Week 8 Discussion: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making/NURS 6050
Week 8 Discussion: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making/NURS 6050
Week 8: Discussion
THE ROLE OF THE RN/APRN IN POLICY-MAKING
Word cloud generators have become popular tools for meetings and team-building events. Groups or teams are asked to use these applications to input words they feel best describe their team or their role. A “word cloud” is generated by the application that makes prominent the most-used terms, offering an image of the common thinking among participants of that role.
What types of words would you use to build a nursing word cloud? Empathetic, organized, hard-working, or advocate would all certainly apply. Would you add policy-maker to your list? Do you think it would be a very prominent component of the word cloud?
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Nursing has become one of the largest professions in the world, and as such, nurses have the potential to influence policy and politics on a global scale. When nurses influence the politics that improve the delivery of healthcare, they are ultimately advocating for their patients. Hence, policy-making has become an increasingly popular term among nurses as they recognize a moral and professional obligation to be engaged in healthcare legislation.
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To Prepare:
Revisit the Congress.gov website provided in the Resources and consider the role of RNs and APRNs in policy-making.
Reflect on potential opportunities that may exist for RNs and APRNs to participate in the policy-making process.
LEARNING RESOURCES
Required Readings
Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide(6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 5, “Public Policy Design” (pp. 87–95 only)
Chapter 8, “The Impact of EHRs, Big Data, and Evidence-Informed Practice” (pp. 137–146)
Chapter 9, “Interprofessional Practice” (pp. 152–160 only)
Chapter 10, “Overview: The Economics and Finance of Health Care” (pp. 183–191 only)
American Nurses Association (ANA). (n.d.). AdvocacyLinks to an external site.. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (n.d.). Step by step: Evaluating violence and injury prevention policies: Brief 4: Evaluating policy implementationLinks to an external site.. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/injury/pdfs/policy/Brief%204-a.pdf
govLinks to an external site.. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.congress.gov/
Klein, K. J., & Sorra, J. S. (1996). The challenge of innovation implementationLinks to an external site.. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 1055–1080.
Sacristán, J., & Dilla, T. D. (2015). No big data without small data: Learning health care systems begin and end with the individual patientLinks to an external site.. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 21(6), 1014–1017.
Tummers, L., & Bekkers, V. (2014). Policy implementation, street level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretionLinks to an external site.. Public Management Review, 16(4), 527–547.
Required Media
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018). Getting your Program Designed and Implemented[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Postan explanation of at least two opportunities that exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policy-making. 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 to participate in policy-making. Be specific and provide examples.
***Please provide 3 credible sources ***
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The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making
RN and APRNs are in a position to assist policymakers and enhance the policy-making process. They can engage in policy-making by developing and presenting policy proposals to elected legislators like members of the Senate or Congress. RN and APRNs have expert knowledge and skills that they can use to influence legislators towards enacting or modifying health policies to improve access, cost, and delivery of care (Safari et al., 2020). Nurses are respected for their knowledge of healthcare issues. They can take advantage of this to educate legislators on how existing policies affect healthcare delivery and how new policies can improve healthcare for all.
Nurses can also participate in policy-making through professional nursing organizations since most engage in advocacy activities. RN and APRNs wishing to engage in policy-making can join professional organizations since they have more influence in advocacy activities due to their large membership (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). Besides, professional nursing organizations mentor their members on advocacy strategies making them better policy advocates.
Presenting policy proposals to legislators may face the challenges of the legislator lacking interest in the policy. Besides, the policy may be too complex to be resolved by one legislator, and various legislators will need to be connived to consider and enact the policy (Rasheed et al., 2020). Policy-making participation through professional organizations also poses the challenge of members having different views about an issue and the policies that should be enacted to address it. Thus, members may fail to collaborate in advocacy activities.
Nurses need to be aware of these opportunities so that they can participate in policy-making to better healthcare. I would communicate these opportunities to other nurses by writing articles in nursing journals since nurses are the target audience (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). I would also make presentations in CMEs and hospital meetings to convey knowledge on these opportunities.
References
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
Safari, M. B., Bahadori, M., & Alimohammadzadeh, K. (2020). The related factors of nurses’ participation and perceived benefits and barriers in health policy making. Journal of Nursing Research, 28(4), e103. DOI: 10.1097/jnr.0000000000000385
Turale, S., & Kunaviktikul, W. (2019). The contribution of nurses to health policy and advocacy requires leaders to provide training and mentorship. International nursing review, 66(3), 302-304. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12550
