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?

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 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.

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.

Post an 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.

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: 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.). Advocacy. 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 implementation. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/injury/pdfs/policy/Brief%204-a.pdf

Congress.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.congress.gov/

Klein, K. J., & Sorra, J. S. (1996). The challenge of innovation implementation. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 1055–1080. doi:10.5465/AMR.1996.9704071863

Sacristán, J., & Dilla, T. D. (2015). No big data without small data: Learning health care systems begin and end with the individual patient. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 21(6), 1014–1017. doi:10.1111/jep.12350

Tummers, L., & Bekkers, V. (2014). Policy implementation, street level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretion. Public Management Review, 16(4), 527–547. doi:10.1080/14719037.2013.841978.

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Getting your Program Designed and Implemented [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

reflection assignment

Students are encouraged to create portfolios and begin to “manage” their careers. When you began a college education you took the first step. You now need to begin to reflect on the next goal, then medium, and long-term goals. I did not complete my final degree until well into my 50’s. And that is fine, I loved my health care career. I was eager to care for patients and did not leave direct patient care for many decades. I did know the time would come to do so however, and began to earn the college degrees I would need at the proper time. This is what is meant by managing your career. This is an entry level program. It is designed to assist you in getting your “foot in the door” where you can learn valuable clinical skills. A common and important degree is the Bachelor of Health Information Management (BS-HIM). This is a reflective assignment. After you have earned your Associate Degree, what would you like to do next?

Explore your next step in Career Management.

Include the following aspects in the assignment:

Ø  Access AHIMA: What is Health Information

Ø  Explore in detail the job outlook, roles and responsibilities of the HIM professionals.

Ø  Expand on your interest in pursuing this profession or if you are not interested, please discuss the reasons.

Ø  Implement some characteristics that makes a good leader in the field of Health Information and explain which ones you specifically have.

Ø  Demonstrate the importance of HIM professionals respecting patient privacy, accuracy, and quality care

Ø  This is a non-formal 1-2 page reflection; you may use “I”. As always, proper sentences, grammar, and spelling are required.

Preview the document

Online discussion

Part 1

Use the article below, chapters 6-8 in your textbook, and the movie (“Miss Evers’ Boys”) to help guide your answers. Most of these questions do not have a right or wrong answer. 

  • Was this study unethical in 1932?
    • Why or why not?
    • If you feel the study was ethical, was there a point when it became unethical?
    • Did the study provide valuable information?
  • How could the study have been done differently?
  • How do you think the subjects felt about their participation?
    • Did they think they were being treated unfairly?
    • Does the answer change over time (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc.)?
    • Should they have thought to question the MDs or Nurse Rivers?
  • What was the impact of recruiting at churches and schools on test subjects?
  • What was Nurse Rivers’ role in the project?
    • What is your opinion of her role?
  • Was Nurse Rivers negligent or did she commit malpractice?
    • Why or why not?
  • Think of a research question or study pertinent to a specific race, ethnicity, or culture.
    • How would you ensure the ethical recruitment of subjects?
  • Imagine you are the nurse in a modern-day, ethical, TSS-like study.
    • How would you use each of the five elements of cultural competence for the selected population?
  • Which modern-day, government agencies could be involved in a health-related research study?
    • How might they be involved?

Part 2

Lack of diversity in clinical trials and research has increasingly been highlighted as a problem.

  • Hypothesize one reason (whether methodological, social, ethical, or other) why a lack of diversity has been a persistent issue in clinical trials and research.
  • What is one potential solution for your hypothesized reason?

Your initial post should be at least 400 words and supported with at least one additional scholarly source.

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format.

The post and responses are valued at 75 points. Please review post and response expectations. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets criteria.

