Assignment: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
Assignment: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
Assignment: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
In the Module 4 Discussion, you considered how professional nurses can become involved in policy-making. A critical component of any policy design is evaluation of the results. How comfortable are you with the thought of becoming involved with such matters?
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Some nurses may be hesitant to get involved with policy evaluation. The preference may be to focus on the care and well-being of their patients; some nurses may feel ill-equipped to enter the realm of policy and political activities. However, as you have examined previously, who better to advocate for patients and effective programs and polices than nurses? Already patient advocates in interactions with doctors and leadership, why not with government and regulatory agencies?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation.
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To Prepare:
In the Module 4 Discussion, you considered how professional nurses can become involved in policy-making.
Review the Resources and reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation. Assignment: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
n this Discussion, you will reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation.
To Prepare:
In the Module 4 Discussion, you considered how professional nurses can become involved in policy-making.
Review the Resources and reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation.
By Day 3 of Week 9
Post an explanation of at least two opportunities that currently exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policy review. Explain some of the challenges that these opportunities may present and describe how you might overcome these challenges. Finally, recommend two strategies you might make to better advocate for or communicate the existence of these opportunities. Be specific and provide examples.
RE: Discussion – Week 9
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The Role of Nurses in Policy Evaluation
The process of health policy development ends at the evaluation stage, which involves identifying the effectiveness and relevance of the policies. As Indicated in Stewart, et al., (2020), the ICN (International Council of Nurses) has actively championed the involvement of nurses in the policy development process, right from the beginning to the end. The participation of nurses in health policies helps to safeguard care quality through access to opportunities and required resources. This paper presents the opportunities that presently exist for APRNs/RNs to take part in the policy review actively.
Nurses have excellent communication skills that are useful in policy evaluation; thus increasing the influence nurses have on healthcare policies. Nurses are the closest to patients and gain most of their communication skills from the constant communication they have with their patients and their families (Patton, Zalon, &Ludwick, 2018). Besides, have they advanced skills in advocacy, a quality that puts them in the best position to take part in the process of policy review. Because APRNs/RNs have been known to advocate for their patients, their involvement in policy review will go a long way in removing the old policies that may have failed to conform to new regulations and rules and address new technologies. In amending the existing systems, the opinion of nurses should be taken as the current needs of patients.
These opportunities may, however, present some challenges in evaluating healthcare policies. The nurse may take advantage of their communication skills to review a healthcare policy in favor of their requests or opinions (Potter, et al., 2016). They can also use their advocacy skills to evaluate policies based on their interest or views. Therefore, I would recommend some set of standards that govern how nurses utilize their communication skills to impact healthcare policies. Besides the opinions of nurses when reviewing healthcare policies should first pass through a set committee to evaluate if they are the actual needs of the patients.
References
Patton, R. M., Zalon, M. L., &Ludwick, R. (Eds.). (2018). Nurses making policy: From bedside to boardroom. Springer Publishing Company.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2016). Fundamentals of Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier health sciences.
Stewart, D., Kennedy, A., Schober, M., & Duignan, M. (2020). International Council of Nurses. In Advanced Practice Nursing Leadership: A Global Perspective (pp. 15-23). Springer, Cham.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-20550-8_2
By Day 6 of Week 9
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days by suggesting additional opportunities or recommendations for overcoming the challenges described by your colleagues.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.
RE: Discussion – Week 9
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Hi M..
I like what you said regarding the communication skills of a nurse and knowing first hand the needs of the patient. Programs and policy often remains the topic of debate even years
after implementation (Laureate Education, 2018). With the growth in technology and evolution in health care, skilled nurses will be able to share in their thoughts and experiences of pre
and post policy implementation. During the review process, those excellent communication skills could help to ensure the proper policy is implemented. I think this makes us excellent
advocates which is a major advantage when you think about policy review. Additional recommendations would be to make sure you are a registered voter. The American Academy of
Ambulatory Care Nursing suggests some steps in regard to getting involved in policy because as nurses we are the better advocates. They suggest you should also understand how you
are represented. “Each state has representatives in house; the number of representatives is based on the state’s populations”. They are located on www.senate.gov abd www.house.gov. It
is also a good idea to enter these names and numbers in your cell or day planner (Spyder, 2020). Great discussion, I had similar points.
