accountability nursing essay

10 Ways to Demonstrate Accountability in Nursing Practice

Are you a nurse who desires to become the best you can be? Do you look for ways to improve patient outcomes and promote nursing as a profession? Being accountable is one way all nurses can have an impact on patients, their healthcare teams, and the nursing profession. Perhaps you are wondering, “How can nurses demonstrate accountability in nursing practice?” As you continue reading, you will learn what accountability in nursing means, find 10 ways to demonstrate accountability in nursing practice and discover the consequences a lack of accountability can bring.

What Does Accountability in Nursing Practice Exactly Mean?

Why accountability is important in nursing practice, 1. accountability in nursing helps foster trusting relationships between patients and nurses, which can positively influence patient outcomes., 2. nurses who hold themselves accountable set themselves up for success., 3. a culture of accountability in nursing reduces the misuse of valuable healthcare resources., 4. nurses who practice accountability can promote a positive reputation for the facilities where they are employed., what are the four core components of accountability in nursing practice, 1. professional accountability:, 2. legal accountability:, 3. ethical accountability:, 4. employment accountability:, how can nurses demonstrate accountability in nursing practice, 1. work within your scope of practice., 2. accept responsibility for yourself and your actions., 3. follow policies and procedures as established by your employer., 4. accept correction or instruction from supervisors when needed., 5. stay up to date with professional nursing standards., 6. use evidence-based practices when providing patient care., 7. implement accountability safeguards., 8. complete tasks assigned to you before leaving work., 9. set personal and professional goals., 10. provide safe, quality care to all patients., 4 consequences of lack of accountability in nursing practice, 1. increased risk to patient safety:, 2. increased healthcare costs:, 3. poor nurse-patient and interprofessional relationships:, 4. loss of job and/or nursing license:, useful resources to improve accountability in nursing practice, youtube videos, my final thoughts.

Promoting professional accountability and ownership

Nursing leaders set the tone for a culture of professional responsibility..

• Professional accountability is a commitment that you make to yourself and your career when you become a nurse to advance, grow, improve, and adapt to your work.
• Ownership comes from being fully engaged in your work and feeling a sense of pride in your profession.

Steve has been a nurse for 10 years, and she’s worked on her unit for 5 of them. She loves direct patient care and frequently receives positive feedback from patients, their families, and her manager. Recently, patients on Steve’s unit have been developing hospital-acquired pressure injuries. The unit-based practice council (UBPC) has been tasked to develop an evidence-based practice (EBP) project to reduce pressure injuries. Steve doesn’t believe this is an issue with her patients, and she doesn’t intend to change how she provides care.

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Unfortunately, Steve’s reaction to this evidence-based project isn’t unusual. Getting professionals to change their practice or accept responsibility for their contributions to overall clinical outcomes can be challenging. This may result from the structure of nursing care delivery models and 12-hour shifts that don’t always promote care assignment continuity or feelings of ownership for patient outcomes. However, the current value-based healthcare reimbursement system requires professional accountability for quality outcomes, and nurses like Steve are expected to work as members of a team to achieve collective results (such as reducing hospital-acquired pressure injuries). Not surprisingly, the issue of professional accountability in nursing has become a concern in many healthcare environments.

Defining accountability

We talk about nursing professional accountability as though all nurses share a common definition and understanding of what that means. For some nurses, accountability can provoke fear and mistrust because they think it will be used as a whipping stick to promote compliance. We also can’t assume that all professional nurses have a clear understanding of their role or what’s expected of them.

Steve might not realize that she’s not only accountable for the actions she’s currently taking in her practice but is also expected to use new evidence to guide her practice and comply with the policies and procedures implemented on her unit to improve care. To uphold her professional accountability commitment, she can’t opt out of implementing new guidelines for pressure injury care.

The professional accountability mindset

Professional accountability is an internally driven mindset. It’s a commitment that you make to yourself and your career when you become a nurse to advance, grow, improve, and adapt to your work. It’s also a pledge to apply your talents, energies, and gifts to improve patient outcomes. According to the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements , nurses are both “accountable and responsible for the quality of their practice.” This means that nurses must take ownership of their actions and hold themselves accountable not only individually but also as members of a collective team. Variations in practice patterns of individual nurses who view professional accountability differently can result in patient safety issues and medical errors. (See Accountability at a glance .)

