the healthcare system"? I am also idealistic and like to try to make improvements. But there is no job where that would be possible. Even with power, money and influence that would be more than a little challenging, I'm sorry. I applaud your aims though. I come from a country with a government-run healthcare system and we end up with similarly stressed and over-worked nurses/CNA's, just for different reasons.

If you would like to improve things on a smaller scale then nursing leadership and nursing management would be a good aim. Maybe you are physically healthy enough for RN training and some time to gain experience before a management position? You could make some changes from within, maybe manage a nursing home, introduce certain basic levels of training, campaign for more staff, inspire, advocate and lead.

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I am saying this with all seriousness: Healthcare law and advocacy. Get involved on the political level.

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Study Healthcare Policy. A nursing degree would not be the most advantageous for your goals.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Politics? Everything we have is a reflection of our current reimbursement system & Fed Gov is the largest payor.

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Politics? Everything we have is a reflection of our current reimbursement system & Fed Gov is the largest payor.

And that's working out real good.

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Specializes in PCCN.
That's really interesting that we are overstaffed in comparison. Makes me think about how much time is wasted on the customer service focus that we have now & the HCAHP scores rather than providing quality care/education. All the documentation & necessary C.Y.A is also time consuming...

where are we overstaffed? why are we running around like idiots then, barely getting what we need done?The acuity is ridiculous now, and they have been increasing our patient load while eliminating techs.

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