NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments
NURS 6050 Week 2 Discussion:
Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform
Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform
As health care delivery in the United States continues to evolve, either through mandates, improved technologies and training, or other drivers, nurses remain at the forefront in facilitating the success of new initiatives. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee of experts to address the following question: “What roles can nursing assume to address the increasing demand for safe, high-quality, and effective health care services?” In the final report of the committee, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the authors stated:
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This report offers recommendations that collectively serve as a blueprint to (1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training, (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide opportunities for nurses to assume leadership positions and to serve as full partners in health care redesign and improvement efforts, and (4) improve data collection for workforce planning and policy making. (p. 10) NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
For this Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform assignment, you will focus on the research recommendations presented by the committee concerning the role of nurses as leaders. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. The committee members believe that answers to these research questions are needed to advance the profession of nursing and to further expand their role in health care reform and improvement.
To prepare for Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform:
Review Chapter 7 in The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report provided in the Learning Resources. Focus on the information in Box 7.3, “Research Priorities for Transforming Nursing Leadership.” NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Select one of the research priorities listed in Box 7.3 that is of particular interest to you and applicable to your career interests. Consider the benefits and challenges of researching and addressing this priority in nursing.
Using the Walden library, identify two to three current articles that address your selected research priority. Consider the current state of research efforts on this priority.
Reflect on how the research findings for your area of priority impact nurses as leaders in organizations and health care reform. Why is research on this priority important? NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
By Day 3 of Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform
Post a description of the priority you selected and the benefits and challenges of further researching this area. Provide an overview of the articles you found (using appropriate APA citations) relating to this priority, and highlight any key findings. Explain how continued research in this area could strengthen the ability of nurses to lead in both individual organizations and as advocates of health care reform. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses. Focus particularly on those questions raised to which you can add comments based on shared experiences or situations. Consider how your colleagues’ postings reflect and/or differ from your own perceptions and opinions. Review the Learning Resources for any clarification needed before responding.
By Day 6 of Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways: NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Discussion: Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform Reference:
National Academy of Sciences. (2011) The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health.
Retrieved from https://download.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12956
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NURS 6050 Week 10 Discussion:
Ethical Issues With an Aging Population
According to the CDC, “in the United States, the proportion of the population aged >65 years is projected to increase from 12.4% in 2000 to 19.6% in 2030,” (CDC, 2003, para. 2). Caring for this aging population is going to be one of the greatest challenges facing the health care industry. Not only will the number of individuals requiring care rise, but so will the cost. As poignantly stated by Crippen and Barnato, “unless we change the practice of medicine and reduce future costs, and explicitly address the ethical dilemmas we face, there may come a time when our kids simply cannot afford us” (2011, p. 128). NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
In this Discussion, you will examine the ethical issues that the United States and other nations must address when faced with the health care challenges of an aging population.
To prepare:
Consider the ethical aspects of health care and health policy for an aging population.
Review the Hayutin, Dietz, and Mitchell report presented in the Learning Resources. The authors pose the question, “What are the economic consequences, now and for future generations of taxpayers if we fail to adapt our policies to the changing reality of an older population?” (p. 21). Consider how you would respond to this question. In addition, reflect on the ethical decisions that arise when dispersing limited funds. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Contemplate the impact of failing to adjust policy in accordance with the changing reality of an older population.
Reflect on the ethical dilemmas that arise when determining expenditures on end-of-life health care.
By Day 3
Post an explanation of the ethical standards you believe should be used in determining how resources should be allocated for an aging population and end-of-life care. Then, provide an analysis of the ethical challenges related to the preparation for the provision of such health care.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
References:
Crippen, D., & Barnato, A. E. (2011). The ethical implications of health spending: Death and other expensive conditions. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 39(2), 121–129. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2011.00582.x
Public health and aging: Trends in aging—United States and worldwide. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5206a2.htm
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NURS 6050 Week 11 Discussion:
What Can Nurses Do?
Many people, most of them in tropical countries of the Third World, die of preventable, curable diseases. . . . Malaria, tuberculosis, acute lower-respiratory infections—in 1998, these claimed 6.1 million lives. People died because the drugs to treat those illnesses are nonexistent or are no longer effective. They died because it doesn’t pay to keep them alive.
