Health Care Policy style=”color:#000000;

Health Care Policy

style=”color:#000000;”>In this week’s media presentation, Dr. Trautman, Dr. Wakefield, and Ms. Coyle discuss how public policies initiated at the national or state level ultimately influence what occurs at the institutional and local level of nursing practice and health care delivery. Health care policy usually is developed to address health care cost, quality, or access, or a combination of the three. Due to the nature of their interaction with patients, nurses are well situated to be effective, knowledgeable advocates for their patients.

You will examine how current policies impact how you as a nurse provide health care. You will then select an issue of interest and determine how you could advocate for policy in that area.

Select one public policy that currently is impacting you and your practice. Consider the following:

What health care driver was the policy designed to address: cost, quality, access, or a combination?

Does the policy appear to be achieving its intended results? On what data are you basing your assumption?

What have been the effects (adverse or positive) of this policy on health care cost, quality, and access?

How is this policy affecting your nursing practice?

Next, select a health care issue—something you see or experience on a daily basis—about which you would like to influence a practice change through the policy process.

Review the Learning Resources, focusing on Kingdon’s Model. How would you utilize this model to guide your policy development?

Write a brief description of a public policy that is having an impact on your practice; summarize your analysis of the policy using the bulleted list above as a guide. Then, summarize the issue you would like to influence though a change in public policy, and outline how you would utilize Kingdon’s Model to guide your policy development.

Resources:

Chapter 3, “Government Response: Legislation” (pp. 69-98)

Chapter 2, “Agenda Setting” (pp. 45-68)

Milstead, J. A. (2016). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Chapter 1, “Advanced Practice Registered Nurses and Public Policy, Naturally” (pp. 1-44)

https://www.patientsrightscoalition.org/

http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/manag.html

 ATTACHMENT PREVIEW Download attachment

NURS 6050: Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health“Health Policy and Politics”Program Transcript[MUSIC]NARRATOR: Crafting policy to address health care issues.MARY WAKEFIELD: Now let’s think about that public policy maker who is tryingto fashion a solution to one of those challenges of cost access or quality. What isit that determines what the solution is that gets put on the table and how thatsolution moves through the policy-making process?NARRATOR: The important role nurses play in health care policy.KATHLEEN M. WHITE: Every nurse should care about being involved in thepolicy process because we are the experts in health care.NARRATOR: And a perspective that is critical.DEBORAH TRAUTMAN: I was told when I was on the Hill that all politics is localand all health care is personal. And I think that, as nurses, we understand that.NARRATOR: Getting started in the policy process.CARMELA COYLE: Policy begins with a good idea. The problem is to try tomove from an idea and a concept and good research to a piece of legislation thatcan actually pass can be a long and winding road.NARRATOR: This week, are experts share insights into the policy process, thepolitics of health care policy, and the invaluable role of the professional nurse.MARY WAKEFIELD: When I first moved to Washington, D.C. and worked in thepublic policy arena, I was a bit of a policy purest, if you will. It was my belief thatpublic health policies crafted to address access cost or quality were designedbased on, for example, good research, on doing the right thing, if you will. And itdidn’t take me very long to figure out that in fact it’s not just about good researchor what I might view as an obvious solution to a particular problem associatedwith quality of health care.In fact, there are a number of factors that influence what solution gets put on theagenda, how that solution moves through the policy-making process, andwhether, in fact, it even survives through to the end of that policy-makingprocess.© 2012 Laureate Education, Inc.1

View the Answer

There are a number of factors that influence health policy. Health policy can beinfluenced by crises. Media can influence what gets put on the policy-makingagenda or how it’s treated once it gets there. Political ideology. Personalexperiences of members of Congress can influence how they respond to aparticular health care challenge.Research findings also can be influential. Special interest groups can exert a lotof influence on what gets put on the health policy agenda. Constituents like eachof you who might draw the attention of your policymakers. It might be that you’lldraw the attention of your congressional delegation to a particular problem theyou’re saying. So constituents can be a factor that influences health policy.Market forces can also be a driver of health policy. In addition, fiscal pressures.So you have a number of different factors then that can influence both what getsput on the policy-making table and how it’s treated once it gets there.In terms of personal experience, there was a congresswoman, now elected, fromthe state of Florida who had a close personal friend with a particular disease.And she was pretty public about introducing legislation that would be designed tocover pharmaceuticals that were important to addressing that disease. So here isa member of Congress who has a personal experience that’s influencing what, inthis case, she did to address that particular problem of access topharmaceuticals to treat a particular health care problem.So personal experiences matter on the part of members of Congress, believe itor not. It’s not all just about research findings. In addition, constituents’ voicesmatter. If individuals express their views about a particular health care problem totheir elected officials, it behooves elected officials to pay attention.A lot of times nurses and others think that the only influence that’s exerted orfactor that exerts influence in Washington or in a state capital is a special interestinfluence. I’d suggest to you that’s not really true. There are all the factors thatI’ve mentioned. And constituents, that is your own voice, is an extremelyimportant one.So don’t dismiss out of hand the impact that you can have as a factor, if you will,in influencing what gets put on the policy-making table and how it’s treated onceit’s there. Because at the end of the day, guess what? Policymakers or electedofficials are either voted into office or they’re voted out. They are ill-prepared tobe unresponsive to what is that their constituents are telling them.So do all the other factors matter? You bet they do. But your voice matters too.KATHLEEN M. WHITE: In designing health care policies, nurses havetraditionally wanted to be involved. It’s been a great experience for me over 30some years being a nurse. I think I got actively involved in health care policy and© 2012 Laureate Education, Inc.2

Show

Looking for a Similar Assignment? Order now and Get 10% Discount! Use Coupon Code "Newclient"