Description
The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
The nursing career grounds on the science of human health and the science of caring working on a structure that value persons in a holistic manner and seek to stimulate and improve health. Nurses have a distinctive role in policymaking and to be influential, they must view themselves as experts with the capability and duty to influence the healthcare delivery system. To attain this, it is imperative that policies prevail that establish and assimilate suitable standards for care delivery and address situations needed for that care to happen. Nurses influence practice standards and processes to guarantee the quality of care through policy work and policies impact the allocation of resources to brace delivery or healthcare.
Opportunities That Currently For RNs and APRNs to Participate In Policy Review
The two opportunities elucidated include political advocacy and participation in health policy and legislation development (Staebler et al., 2017). These openings are imperative to both the registered nurses and advanced practice nurses
Through Political Advocacy
APRNs who have undergone “Doctor of Nursing” Program know the meaning of health policy and advocacy. Nurses have the mastery to become political advocates and leaders who improve their practice and safeguard the patient’s welfare. The level of advocacy considered in this discussion is class advocacy, which is a more open political approach that center on transforming the network of openings to further the interests of communities, organizations, or larger groups, unlike case advocacy that centers on individuals and families. The four domains of political action in nursing include the government, organization, workplace, and community. Within the workplace domain, nurses address issues affecting job and patient care, issues affecting community health in the community domain, issues that shape nursing in the organization domain, and laws, rules, and regulations governing nursing practice in the government domain. Since nurses have been patient advocates in their interactions with administrators and doctors, they can exercise the same with the congress.
Challenges and Recommendations to Political Advocacy
However, nurses have been reluctant in the past because of the view of their role as politically powerless and their duty at the bedside as technical action, and not a political opening (Warner, 2017). However, the fact that nursing is shaped by healthcare itself, governmental standards, professional standards, ethical standards, and governing agencies makes one politically involved. One strategy to utilize the power and influence efficaciously, nurses need to establish an awareness of the legislative procedure and sharpen their working knowledge of the political arena. Another strategy involves networking with others interested in policy advocacy by getting in touch with suitable institutions and clearinghouses, majority of which can provide speakers, useful publications, technical help, moral support, and advice. An example of nursing advocacy at the policy level involves addressing environmental aspects of health such as cases of heavy metal poisoning in a specific residential dwelling.
Health Policy Development Advocacy and Legislation Involvement
Committed supplies and policy recommendation are crucial to addressing elements that shape population health (Williams, Phillips, & Koyama, 2018). Healthcare experts and leaders agree that nurses must deal with the issues affecting the country by participating in the development of health policy. Health networks are rapidly growing and transforming and nurses as part of the network should move along with these advancements. For this reason, they need to influence the development of health policies as opposed to just executing them. To be better able to control their practice, they need to be active in the establishment of these policies and legislations. Their encounters while practicing in the real world of health care stimulates them to adopt involvement to influence regulations, laws, and change policies that guide the larger health care network. Successful health policy development and involvement depend on having the energy, the time, the will, and the power, along with masteries required to taking part in the legislative arena. The progress of the focus of health policy content is from the institutional level to the local level, state, and ultimately to the federal level. Influence of nurses in health policies safeguards the quality of care, patient safety, and enables access to the needed supplies. Therefore, their involvement is in policies that affect the complete healthcare network, patients and families are imperative.
Challenges and Recommendations to Health Policy Development and Legislation
Despite the influential and exceptional roles of nurses in the establishment of population health and patient care policies, it is imperative to increase their participation and involvement in policy processes in areas such as occupational issues, prescribing, and scope of practice. The challenges that affect nurses’ involvement in the development of health policies and legislation include minimal opportunities for involvement, inadequate skills, and lack of awareness (Brokaw, & WCC, 2016). One strategy to address this issue includes policy-nursing education to better prepare them to get involved in shaping efficacious health policies (Ellenbecker et al. 2017). Another strategy is organizing and supporting yearly legislative days, offering fellowships or internships, and conducting workshops planned to provide nurses the opening to learn more about prevailing healthcare issues and the legislative procedure. Another strategy is collaborative policy work where they can work together to deal with health policy issues at the local and national level. For example, nurses can influence the development of legislation and policies for smoking in the workplace.
Reference List
Brokaw, J. J., & WCC, O. (2016). The nursing profession’s potential impact on policy and politics.
Ellenbecker, C. H., Fawcett, J., Jones, E. J., Mahoney, D., Rowlands, B., & Waddell, A. (2017). A staged approach to educating nurses in health policy. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 18(1), 44-56.
Staebler, S., Campbell, J., Cornelius, P., Fallin-Bennett, A., Fry-Bowers, E., Kung, Y. M., … & Miller, J. (2017). Policy and political advocacy: Comparison study of nursing faculty to determine current practices, perceptions, and barriers to teaching health policy. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(5), 350-355.
Warner, S. L. (2017). Getting political about patient advocacy. Nursing2019, 47(11), 47-49.
Williams, S. D., Phillips, J. M., & Koyama, K. (2018). Nurse advocacy: adopting a health in all policies approach. Online J Issues Nurs, 23(3).