NURS
6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
–Ken Silverstein, Millions for Viagra. Pennies for Diseases of the Poor, The Nation, July 19, 1999
Unfortunately, since 1998, little has changed. For many individuals living in impoverished underdeveloped countries, even basic medical care is difficult to obtain. Although international agencies sponsor outreach programs and corporations, and although nonprofit organizations donate goods and services, the level of health care remains far below what is necessary to meet the needs of struggling populations. Polluted water supplies, unsanitary conditions, and poor nutrition only exacerbate the poor health prevalent in these environments. Nurses working in developed nations have many opportunities/advantages that typically are not available to those in underdeveloped countries. What can nurses do to support their international colleagues and advocate for the poor and underserved of the world?
In this
Discussion
, you will consider the challenges of providing health care for the world’s neediest citizens, as well as how nurses can advocate for these citizens.
To prepare:
Consider the challenges of providing health care in underdeveloped countries.
Conduct research in the Walden Library and other reliable resources to determine strategies being used to address these challenges.
Using this week’s Learning Resources, note the factors that impact the ability of individuals in underdeveloped nations to obtain adequate health care.
Consider strategies nurses can use to advocate for health care at the global level. What can one nurse do to make a difference? NURS
6050
Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health
weekly essay discussions
and assignments.
By Day 3
Post a description of at least two challenges related to providing adequate health care in underdeveloped countries. Then, describe two strategies you might use to address those challenges, and explain why. Finally, describe one strategy nurses might use in advocating for health care at the global level, and explain why this would be an effective strategy.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
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NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion:
Financing of Health Care
Discussion: Financing of Health Care
With coinciding concerns about health care costs and the imperative to improve quality of care, health care providers and others face difficult decisions in the effort to achieve an appropriate balance. Such decisions often are addressed in the policy arena. How do policymakers evaluate which health care services should be financed through government programs? NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. How do ethics-related questions and other considerations play into this evaluation process? Is it possible to contain costs and provide accessible, high-quality care to all, or is the tension between cost and care inherent in the U.S. health care delivery system? These questions are central to health care financing decisions in the United States.
For this NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care, you will focus on the policy decision-making process that determines what types of care are covered by public and private insurers and the ethical aspects of such financial decisions.
To prepare:
Read the following case study, “Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare” (Milstead):
Case Study 1: Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare
Applied economics is all about managing scarce resources. Economics is an amoral field of study: it is neither moral nor immoral. Morality and values are determined by individuals at the personal level and by group consensus or majority opinion at the national level. State and federal governments determine the ‘will of the people’ about how to use scarce resources for the good of a nation. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
The U.S. health care system is an exemplar of scarcity: primary care physicians, substance abuse treatment centers, trauma centers, registered nurses, and the money to pay for goods and services. Finance is all about how to pay for goods and services. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is appointed by the Executive branch of the federal government to make decisions about what the Medicare program will and will not pay for. In this role, MedPAC makes decisions about medications, procedures and treatments. Examples of MedPAC decisions include coverage for left ventricular assistive devices as a destination therapy, coverage for bariatric surgery, and in 2010, coverage of the drug Provenge™. By law, MedPAC is not allowed to use price or cost of any treatment in its decision-making processes.
Review the information in the Washington Post article “Review of Prostate Cancer Drugs Provenge Renews Medical Cost-Benefit Debate” in the Learning Resources.
Consider how policy decisions currently are made about what will and will not be paid for and what changes, if any, could improve the process.
Reflect on how the Washington Post example illustrates the tension between cost and care.
By Day 3
Post your analysis and assessment of the ethical and economic challenges related to policy decisions such as those presented in the Washington Post article. How does this type of situation contribute to the tension between cost and care? Substantiate your response with at least two outside resources. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Discussion:
Financing of Health Care
References:
National Health Expenditures 2010 Highlights, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/highlights.pdf.
Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
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NURS 6050 Week 9 Discussion:
Legal and Ethical Conduct
As emphasized in this week’s media presentation, all nurses need to be familiar with the laws and regulations that govern their practice: their state’s Nurse Practice Act, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, specialty group standards of practice, etc. In addition, basic ethical principles guide nurses’ decision-making process every day. ANA’s Code of Ethics and ANA’s Social Policy Statement are two important documents that outline nurses’ ethical responsibilities to their patients, themselves, and their profession. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. This said, there is a dilemma: The laws are not always compatible with the ethical positions nurses sometimes take. This week’s Discussion focuses on such a dilemma.