Steve may see no problem with her decision to deviate from new evidence-based practice recommendations, but her failure to follow them could have serious ramifications for patients. If she doesn’t make changes in her practice, she’s failing to uphold a professional accountability mindset.

Within their professional roles, nurses are expected to implement accountability safeguards. These include evaluating patient care through peer review, quality improvement, and research, which promotes the mindset that our actions have consequences that directly impact the patients we care for. Steve’s ethical responsibility is to reflect on the difference between not taking action because she believes hospital-acquired pressure injuries aren’t an issue with her patients and what it means to truly provide quality evidence-based care.

Checking in vs. checking out

Nursing is a specialized profession that requires rigorous education, licensure, and regulation. It also relies on scientific evidence and a commitment to lifelong learning. These defining characteristics demand that nurses stay checked into their profession through critical thinking and collaborative care with other nurses and healthcare providers. The other option is to check out professionally and view nursing as a 12-hour shift composed of tasks to be completed.

Steve should remember that she’s not working in a solo practice. She functions as part of a healthcare team. She can’t make individual clinical decisions that conflict with the care given by other team members even when it’s based on her clinical experience or expertise, although she should certainly speak up if she feels a decision will be detrimental to the patient. If Steve believes that “this is not my problem,” she’s both checking out on her profession and failing to demonstrate good teamwork. Checking out is detrimental to the safety and health of the patients we serve.

The Code of Ethics reminds us that nurses are required to contribute to professional advancement by respecting the contributions of individuals who promote quality patient outcomes and evidence application. That means nurses must stay checked in and be actively present during professional activities such as educational sessions, patient care, patient safety discussions, and nurse-to-nurse hand-offs. For Sally, this also means being committed to engaging in the EBP her unit is rolling out because it aligns with her obligated ethical responsibility to take part in quality patient care rooted in evidence.

Building a culture of professional ownership

If Steve refuses to change her practice, her nurse manager will need to address this as a performance issue. Failing to assume professional accountability frequently occurs when leaders don’t hold nurses accountable for their decisions and actions. Leaders must be vigilant about unprofessional behaviors and practices and take steps to stop them before they become normalized on a unit. Interestingly, deviation from expected practices occurs more frequently with experienced nurses like Steve who believe the rules don’t apply to them. If Steve is allowed to opt out of evidence-based practices implemented on the unit, these deviations may become part of the culture. Nursing staff knows when “good enough” is the culture of an organization.

Joe Tye and Bob Dent, in their book, Building a Culture of Ownership in Healthcare , suggest that accountability isn’t enough. Accountability using traditional definitions means that nurses do expected behaviors because others expect it of them. Maintaining a culture of accountability can be exhausting for leaders, and such a culture will never take an organization from good to great. Tye and Dent recommend that the goal should be a culture of ownership where nurses do the right thing because they expect it of themselves. Ownership comes from being fully engaged in one’s work and feeling a sense of pride in one’s profession. This can be achieved only by connecting the nurse’s core values to the organization’s values.

Set the expectations

Professional nursing accountability and ownership is a mindset. In an ideal world, all nurses would take ownership of their practice and understand that quickly adopting EBPs designed to improve care is part of their professional responsibility. Unfortunately, not all nurses have this mindset. Some nurses like Steve may still choose to check out professionally and will need to be held accountable for their decisions. Strong leadership expectations and ongoing coaching about what it means to be a professional are critical to building a culture of professional ownership.

Rose O. Sherman is a professor of nursing and director of the Nursing Leadership Institute at Florida Atlantic University and author of the book The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave. You can read her blog at emergingrnleader. com. Tanya M. Cohn is a nurse scientist in nursing and health sciences research at West Kendall Baptist Hospital in Miami, Florida.

Selected references

American Nurses Association. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements . American Nurses Association: Silver Springs, MD; 2015.

Porter-O’Grady T, Malloch K. Quantum Leadership: Creating Sustainable Value in Healthcare . 5th ed. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2018.

Rachel MM. Accountability: A concept worth revisiting. Am Nurse Today . 2012;7(3):36-40.

Tye J, Dent RL. Building a Culture of Ownership in Healthcare: The Invisible Architecture of Core Values, Attitude, and Self-Empowerment . Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau; 2017.