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Program Policy and Evaluation [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Spyder. (2020, March 12). Health Care Policy: The Nurse’s Crucial Role. Retrieved from https://www.aaacn.org/volunteer/teams/legislative/health-care-policy-nurses-crucial-role
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Nurses are the backbones of the medical system. The nursing profession is the largest in the U.S. healthcare industry. For seventeen consecutive years, nursing ranked the most trusted job in Gallop’s ethic survey (For the 17th Year in a Row, Nurses Top Gallup’s Poll of Most Trusted Profession | AHA News, 2019). With so many responsibilities in nursing, it is an obligation that nurses actively participate in the policy review. By involving in policy review, nurses draft and analyze policies to be in a better position to advocate for their patients. This post will discuss the opportunities that currently exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policymaking.
One opportunity for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policymaking is policy draft. Through policy drafts, nurses will be able to identify topics that will be critical for the next few years in healthcare. For example, Covid-19 pandemic really took a toll in U.S. healthcare industry. As of date, over 700,000 people have died from Covid-19 infection in America (CDC, 2020). Nurses played a significant role in the fight against Covid-19 and continue in the path to defeat this deadly virus. Professional experiences of the nurses who worked with Covid-19 infected patients speak volumes about how exhausted the healthcare system is. During the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines, professional nurses were argued to engage in the vaccine advocacy campaign. Advocacy is a skill that nurses often use in their career; therefore, pairing that skill with a policy draft will enable nurses to organize the policy document with operational benefits properly. A well-drafted document will be easier to administer, maintain and enforce. Likewise, Rasheed et al. (2020, P 447, Para 2) stress the importance that “due to their close interactions with individuals and communities across the healthcare system, nurses can offer greater direct insights concerning the effect of healthcare policies on individuals and communities.” So, nurses need to be the drafters of the policies because it will reduce the overall amount of time an organization needs to spend on those activities, for example, vaccine advocacy programs. Appropriate content and specific knowledge and skills are essential in the policy document to avoid valuable time being wasted editing, discussing, and rewording statements that do not belong in the policy in the first place.
After completing a well-drafted policy document, nurses can participate in policy analysis and evaluate the current policy. They can make a judgment about what went well and what did not, “whom to involve in future efforts, whom to trust, what the most effective timing is, how to create more powerful coalitions, and so forth” (Yoder‐Wise, 2019, p 52). The evaluation step is crucial because it allows the group to determine how to protect the current success and strategies needed to succeed. However, there are challenges to these opportunities.
Policy drafting and analysis opportunities may present challenges because of poor technical knowledge and clinical skills and a lack of exposure to federal and state government involvement (Scott and Scott, 2020). These current opportunities present challenges that can be overcome by proper training regarding policy draft and analysis during undergraduate nursing level and, of course, at the graduate level, encouraging students and faculty to participate in politics for policymaking and visiting the state and federal policy places. Scott and Scott (2020) argue that establishing relationships with policymakers is one of the best methods to get your issue on their agenda; it is about who you know and how you can influence them to listen to you. Therefore, nurses must visit their local representatives to understand their stand on specific issues. For example, if the nurse advocates for Covid-19 vaccines, they need to know how their local representative feels about the mass vaccination because if the representative does not fully support the vaccines, then the nurses will lose the support for publicizing the importance of the vaccines. The representative can lobby against it because it is not profitable for them, challenging the nurses to prove their support and decisions. If that becomes the case, nurses can use irrefutable evidence and knowledge more clearly and justifiably to publicize their support for the policy.
The strategies for better advocating are training and education programs for the nurses. Nurses already understand that they are the largest number of healthcare professionals in the healthcare industry, and therefore, their voices and suggestions are essential. Advocating for patients at the bedside is as important as advocating for them at the state or federal government. Nurses must understand that what they want for their patients, only they can deliver, and so, therefore, no one else can provide that on their behalf (Scott and Scott 2020). Suggestions from nurses will ensure safe and quality care through policymaking.
References
CDC. (2020, March 28). COVID Data Tracker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
For the 17th year in a row, nurses top Gallup’s poll of most trusted profession | AHA News. (2019, January 9). American Hospital Association | AHA News. https://www.aha.org/news/insights-and-analysis/2019-01-09-17th-year-row-nurses-top-gallups-poll-most-trusted-profession
Rasheed, S. P., Younas, A., & Mehdi, F. (2020). Challenges, Extent of Involvement, and the Impact of Nurses’ Involvement in Politics and Policy Making in in Last Two Decades: An Integrative Review. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(4), 446–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12567
Scott, S. M., & Scott, P. A. (2020). Nursing, advocacy and public policy. Nursing Ethics, 28(5), 723–733. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733020961823
Yoder‐Wise, P. S. (2019). A framework for planned policy change. Nursing Forum, 55(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12381
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