To prepare:
Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the information in the media presentation about the relationship between the law and ethics.
Consider the ethical responsibility of nurses in ensuring patient autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice.
Read the following scenario:
Lena is a community health care nurse who works exclusively with HIV-positive and AIDS patients. As a part of her job, she evaluates new cases and reviews confidential information about these patients. In the course of one of these reviews, Lena learns that her sister’s boyfriend has tested HIV positive. Lena would like to protect her sister from harm and begins to consider how her sister can find out about her boyfriend’s health status. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Consult at least two resources to help you establish Lena’s legal and ethical position. These resources might include your state’s Nurse Practice Act, the ANA’s Code of Ethics, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, and internal or external standards of care.
Consider what action you would take if you were Lena and why.
Determine whether the law and the ANA’s standards support or conflict with that action.
By Day 3
Post a description of the actions you would take in this situation, and why. Justify these actions by referencing appropriate laws, ethical standards, and professional guidelines.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence..
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
NURS 6050 Week 4
Discussion
Discussion: Key Health Determinants
Did you know that the United States has a higher rate of infant mortality than Japan (CIA, n.d.)? Or, as Dr. Beilenson states in this week’s media presentation, that “your zip code that you live in makes more difference in your health and well-being than the genetic code that you’re born with?” What causes these differences in health outcomes?
To effectively develop policies and programs to improve population health, it is useful to use a framework to guide the process. Different organizations and governmental agencies (for example, Healthy People 2020) have created a variety of such frameworks, which establish measures for assessing population health. These measures frequently are derived from the examination of epidemiologic data, which include key measures of population health such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, etc. Within each measure are a variety of progress indicators that use epidemiologic data to assess improvement or change. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
For this NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion: Key Health Determinants assignment, you will apply a framework developed by Kindig, Asada, and Booske (2008) to a population health issue of interest to you. This framework includes five key health determinants that should be considered when developing policies and programs to improve population health: access to health care, individual behavior, social environment, physical environment, and genetics.
To prepare for Discussion: Key Health Determinants:
Review the article “A Population Health Framework for Setting National and State Health Goals,” focusing on population health determinants. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Review the information in the blog post “What Is Population Health?”
With this information in mind, elect a population health issue that is of interest to you.
Using this week’s Learning Resources, the Walden Library, and other relevant resources, conduct a search to locate current data on your population health issue NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Consider how epidemiologic data has been used to design population health measures and policy initiatives in addressing this issue.
By Day 3
Post a summary of how the five population health determinants (access to health care, individual behavior, social environment, physical environment, and genetics) affect your selected health issue, and which determinants you think are most impactful for that particular issue and why. Explain how epidemiologic data supports the significance of your issue, and explain how this data has been used in designing population health measures and policy initiatives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Discussion: Key Health Determinants References:
Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.) The world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state health goals. JAMA, 299(17), 2081–2083. doi: 10.1001/jama.299.17.2081
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NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion
Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment
“It is unreasonable to expect that people will change their behavior easily when so many forces in the social, cultural, and physical environment conspire against such change” (Kovner and Knickman, p. 139).
When seeking to lessen behavioral risk factors in different populations, one of the greatest challenges is addressing the systemic issues within the population that enable the risky behavior to occur in the first place. Consider the health risks of school-age children not being immunized or drug users sharing needles. As Dr. Beilenson discussed in the Week 4 media program, these risky behaviors led to increases in individual and population health problems. Thus, when planning health prevention programs, it is important to consider how to effectively address risky behaviors at both the individual and the population level. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
The NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion: Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment Discussion this week focuses on the use of the Population-Based Intervention Model outlined in the course text Health Care Delivery in the United States, as well as how this model can be applied to strengthen advocacy programs.
To prepare for Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment:
Select one of the behavioral risk factors from the Healthy Population 2010 Objectives (listed in Table 7.1 on p. 128 of the course text) that is of interest to you.
Using the Walden Library and other credible websites, research how this risk factor is affecting your community or state NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
With your selected risk factor in mind, review the information on the Population-Based Intervention Model on pp. 136–140 in the course text, Health Care Delivery in the United States. In particular, focus on the concept of downstream, midstream, and upstream interventions. Consider at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage.