1 Comment .

I must take issue with the main focus in the article “Promoting Professional Accountability and Ownership”, Sherman and Cohn. I believe these authors have really missed the mark, if the goal is what their title implies. As one of those RNs who have been actively engaged and accountable, in my 35 plus year career, reading the studies, watching EBP guidelines being developed, watching the outcomes, as well as being a member of an IRB, I have come to a different conclusion.That conclusion is that all medical people need to start engaging their brain and asking questions of any “evidence”. Case in point, the approach to pain. How many people have died, though some of us knew this is where we would end up. Nurses that would not follow the pain policy actually did right by their patients, the EBP did not. Why… because we, the medical community, refused to use our head and some of us refused to question, to push back and to look for underlying motives in the “evidence” being reviewed. How many years did this take to even be recognized and nursing still is resistant to stop being part of the problem. Opiates are not the only example. We are in the midst of an Aderal epidemic, but yet we keep prescribing to many who should not have it because what they need is a lifestyle change, not a pill. I see very little written about this but wow, do we see the numbers of young people having mental breakdowns. Another example, the medical device approval processes through the FDA. See the Netflix documentary “Bleeding Edge”. There have been numerous other examples. This is not to say that all EBP is skewed. Much of it is good and has had positive outcomes but it is not a given that if it has come through EBP channels, that it is right for the patient/policy. If the goal is accountability and ownership, we have to inspire medical people to connect, by caring about their patients, human to human. Wanting the best for them. This takes time at the bedside. As for EBP, we have to challenge the “evidence”, before it becomes EBP but even afterward if it does not make sense. We have to inspire medical people how to be curious and teach them how to think. Studies can not be funded or performed by anyone who will profit from them, whether they reap the profit now or in ten years. This is the battle that should be fought. Follow the money or academic prestige that leads to money. Equating nurse accountability and ownership to number one, following EBP, seems like a bit of an agenda in itself. Perhaps the authors need to follow up with some of these older nurses and see #1, if they are resistant to all EBP or if they are resistant to following particular EBP guidelines and why. Then consider their points and perhaps help to make a change.

Lisa Eason, BSN, RN

Comments are closed.

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The importance of professional accountability

Davis, Charlotte BSN, RN, CCRN

Clinical Editor • Nursing made Incredibly Easy!

Surgical-Trauma ICU Nurse Educator • Ocala Regional Medical Center • Ocala, Fla.

Clinical Adjunct Faculty Member • Clayton State University • Morrow, Ga.

In 2016, nursing was voted the most trusted profession for the 15th year in a row. It's vital that we maintain this level of trust in our profession with each and every healthcare encounter. This means being accountable for our practice, work environment, and patient safety. The American Nursing Association's Code of Ethics defines professional accountability as being “answerable to oneself and others for one's own actions.” Not only do we hold high clinical practice and ethical standards for ourselves, but we must also be willing to accept professional responsibility when or if deviations from care standards occur.

Nurses regularly face daily time challenges and continually evolving job demands. We're often asked to balance increased workloads with higher acuity patient assignments, greater nurse-patient ratios, and organizational needs. We must avoid workarounds, instead utilizing protocols and processes that are linked to positive clinical outcomes. This requires us to take a proactive, collaborative approach to evaluate staff skill mix and match our skill levels with patient needs to ensure that each patient is provided with the safest and best-quality care possible.

To meet the growing healthcare needs of patients who are living longer with chronic illnesses and complex disease processes, we must be professionally accountable for expanding our clinical skill set and consistently implementing gold standard evidence-based practice findings to guide our nursing interventions. Ongoing clinical competency requires active participation to attain and maintain the skills necessary to provide exceptional care for our patient population. Be present in the moment during each professional training session, without personal distractors. This focused interaction allows us to clarify key points that may impact patient safety and outcomes. Act as a mentor and offer assistance to your peers who are learning to perform new tasks to increase their confidence and also validate whether their practice is in compliance with organizational standards.

Each year, we lose more of our experienced Baby Boomer nurses to retirement. As new graduate nurses enter our clinical areas, we have the responsibility to model professional behaviors, with patient-centered care as our focus rather than a task-based environment. As patient advocates, we must also exemplify cultural competence, with the goal of returning each patient to an optimal level of wellness, honoring the patient's wishes, and providing the highest level of comfort when the patient decides to transition to palliative care.

Although our professional accountability allows us to celebrate our successes, it also demands that we be honest and forthcoming when an error or near miss occurs. When this happens, we should embrace a root cause analysis approach to identify system failures rather than using a punitive approach. Utilizing internal safeguards allows us to deliver the right intervention to the right patient at the right time, every time.

