Sample Answer for NURS 6050 The Role of the RN APRN in Policy Evaluation Included After Question
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?
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.
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.
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.
*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6050 The Role of the RN APRN in Policy Evaluation
Title: NURS 6050 The Role of the RN APRN in Policy Evaluation
I believe that nurses can be involved in policy-making and policy evaluation because they spend the most time with patients. Therefore, they can be advocates with governments and regulatory agencies. Myers (2020) notes that “Nurses need to advocate for systematic change, inclusive of the many factors that interact to determine health” (p. 14). Additionally, if we speak about the policy process, nurses should also be involved with its evaluation to see the direct effect on patients.
The adopted program evaluation is a fourth step of the whole policy-making cycle. It ends “after the policy is evaluated to determine to what extent it has been implemented and whether it has achieved the desired outcome” (Clifton et al., p. 25). Nurses have an essential role here as, for example, they can watch the patients’ health state during a new program of cancer or diabetes treatment. That is why it is crucial to get them involved in the policy-making cycle.
There are at least two opportunities for RNs and APRNs to participate in a policy review actively. First of all, it is a policy draft that is necessary because it presents the effect of the policy on social and individual levels. Whitehead et al. (2017) note that “it is a nurse’s professional and societal responsibility to answer the call and provide a voice for the voiceless” (p. 73). Nurses can do it by making and publishing the policy draft. Secondly, policy analysis is another opportunity that follows the previous one more deeply evaluating the significance of a proposed program; it includes the introduction, process definition, analysis, and critical policy events. However, there are challenges in using these opportunities, for example, if nurses emphasize the necessity of implementing new technologies to treat coronavirus patients. Economically vested lobbies may interfere because it is unprofitable for them. In this case, nurses need to prove the validity of their decision more clearly and justifiably, publicizing its importance widely at the same time.
The first strategy to communicate opportunities to participate in a policy review is teaching writing policy drafts during education. The second one is making the ability to write these drafts a prerequisite for employment. Therefore, nurses must know how to participate in a policy review as an essential part of their profession. This knowledge and skill should become usual for them as professionals. They may practice making policy drafts and analyses during education and prove the skill in employment.
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References
Clifton, A., Felton, A., Stacey, G., Hemingway, S. (Eds.). (2017). Fundamentals of Mental Health Nursing. An Essential Guide for Nursing and Healthcare Students. Wiley.
Myers, C. R. (2020). Promoting Health: Nurse Advocacy, Policy Making, and Use of Media. In a K. A. Wolgast (Ed.), Building Innovative Nurse Leaders at the Point of Care, An Issue of Nursing Clinics (pp. 11-20). Elsevier Health Sciences.
Whitehead, D. K., Dittman, P. W., McNulty, D. (2017). Leadership and the Advanced Practice Nurse. The Future of a Changing Health-Care Environment. F.A. Davis Company.
A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 The Role of the RN APRN in Policy Evaluation
Title: NURS 6050 The Role of the RN APRN in Policy Evaluation
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