By Day 3
Post a description of the behavioral risk factor you selected and how this factor is impacting your community or state. Using the Population-Based Intervention Model, suggest at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage (downstream, midstream, and upstream) to ensure that a health prevention program addressing the behavioral risk factor would have a greater chance at succeeding. Justify why each intervention you identified would be effective. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment References:
Kovner, A. R., & Knickman, J. R. (Eds.). (2011). Health care delivery in the United States (10th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
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NURS 6050 Week 6 Discussion:
Improving Quality
Improving the quality of health care delivery and patient safety continues to be a political concern and has been at the heart of reform issues for many years. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have increased awareness of health care quality and safety issues, as well as advocated for health care reform. The documents featured at the ANA and IOM websites listed in this week’s Learning Resources focus on many of the current issues surrounding quality and safety in the health care industry.
To prepare:
Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the Six Aims for Improvement presented in the landmark report “Crossing the Quality Chasm: The IOM Health Care Quality Initiative.”
Consider these six aims with regard to your current organization, or one with which you are familiar. In what areas have you seen improvement? What areas still present challenges? As a nurse leader, how can you contribute to improving the organization’s achievement of these aims? NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Select one specific quality or safety issue that is presenting a challenge in the organization. Consider at least one quality improvement strategy that could be used to address the issue, as well as which of the six aims for improvement would then be addressed.
Reflect on your professional practice and your experiences with inter-professional collaboration to improve quality and safety. How has inter-professional collaboration contributed to your organization’s efforts to realize the IOM’s six aims for improving health care? Where has inter-professional collaboration been lacking? NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
By Day 3
Post a description of the quality or safety issue you selected and a brief summary of the impact that this issue has on health care delivery. Describe at least one quality improvement strategy used to address this issue. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. Then explain which of the six “aims for improvement” are addressed by the strategy. Finally, explain how inter-professional collaboration helps improve quality in this area.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS 6050 Week 7 Discussion:
Health Care Policy
Health Care Policy Impact on Nurses Practice
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.
In this week’s Discussion, 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.
To prepare:
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? NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
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?
By Day 3 OF
Health Care Policy Impact on Nurses Practice
Post 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. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6 OF Health Care Policy Impact on Nurses Practice
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS 6050 Week 8 Discussion:
Nurses as Health Advocates
Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates
What does it take to be an effective health advocate? As a nurse, you have many opportunities to advocate for patients and populations, whether formally or informally. Being an advocate involves more than knowing how to lobby or to whom to write letters. It requires passion and compassion, commitment and courage. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
In this Discussion, you will consider the attributes of an effective advocate for population health and/or the nursing profession. You will analyze those attributes that help nurses be a powerful force in improving the quality of health care.
To prepare FOR Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates :
Review the article “On Being a Good Nurse: Reflections on the Past and Preparing for the Future” and “War, its aftermath, and U.S. health policy: Toward a comprehensive health program for America’s military personnel, veterans, and their families” found in this week’s Learning Resources.
Consider the multiple health care needs of returning veterans and their families.
By Day 3 OF Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates
Post two types of health needs returning veterans and their families might need. Identify two types of health needs returning veterans and their families might need. How might you advocate for the needs of this population. What type of advocacy skills would you need and how could you develop them. What responsibility does a nurse have to be an advocate? Give specific examples. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6 OF Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
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NURS 6050 Week 9 Discussion:
Legal and Ethical Conduct
Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct
As emphasized in this week’s media presentation, all nurses need to be familiar with the laws and regulations that govern their practice: their state’s Nurse Practice Act, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, specialty group standards of practice, etc. In addition, basic ethical principles guide nurses’ decision-making process every day. ANA’s Code of Ethics and ANA’s Social Policy Statement are two important documents that outline nurses’ ethical responsibilities to their patients, themselves, and their profession. This said, there is a dilemma: The laws are not always compatible with the ethical positions nurses sometimes take. This week’s Discussion focuses on such a dilemma. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
To prepare for Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct:
Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the information in the media presentation about the relationship between the law and ethics.
Consider the ethical responsibility of nurses in ensuring patient autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice.