Join me in the journey to advance our profession through our clinical expertise, critical-thinking processes, and professional accountability.

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Cornock M. Legal principles of responsibility and accountability in professional healthcare. Orthopaedic & Trauma Times. 2014; (23)16-18

Avoid the blame game: be accountable for accountability. 2018. http//tinyurl.com/yc8fp34f (accessed 15 January 2024)

NHS England/NHS Improvement. A Just Culture Guide. 2018. https//www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/patient-safety-culture/a-just-culture-guide/ (accessed 15 January 2024)

NHS England/NHS Improvement. The NHS patient safety strategy: safer culture, safer systems, safer patients. 2019. https//www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/the-nhs-patient-safety-strategy/ (accessed 15 January 2024)

Nursing and Midwifery Council. The code: professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives, and nursing associates. 2018. https//www.nmc.org.uk/standards/code/ (accessed 15 January 2024)

Nursing and Midwifery Council. Aims and principles for fitness to practise. 2021. https//www.nmc.org.uk/ftp-library/understanding-fitness-to-practise/using-fitness-to-practise/ (accesed 15 January 2024)

What do we mean by accountability?

Chief Nurse, Oxford University Hospitals

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Sam Foster, Executive Director of Professional Practice, Nursing and Midwifery Council, considers the concepts and principles of professional accountability

Accountability may be one of the most frequently used words in our profession. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)(2018) Code recognises that:

‘The professions we regulate have different knowledge and skills … They can work in diverse contexts and have different levels of autonomy and responsibility. However, all of the professions we regulate exercise professional judgement and are accountable for their work.’

The Code also says that we must:

‘Be accountable for your decisions to delegate tasks and duties to other people.’

Cornock (2014) explored the legal principles of responsibility and accountability in professional health care, reflecting that there is a trident of responsibility, accountability, and liability – the three terms may be seen to form a hierarchy with responsibility being the least onerous, moving through accountability, to liability having the most potential impact.

Cornock (2014) helpfully suggested that ‘professional accountability’ therefore refers to the autonomous health professional who has the knowledge, competence and authority to practice in the way that they see fit, according to their professional training; to act or not to act, using their own judgment to decide what treatment is necessary; the freedom to decide how best to deliver that treatment; and the ability to justify their action or inaction based on their knowledge and expertise.

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concept of professional accountability

• Dr. Rachel Andel
• November 10, 2022
• Nursing Paper Examples

Outline the concept of professional accountability as it pertains to nursing. Provide examples of how a nurse demonstrates professional accountability in clinical expertise, the nursing process, and evidence-based practice. How do you incorporate self-care that includes mental health and spiritual well-being for you and your clients? What does the Bible say about self-care?

Concept of professional accountability-Sample Solution

Professional accountability in nursing.

Professional accountability is a crucial concept in nursing and is closely associated with nurses’ owning up to their actions when providing care. Professional accountability involves being responsible for the clinical and non-clinical decisions, choices, and actions in nursing as defined by the standard code of ethics for nurses (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015). Accountability can also be defined as the answerability to clients, patients, colleagues, and employers in nursing (Spears & Allen, 2018). Nurses are primarily responsible for caring for patients and clients that require care and being accountable for the service provided.(Professional Accountability in Nursing Essay-Example)

Nurses can demonstrate professionality in many ways. In every role nurses play, be it care coordination, delegated duty, direct nursing duties, intervention evaluation, research, teaching, or administration, there is a need for proven accountability considering their vested authority (ANA, 2015). For instance, nurses can demonstrate professionalism by adhering to the state’s standards of care, ANA’s code of ethics, and state’s practice acts and regulations. Therefore, nursing accountability calls for nurses’ ability to perform nursing tasks and interventions, accept delegated tasks, be autonomous, and uphold organizational policies and protocols (Davis, 2017). Therefore, nurses need to uphold the existing code of conduct relevant to the nursing specialty and organization represented.(Professional Accountability in Nursing Essay-Example)

Nurses can incorporate self-care, such as mindful medication. Mindfulness meditation increases mental acuity and reduces stress among nurse s and is beneficial for their well-being and consequent work performance and nurses (McVeigh et al., 2021). When nurses are stress-free, they can provide quality care and are more satisfied with their work. The Bible says we should care for our physical bodies and exercise self-control (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (20161 Cor. 9:25–27; 1 Tim. 4:8; 5:23). Therefore, nurses should engage in activities that promote their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to manage challenges associated with nursing practice and achieve professional accountability.(Professional Accountability in Nursing Essay-Example)

