Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 1 Discussion
Envisioning Yourself as an Advocate for Nurses and Health Policy
And, so we begin a very fast-paced and packed course on policy, politics, and nursing. Each of us has his or her own experiences and interest in advocacy. You may want to start your journey by reading Savage’s piece from your course textbook. Her chapter captures her journey and may serve as a primer for your experience these next few weeks. This week’s readings and assignments will help you to picture yourself moving in a direction to developing/honing/refining your advocacy skills.
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Answer one of the following questions:
From the chapter “The Changing United States Health Care System” in your course textbook, using either the story of Wald’s efforts to improve the health status of impoverished immigrant communities or the story of how advanced practice registered nurses have struggled with their legitimacy within the health care delivery system, compare your own experience in nursing.
Have there been challenges you have faced? If so, what strategies did you employ to overcome these challenges?
How do you envision your career moving forward in advocating for your patients? Your community? Yourself?
From your daily briefs, Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing or POLITICO Pulse.
List the interest groups that are mentioned in the brief and what their interest is in the piece.
Categorize the issues in the brief according to the following—politics and politicians, access to health care, health care insurance, health care legislation, money, drugs, or other. Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 2 Discussion
Social Determinants of Health
Answer one of the following questions:
Increasingly, health policymakers are becoming aware of the social determinants of health and the role they play in prevention disease and promoting health and wellness. In the “Frameworks for Action in Policy and Politics” chapter, examine Box 1-1 (Political Aspects of the Social Determinants of Health) and Figure 1-6 (The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Nursing’s Policy Influence). Then compare these with the story about Lilian Wald’s work in New York City. Reflect on the “what” of Wald’s strategies. In your opinion, which did she use effectively?
Looking further at the “what” in Figure 1-6 and answer any one of the following questions:
Discuss at least three competencies/strategies that you have used effectively.
Identify three competencies/strategies that you don’t currently use and discuss how you might incorporate them into your advocacy toolbox.
Review the four recommendations in the IOM report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and find your state’s action coalition. Discuss your state’s action coalition’s work as it aligns with these four recommendations. Is each recommendation being addressed? Based on your analysis of the website, how would you describe your state’s progress toward meeting the IOM recommendations?
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 3 Discussion
The ACA or the AHCA: Imperfect Solutions to Increasing Access to Health Care?
This week’s discussion focuses on the federal government’s role in protecting the public’s health using the ACA and current efforts to “repeal and replace” the ACA. Please note that the government’s role in protecting the public’s health did not begin with the ACA. In the late 1800s, Lilian Wald brought health care to the community. And in 1965, Congress passed bills authorizing Medicare and Medicaid. Since 1965, Congress has expanded government-sponsored health care to pregnant women and children.
Answer the following question:
Compare the current provisions in the ACA with those in the failed first version of the AHCA. Share your opinions about why the AHCA failed in the first attempt at passage.
Continue to read daily from one of the policy briefs that are included in your weekly readings list. POLITICO Pulse is a daily briefing from POLITICO, and the Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing is a daily briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both focus on health care. Either one will keep you abreast of what is happening in health care policies and politics.
In addition, subscribe to the “HealthCetera” podcast and listen to the podcast weekly. This is a production of WBAI, free speech radio of Pacifica Foundation Radio in New York City. Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein are founders and codirectors of the Center for Health Media Policy (CHMP). Both are recognized as experts in media, nursing, health, and health policy. They have a longstanding relationship as producers and moderators of HealthCetera, a live, award-winning radio program on public radio and iTunes. They are bloggers for Disruptive Women in Health Care and for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The CHMP is an interdisciplinary initiative for advancing the health of the public and healthy public policies through media, research, education, and public forums. Listen to the podcast throughout the course and think on the topics that are discussed, especially as they relate to how we advocate for issues of importance in this contemporary political environment.
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 4 Discussion
Advance Care Planning and Analysis
Read the section titled “Reflective Practice: Pants on Fire” from chapter “Health Policy, Politics, and Professional Ethics” and address the questions below:
How do you judge Palin’s quote? [“And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s death panel so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their level of productivity in society, whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.] Effective strategy to oppose Democrats’ plans for health care reform or unethical scaremongering?
Reflect on what informs your judgment: commitment to advance care planning, analysis of facts, and/or political party loyalties?
Is it right for nurses to endorse health reform legislation even if the legislation is not perfect? Does this apply to the recently failed American Health Care Act? Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 5 Discussion
Nurses as Change Agents in the Community
In the chapter, “How Community-Based Organizations Are Addressing Nursing’s Role in Transforming Health Care,” the authors describe the community as the focus of advocacy action for change. They list a series of questions that help community teams develop organizing principles to guide their interventions, and the aim is to attack social determinants of health to make community change.
Suppose a community team identifies lack of access to exercise modalities as a public health issue. If the team were to determine that pedestrian walkways need to be constructed, discuss at least two factors that would facilitate the development of the walkways and two that would hinder the development. For the hindrances, discuss ways that the team might work to overcome those hindrances.
Continue to read daily from one of the policy briefs that are included in your weekly readings list. POLITICO Pulse is a daily briefing from POLITICO, and the Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing is a daily briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both focus on health care. Either one will keep you abreast of what is happening in health care policies and politics.