Read the following scenario:
Lena is a community health care nurse who works exclusively with HIV-positive and AIDS patients. As a part of her job, she evaluates new cases and reviews confidential information about these patients. In the course of one of these reviews, Lena learns that her sister’s boyfriend has tested HIV positive. Lena would like to protect her sister from harm and begins to consider how her sister can find out about her boyfriend’s health status. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Consult at least two resources to help you establish Lena’s legal and ethical position. These resources might include your state’s Nurse Practice Act, the ANA’s Code of Ethics, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, and internal or external standards of care. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Consider what action you would take if you were Lena and why.
Determine whether the law and the ANA’s standards support or conflict with that action.
By Day 3 of Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct
Post a description of the actions you would take in this situation, and why. Justify these actions by referencing appropriate laws, ethical standards, and professional guidelines. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6 of Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS 6050 Week 10 Discussion:
Ethical Issues With an Aging Population
Discussion: Ethical Issues With an Aging Population
According to the CDC, “in the United States, the proportion of the population aged >65 years is projected to increase from 12.4% in 2000 to 19.6% in 2030,” (CDC, 2003, para. 2). Caring for this aging population is going to be one of the greatest challenges facing the health care industry. Not only will the number of individuals requiring care rise, but so will the cost. As poignantly stated by Crippen and Barnato, “unless we change the practice of medicine and reduce future costs, and explicitly address the ethical dilemmas we face, there may come a time when our kids simply cannot afford us” (2011, p. 128). NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
In this Discussion, you will examine the ethical issues that the United States and other nations must address when faced with the health care challenges of an aging population.
To prepare:
Consider the ethical aspects of health care and health policy for an aging population.
Review the Hayutin, Dietz, and Mitchell report presented in the Learning Resources. The authors pose the question, “What are the economic consequences, now and for future generations of taxpayers if we fail to adapt our policies to the changing reality of an older population?” (p. 21). Consider how you would respond to this question. In addition, reflect on the ethical decisions that arise when dispersing limited funds. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Contemplate the impact of failing to adjust policy in accordance with the changing reality of an older population.
Reflect on the ethical dilemmas that arise when determining expenditures on end-of-life health care.
By Day 3
Post an explanation of the ethical standards you believe should be used in determining how resources should be allocated for an aging population and end-of-life care. Then, provide an analysis of the ethical challenges related to the preparation for the provision of such health care. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Discussion: Ethical Issues With an Aging Population References:
Crippen, D., & Barnato, A. E. (2011). The ethical implications of health spending: Death and other expensive conditions. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 39(2), 121–129. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2011.00582.x
Public health and aging: Trends in aging—United States and worldwide. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5206a2.htm
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NURS 6050 Week 11 Discussion:
What Can Nurses Do?
Discussion: What Can Nurses Do?
Many people, most of them in tropical countries of the Third World, die of preventable, curable diseases. . . . Malaria, tuberculosis, acute lower-respiratory infections—in 1998, these claimed 6.1 million lives. People died because the drugs to treat those illnesses are nonexistent or are no longer effective. They died because it doesn’t pay to keep them alive. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
–Ken Silverstein, Millions for Viagra. Pennies for Diseases of the Poor, The Nation, July 19, 1999
Unfortunately, since 1998, little has changed. For many individuals living in impoverished underdeveloped countries, even basic medical care is difficult to obtain. Although international agencies sponsor outreach programs and corporations, and although nonprofit organizations donate goods and services, the level of health care remains far below what is necessary to meet the needs of struggling populations. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments. Polluted water supplies, unsanitary conditions, and poor nutrition only exacerbate the poor health prevalent in these environments. Nurses working in developed nations have many opportunities/advantages that typically are not available to those in underdeveloped countries. What can nurses do to support their international colleagues and advocate for the poor and underserved of the world?
In this Discussion, you will consider the challenges of providing health care for the world’s neediest citizens, as well as how nurses can advocate for these citizens.
To prepare:
Consider the challenges of providing health care in underdeveloped countries.
Conduct research in the Walden Library and other reliable resources to determine strategies being used to address these challenges. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Using this week’s Learning Resources, note the factors that impact the ability of individuals in underdeveloped nations to obtain adequate health care.
Consider strategies nurses can use to advocate for health care at the global level. What can one nurse do to make a difference?