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Retrieved March 29, 2018, from http://nursingworld.org/DocumentVault/Ethics_1/Code-of-Ethics-for-Nurses.html

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Available at: http://nursingworld.org/DocumentVault/Ethics_1/Code-of-Ethics-for-Nurses.html (Accessed November 10, 2022)

Davis, C. (2017). The importance of professional accountability. Nursing is easy, 15(6), 4. 10.1097/01.NME.0000525557.44656.04

Davis, C. (2017). The importance of professional accountability. Nursing made incredibly easy, 15(6), 4. 10.1097/01.NME.0000525557.44656.04

McVeigh, C., Ace, L., Ski, C. F., Carswell, C., Burton, S., Rej, S., & Noble, H. (November 2021). Mindfulness-based interventions for undergraduate nursing students in a university setting: a narrative review. In  Healthcare  (Vol. 9, No. 11, p. 1493). MDPI. https://doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12912-021-00783-0

Spears, T. L., & Allen, L. (2018). Evidence-based care sheet: Accountability in Nursing Practice. https://www.ebscohost.com/assets-sample-content/NRCP_EBCS_Accountability-in-NursingPractice.pdf

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2016). Crossway Bibles. (Originally published 2001)

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Responsibility vs. Accountability in Nursing Essay

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Midwifery practice is based on utilizing the concepts of accountability and responsibility. Along with providing care for patients and monitoring the process of treatment, nurse practitioners perform other duties, such as educating family members, conducting research, making records, and more. While remaining responsible for the tasks’ completion, nurses also give account for the decisions they make, which proves that their actions are assessed from two different perspectives.

Accountability presupposes giving account for one’s decisions and being answerable to oneself and the people involved for all actions taken in a clinical setting. Leonenko and Drach‐Zahavy (2016) define this concept as the “assessment of risks or benefits of acting accountably” (p. 2718). To be accountable, one needs to act under the code of medical ethics and develop the required moral principles, which go beyond the usual perception of duties.

Responsibility is the criterion covering both the scope of nurses’ tasks and the approach taken to accomplish those. If a nurse is looking to be promoted, he or she must be ready to take the extra workload and have more tasks (Gabrielsson, Sävenstedt, & Olsson, 2016). What makes the two discussed concepts distinct is that responsibilities are more focused on resolving direct, educational, and administrative duties rather than dealing with ethical aspects of the matter.

In a conclusion, both responsibility and accountability are the integral constituents of a nurse’s work. Accountability involves giving the answer for all actions and considering medical ethics, while responsibility focuses more on resolving professional, educational, and administrative duties. The range of responsibilities usually depends on the position one occupies. Accountability, however, does not have this dependency since it is mostly linked to the established values and moral principles.

Gabrielsson, S., Sävenstedt, S., & Olsson, M. (2016). Taking personal responsibility: Nurses’ and assistant nurses’ experiences of good nursing practice in psychiatric inpatient care. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing , 25 (5), 434-443.

Leonenko, M., & Drach‐Zahavy, A. (2016). “You are either out on the court, or sitting on the bench”: Understanding accountability from the perspectives of nurses and nursing managers. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 72 (11), 2718-2727.

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Importance of Accountability in Nursing

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GOP Rep: Hold Andrew Cuomo Accountable for COVID Scandals | Opinion

In typical fashion for the disgraced Andrew Cuomo , the desperate former governor and his unemployed henchmen are doing a full PR campaign ahead of his testimony today in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to try to rewrite history and avoid culpability.

What a slap in the face to all straight-talking New Yorkers, who see right through this slick attempt at a cover-up.

Newly released bombshell reporting reveals that Governor Cuomo and his most senior aides ordered, directed, and executed the fatal nursing home executive order that killed more than 15,000 seniors. The disgraced former governor and his circle of sycophants were caught covering up their culpability to try to selfishly save their deservedly ruined reputations. There is no question that Andrew Cuomo is responsible for the deaths of innocent nursing home seniors. He must be held accountable.

