What is the State Legislature Doing To Improve Healthcare in Texas?

It's estimated that there's a shortage of nearly 300,000 nurses in the United States, according to data from global consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Combined with the contemporary challenges posed by employee turnover post-pandemic can make it seem like taking on a role as a family nurse practitioner may lack support or be difficult to take on.

In reality, state legislatures such as those in Texas are making multi-billion dollar investments to tackle these issues head-on - to ensure that the nurses of today are empowered to support their patients and that the nurses of tomorrow enter a career that is highly supported and valued.

Beginning a career as a doctor, nurse, or FNP in Texas can be incredibly rewarding in today's changing environment. Let's explore how the Texas State Legislature is stepping up to the plate and hitting it out of the park for the nursing practitioners of today and tomorrow.

Contemporary Challenges: Post-Pandemic Turnover

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented serious challenges to nursing staff across America. No matter whether you're from Atlanta or Austin, the impact has seen a rise in the number of nurses who are choosing to leave the nursing profession.

Texas has faced a number of external challenges throughout the pandemic, including The Great Texas Freeze - ten days in February 2021 which exposed the medical industry to the worst winter weather seen in Texas since the late 1980s.

These impacts have driven change within the legislature. As nurses have raised the challenges they've faced in these recent crises, the Texas legislature has stepped up - announcing a significant investment in construction, expansion, and improvement of the health care services provided in Texas.

Renovating the Texas Health Sector

Part of the development of a great healthcare system is access to medical systems that are easy to access, offer a continuum of care, and offer unparalleled treatment options. As time goes on, however, the needs of patient care evolve - and as such, state legislatures need to transform their health care offering to offer the most benefit to Texans.

One such initiative that is being currently driven is a multi-billion dollar investment in the expansion and renovation of existing Texas hospitals throughout cities such as Austin, El Paso, and Amarillo. The Austin State Hospital development is expected to finish construction by November 2023 and is scheduled to open in 2024, demonstrating the willingness of legislators to invest in the development of the healthcare sector.

Investing in Health - Senate Bill 30

Legislators are working in hand with health services to identify and improve Texas' mental healthcare system. Identified as an area of need, developing mental health infrastructure across Texas became a priority effort.

As a result, legislators have worked together to develop Senate Bill 30, an appropriations bill designed to provide funding for the expansion of access to mental healthcare. Senate Bill 30 was signed into law in June 2023, and sets aside more than $2.3 billion worth of funds from the state budget to provide funding for improvement and expansion to more than a dozen facilities across Texas, from Amarillo to Uvalde.

Additional investments were made in the higher education sector to support the education and training of nurses, increasing the amount of support available for nurses in training, through the signing of Senate Bill 25, also signed into law in June 2023. Texas is ramping up its efforts to invest in health, listening to the problems arisen by citizens to look for responsible, sustainable solutions.

Image Credit: Carlos Alfonso on Unsplash

Expanding Access To Tackle Mental Health

While work has been done to renew and renovate existing health facilities throughout Texas, Senate Bill 30 and other healthcare investments also put a serious focus on the expansion of mental health services throughout the state. If there's one thing that the pandemic has taught Texans, it's that mental health can be something that can be as serious as a physical illness, and that support is necessary to get patients through this difficult time.

More than $2 billion has been invested in the Texas mental health care system, including a number of new facilities. This includes:

• Funding for the planning of a new state mental health hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth.
• The creation of several hundred new mental health beads at the Austin State Hospital.
• Financial backing to build a new behavioral health campus in Uvalde.

These investments demonstrate the strong desire by Texas lawmakers to improve the quality of care for mental health patients across Texas. In fact, it's estimated that more funding will be announced in late 2023 and 2024, highlighting just how significant mental health is as an issue across Texas.

Case Study: Rusk State Hospital

One of the many recipients of funding for the development of mental health services, Rusk State Hospital recently opened a state-of-the-art patient complex in June of this year. Development of a modern psychiatric hospital can be a complicated endeavor - as previous iterations of psychiatric wards are vastly different from the idealized models of the present day.

Working with the University of Texas at Austin's Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD), the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) worked on a project to identify how the mental hospital could be designed to best support patients who needed support with their mental health.

Consulting with DSHS and the staff at Rusk State Hospital, it was determined that an emphasis on landscapes and therapeutic properties would be required. Social activity and physical activity are both strong drivers towards mental health wellness - with a number of studies including one by Cureus identifying that physical activity and exercise have been shown to improve depressive symptoms and the moods of people of all ages.

This design work created a plan, which was then used by developers to build Rusk State Hospital in a way that met current psychiatric hospital design standards while incorporating environments that would encourage patients to engage in behaviors that would improve their well-being and quality of life.

No matter whether you're just getting started as a family nurse practitioner, or are looking for a career change, Texas is investing heavily in hospitals and health to support your next career move. There's never been a better time to start a new nursing career than right now in Texas.

(Disclaimer: Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)