By Day 3
Post a description of at least two challenges related to providing adequate health care in underdeveloped countries. Then, describe two strategies you might use to address those challenges, and explain why. Finally, describe one strategy nurses might use in advocating for health care at the global level, and explain why this would be an effective strategy. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
NURS 6050 Week 4 Assignment
Application: Part 1 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign
The following application (Part 1) will be due in week 4.
To prepare FOR Application: Part 1 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign:
Select a population health issue of interest to you and identify the population affected by the issue.
Locate two scholarly articles, each of which provides a description of an effective health advocacy campaign that addresses your issue. The articles need to focus on two different advocacy campaigns. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Analyze the attributes of the two campaigns to determine what made them effective.
Reflect on a policy you could propose or suggest a change to a current policy to improve the health of the population you selected.
Consider how you could develop an advocacy campaign, applying the attributes identified in similar, effective campaigns.
To complete Application: Part 1 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign:
For the Part 1 application (approximately 3–4 pages of content with a title page and references in APA format) address the following:
Describe your selected population health issue and the population affected by this issue.
Summarize the two advocacy campaigns you researched in this area. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Explain the attributes that made those campaigns effective.
Begin to develop a plan for a health advocacy campaign that seeks to create a new policy or change an existing policy with regard to the issue and population you selected. Be sure to include in your plan:
A description of the public health issue and proposed policy solution
Specific objectives for the policy you want to be implemented NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments
Begin to substantiate of your proposed campaign by data and evidence.
Be sure to paste the rubric at the end of your paper.
By Day 7 of Week 4 OFApplication: Part 1 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign
This Assignment is due.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Week 4 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 4 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
NURS 6050 Week 7 Assignment
Application Assignment 2: Part 2 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign
The following application, Part 2, will be due in Week 7.
To prepare:
Review Chapter 3 of Milstead, J. A. (2016). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
In the first assignment, you reflected on whether the policy you would like to promote could best be achieved through the development of new legislation, or a change in an existing law or regulation. Refine as necessary using any feedback from your first paper. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Contemplate how existing laws or regulations may affect how you proceed in advocating for your proposed policy.
Consider how you could influence legislators or other policymakers to enact the policy you propose.
Think about the obstacles of the legislative process that may prevent your proposed policy from being implemented as intended. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
To complete:
Part Two will have approximately 3–4 pages of content plus a title page and references. Part Two will address the following:
Explain whether your proposed policy could be enacted through a modification of existing law or regulation or the creation of new legislation/regulation. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Explain how existing laws or regulations could affect your advocacy efforts. Be sure to cite and reference the laws and regulations using primary sources.
Provide an analysis of the methods you could use to influence legislators or other policymakers to support your policy. In particular, explain how you would use the “three legs” of lobbying in your advocacy efforts.
Summarize obstacles that could arise in the legislative process and how to overcome these hurdles.
Paste the rubric at the end of your paper.
By Day 7 of Week 7
This Assignment is due.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK7Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Click the Week 7 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 7 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK7Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission
NURS 6050 Week 10 Assignment
Application: Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign (continued): Ethical Considerations
The final application builds upon the applications (Parts One and Two) completed in weeks 4 and 7.
To complete the final section of your paper:
Review provisions 7, 8, and 9 of the ANA Code of Ethics in relation to advocacy for population health.
Reflect on the ethical considerations you may need to take into account in your advocacy campaign.
Research the ethical considerations and lobbying laws relevant to the location where your advocacy campaign will occur. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Consider potential ethical dilemmas you might face in your campaign.
To complete: Revise and combine Part one (week 4 application) and Part Two (week 7 application) with Part Three below.
Explain any ethical dilemmas that could arise during your advocacy campaign, and how you would resolve them.
Describe the ethics and lobbying laws that are applicable to your advocacy campaign.
Evaluate the special ethical challenges that are unique to the population you are addressing. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Provide a cohesive summary for your paper.
Reminder: You will submit one cogent paper that combines the previous applications from weeks 4 and 7 plus the new material mentioned in the week 8 application. Your paper should be about 10 pages of content, not including the title page and references. Be sure to paste the rubric at the end of your paper.
By Day 7 of Week 10
This Assignment is due.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.
Click the Week 10 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 10 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission. NURS 6050 Policy & Advocacy for Improving Population Health weekly essay discussions and assignments.