As a representative of the hardworking families of New York, and the most senior congressional Republican from New York in over 100 years, I have been deeply committed to transparency and accountability on behalf of New Yorkers who lost their loved ones in nursing homes. One of the most important tasks we have undertaken as House Republicans in the Majority is investigating Cuomo's handling of COVID-19, nursing home scandal, and corrupt book deal. This investigation is critical for delivering justice to heartbroken families, many of whom I remain directly in touch with, and ensuring such a tragedy is never repeated. House Republicans ran on and promised accountability during the 2022 elections, earned victory at the ballot box here in New York, and are now fulfilling that promise through our actions and dedication to uncovering the truth.

Here are the indisputable facts:

On March 25, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his Department of Health issued now-deleted guidance that forced COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes. The mandate required acceptance of patients regardless of a nursing home's capacity or ability to safely accept positive cases and exposed thousands of vulnerable residents to the virus.

To make matters worse, Cuomo made clear on multiple occasions that nursing homes did not "have the right to object" to the directive. He also failed to provide any mechanism for a nursing home to contact the state or transfer residents to another facility if it did not have the capacity to care for them. The governor ignored countless warnings and failed to rescind the "must admit" order until May 10, 2020, 46 days after the guidance was put in place. This failure tragically led to the death of over 15,000 seniors. To this day, Cuomo continues to dodge accountability for his actions and peddle lies about his involvement and the origins of the directive.

One of the most alarming aspects of the Cuomo administration's actions was the underreporting of nursing home deaths and subsequent attempts to cover up the discrepancies. It has been extensively documented—and individuals close to the former governor, including former staff, have testified—that they were intentionally freezing and omitting data to downplay the state's nursing home death toll out of fear of the Department of Justice . New York Attorney General Letitia James' report confirmed a nearly 50 percent undercount in fatalities, raising urgent questions about transparency and highlighting a level of corruption that many already knew to exist. My role in pushing for accurate data reporting was crucial in shedding light on these discrepancies. Ensuring that the public and lawmakers had access to accurate information was a crucial step in holding Cuomo accountable for his administration's actions.

The motivation behind the discrepancies in reported fatalities were later brought to light during the announcement of Cuomo's book deal, which paid the governor $5 million for his "leadership lessons." During impeachment investigations by the New York State Assembly, evidence was uncovered that suggested Cuomo violated numerous laws over the use of state employees and resources to write the book. Investigations and testimonies indicate that high-ranking staff were forced to divert their attention to write and promote the book as part of their regular course of work in the Executive Chamber. Thanks to the book deal, the governor was incentivized financially to prevent the public from learning about how his directive resulted in the tragic deaths of thousands of seniors.

Leaders do not profit from the tragedies of the constituents they claim to represent. Cuomo's heinous decision to put profit over safety deserves to be exposed.

Cuomo's decision to grant legal immunity to nursing home executives further highlights the vast level of corruption we are investigating and dealing with here in New York. Language in the directive intentionally shielded some of the governor's biggest political donors, who publicly defended Cuomo from the initial questions brought against him. Buried deep inside Cuomo's 2020 state budget was a provision (which was later rescinded due to its obvious conflict of interest) to shield executives running major health care facilities from liability associated with COVID-related deaths and injuries. Many of these corporate officials are deeply connected donors to Cuomo's political campaign. By investigating the nursing home decision, I aimed to uncover further the conflicts of interest and incentives that drove the policy in Cuomo's Albany to the detriment of seniors and their families.

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Central to my involvement has been advocacy for the families affected by nursing home policies. These families deserve answers and justice for the irreplaceable loss of their loved ones. Amplifying their voices highlights the human impact of policy decisions and ensures that victims' experiences inform future governance.

Throughout this process, I have consistently called for independent investigations and tirelessly worked with my colleagues in federal oversight. From leading my New York GOP members in countless letters to the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice urging them to examine the state's guidance, to actively participating in congressional oversight hearings and the deposition of the former governor, I remain steadfast in my commitment to bringing accountability. These efforts address Cuomo's clear lies and set a precedent for governance transparency.

House Republicans campaigned on a platform of accountability, and our actions in this investigation reflect our commitment to delivering on that promise. By holding Cuomo accountable for his decisions, we aim to restore public trust, ensure ethical governance, and provide the first step in the long fight for justice for grieving families across New York State. Our efforts in Congress are a testament to the importance of checks and balances in government, as we have a constitutional obligation to expose this corruption and deliver results.

Our investigation is driven by a commitment to uncovering the truth and ensuring accountability in governance. House Republicans, through our actions, are fulfilling our promise of accountability and justice for all.

Elise Stefanik, a Republican, represents New York's 21st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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