Think about your own nursing practice for a moment. You have a lot of knowledge and experience concerning your workplace policies and procedures. You understand that policies and procedures fulfill a number of purposes, such as facilitating compliance with professional practices and accreditation requirements, serving as a resource for nurses, promoting patient safety, and reducing practice variation within a single health care system.
Every day, nurses like you are working on the front lines of health care by examining health policy trends, challenges, and opportunities. Health policy directly impacts nursing and patient outcomes. As nurses, we advocate for our patients to ensure they receive safe, quality care. By being aware of legislation and policy formation efforts both locally and nationally, nurses can make better decisions and shape health reform.
This week provides an overview of how health policy impacts and enhances advocacy and patient outcomes. You will focus on the role of nurses as advocates for change in the health care system. You will also explore the difficulties regarding policy making and policy implementation within the health care system.
For nurses to have an effective voice in decision making and to be full partners in that next level, nurses must understand the big picture of the health care system and its varied complexities. Nurses must also understand the impact that changes will have on the quality and efficacy of the health care we deliver to our patients.
This week, you will select a health care policy that is important to you and begin a 5-week analysis of that policy. Your analysis will culminate in your Position Paper. The Discussion will serve as an important first step toward your Position Paper because it will start you in the process of collecting information and personal opinions related to the paper.
Post a response to the following:
Select one health care policy related to access, equity, quality, or affordability that you have noted in your practice that is important to you. This policy will be the main theme of your Position Paper as well as the Assignments for Weeks 2 and 3.
Give a detailed description of the health care policy that you selected.
Include information on history, root causes for the introduction of the policy, and issues that the policy addresses.
Analyze at least one personal impact that this policy has had on you as a professional or in the workplace environment.
Provide at least one supporting and one opposing aspect of the policy, its implementation and its impact.
Note Initial Post: A 3-paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually less than or equal to 5 years old).