In addition, subscribe to the “HealthCetera” podcast and listen to the podcast weekly. This is a production of WBAI, free speech radio of Pacifica Foundation Radio in New York City. Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein are founders and codirectors of the Center for Health Media Policy (CHMP). Both are recognized as experts in media, nursing, health, and health policy. They have a longstanding relationship as producers and moderators of HealthCetera, a live, award-winning radio program on public radio and iTunes. They are bloggers for Disruptive Women in Health Care and for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The CHMP is an interdisciplinary initiative for advancing the health of the public and healthy public policies through media, research, education, and public forums. Listen to the podcast throughout the course and think on the topics that are discussed, especially as they relate to how we advocate for issues of importance in this contemporary political environment.
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NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 1 Project
Using a Health Policy Model to Develop a Change in Policy to Improve the Public’s Health
This assignment focuses on the methods to develop a change in policy to improve the public’s health by using a health policy model.
Tasks:
Suppose you want to initiate a policy of taxing sugared sodas/pop/beverages in your community. Use the Longest’s policy cycle model to ponder the following questions:
What arguments would you use to make the case for the policy?
What argument(s) would your opponents make?
How would you go about getting buy-in for your proposed policy?
What stakeholder groups need to be involved in promoting your policy? Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 2 Project
Nurse’s Role in Influencing the Legislative Process
For this week’s project, you’ll answer three questions related to your opportunity as a nurse and an advocate. The first two questions relate to influencing a bill is traveling through the legislative process. The third question refers you to the social determinants of health as described in your course textbook reading and asks you to think specifically on your role as a nurse in influencing social determinants of health.
In a brief paper (no more than 2 typed pages, 1 inch margins, 12 font Times New Roman or Courier New), answer the questions below. Write each question as a new topic area and then follow with a paragraph or two to answer the question. You may find it necessary to search for answers to the questions outside of the assigned reading. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.
Answer the following questions:
What parts of the lawmaking process does a nurse have an opportunity to influence the final bill passage?
List at least two ways that this influence can take place. In your opinion, would one way be preferable over the other?
Reviewing the social determinants of health, select one to respond to this question:
What role can nurses play in promoting health status through policy changes directly affecting this social determinant?
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 3 Project
First Steps on Becoming a Grassroots Lobbyist/Advocate for Health Care Policy
This assignment has two parts, numbered below. Write each question as a new topic area, then follow with a paragraph or two to answer the question. You may find it necessary to search for answers to the questions outside of the assigned reading. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.
Tasks:
Imagine that you are going to make a visit to your representative in Congress. Develop a one-page document that supports your position on the AHCA that you would leave with your representative or his or her aide when you make your visit. This one-pager, also called a “leave behind,” should state your position clearly in bullet points and give your reasons why your position is preferred. This “leave behind” should have 1 inch margins and utilize 14-point font throughout. If you were making this visit in person, you would present your “leave behind” to the person with whom you speak during your visit. Include a second page that describes your rationale for the position in your “leave behind” page supported by at least two journal articles.
Write a two-page brief to describe the scenario surrounding your legislative visit. Understanding the political affiliation of your representative, include answers to the following:
Was your member in support or in opposition to the AHCA?
State three points that you would cover in support or opposition to your representative’s position.
How does your nursing experience influence the advocacy position that you take on the AHCA?
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 4 Project
Reaching out a Solution
This assignment is designed to assist you in developing a thoughtful process for advocating about an issue as a nurse, from identifying a problem that needs to be solved through articulating a process for doing so.
This assignment consists of answering each of the questions listed below from the “Political Analysis and Strategies” chapter of your course textbook. Write each question as a new topic area; then follow with a paragraph or two to answer the question. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources, if any used. This project should be no longer than 4 pages.
Let us assume that you are a school nurse in a high school. At a recent school athletic event, a spectator suffered a cardiac arrest in the stands. A coach of the home team went into the high school to fetch the automatic emergency defibrillator (AED) only to find out that it was not readily available. In the meantime, an emergency squad arrived and resuscitated the spectator. On Monday morning, you learn of the absence of the AED only to find out that it had been locked in the custodian’s closet. Reflect on the following questions outlined in the “Political Analysis and Strategies” chapter:
What is the issue?
Is it my issue, and can I solve it?
Is this the real issue or merely a symptom of a larger one?
Does it need an immediate solution, or can it wait?
Is it likely to go away by itself?
Can I risk ignoring it?
What are the possible solutions? Are there risks to these solutions?
What steps would you need to take in order to solve the issue?
Does anyone else at the school need to be involved in the solution?
Where is the power leverage in the school to reach the preferred solution? Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Reaching a solution requires the use of power vested in the nurse. Review Box 9-1 (Sources of Power) and determine which type(s) of power the school nurse has in this situation. State your reasons for your answer.
NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
Week 5 Project
The Nurse as Advocate
Whether nurses are advocating for their patients, health care, and/or policies that improve people’s lives, the advocacy processes have commonalities that transcend the subject of their advocacy. There are also differences, although these differences may be more nuanced than obvious.
Tasks:
Write a 5-page brief to answer the following questions. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.
Read the following chapters from your course textbook:
Taking Action: Nurse, Educator, and Legislator: My Journey to the Delaware Senate
Taking Action: A Nurse in the Board Room
Answer the below questions:
Describe what you believe to be the drivers for each of the individuals? What factors led them to become advocates?
Discuss the challenges that each of them identified in their writings.
Analyze these drivers and challenges and compare them with your own experience to date as an advocate. In what ways do you believe that you can expand your advocacy skills within the next five years? Discussions and Assignments: NSG4068 Trends in Healthcare Policy