Discussion Files

Benchmark – Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management

 

In this assignment, you will be writing a 1,000-1,250 word paper describing the differing approaches of nursing leaders and managers to issues in practice. To complete this assignment, do the following:

  1. Select an issue from the following list: bullying, unit closers and restructuring, floating, nurse turnover, nurse staffing ratios, use of contract employees (i.e., registry and travel nurses), or magnet designation.
  2. Describe the selected issue. Discuss how it impacts quality of care and patient safety in the setting in which it occurs.
  3. Discuss how professional standards of practice should be demonstrated in this situation to help rectify the issue or maintain professional conduct.
  4. Explain the differing roles of nursing leaders and nursing managers in this instance and discuss the different approaches they take to address the selected issue and promote patient safety and quality care. Support your rationale by using the theories, principles, skills, and roles of the leader versus manager described in your readings.
  5. Discuss what additional aspects mangers and leaders would need to initiate in order to ensure professionalism throughout diverse health care settings while addressing the selected issue.
  6. Describe a leadership style that would best address the chosen issue. Explain why this style could be successful in this setting.

Use at least three peer-reviewed journal articles other than those presented in your text or provided in the course.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

RN to BSN

1.1:       Exemplify professionalism in diverse health care settings.

1.3:       Exercise professional nursing leadership and management roles in the promotion of patient safety and quality care.

3.4:       Demonstrate professional standards of practice.

Work Environment

 

Clearly, diagnosis is a critical aspect of healthcare. However, the ultimate purpose of a diagnosis is the development and application of a series of treatments or protocols. Isolated recognition of a health issue does little to resolve it.

In this module’s Discussion, you applied the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory to diagnose potential problems with the civility of your organization. In this Portfolio Assignment, you will continue to analyze the results and apply published research to the development of a proposed treatment for any issues uncovered by the assessment.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and examine the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, found on page 20 of Clark (2015).
  • Review the Work Environment Assessment Template.
  • Reflect on the output of your Discussion post regarding your evaluation of workplace civility and the feedback received from colleagues.

 

The Assignment (3-6 pages total):

Part 1: Work Environment Assessment (1-2 pages)

  • Review the Work Environment Assessment Template you completed for this Module’s Discussion.
  • Describe the results of the Work Environment Assessment you completed on your workplace.
  • Identify two things that surprised you about the results and one idea you believed prior to conducting the Assessment that was confirmed.
  • Explain what the results of the Assessment suggest about the health and civility of your workplace.

Part 2: Reviewing the Literature (1-2 pages)

  • Briefly describe the theory or concept presented in the article(s) you selected.
  • Explain how the theory or concept presented in the article(s) relates to the results of your Work Environment Assessment.
  • Explain how your organization could apply the theory highlighted in your selected article(s) to improve organizational health and/or create stronger work teams. Be specific and provide examples.

Part 3: Evidence-Based Strategies to Create High-Performance Interprofessional Teams (1–2 pages)

  • Recommend at least two strategies, supported in the literature, that can be implemented to address any shortcomings revealed in your Work Environment Assessment.
  • Recommend at least two strategies that can be implemented to bolster successful practices revealed in your Work Environment Assessment.

References

Clark, C. M. (2018). Combining cognitive rehearsal, simulation, and evidence-based scripting to address incivility. Nurse Educator. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563 

Clark, C. (2015). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. Let’s end the silence that surrounds incivility. America Nurse Today, 10(11). https://www.myamericannurse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ant11-CE-Civility-1023.pdf

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

  • Chapter 5, “Collaborative Leadership Contexts: Networks, Communication, Decision Making, and Motivation” (pp. 121–144)
  • Chapter 9, “Creating and Shaping the Organizational Environment and Culture to Support Practice Excellence” (pp. 247–278)
  • Chapter 10, “Building Cohesive and Effective Teams” (pp. 279–298)

Life span Development

Describe the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Include 2 references. Pls, post should be at least 250 words. 

APA FORMAT. 

Journal Entry

PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION BELOW

5 REFERENCES

ZERO PLAGIARISM

Develop effective documentation skills for family therapy sessions *
  • Develop diagnoses for clients receiving family psychotherapy *
  • Evaluate the efficacy of solution-focused therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for families *
  • Analyze legal and ethical implications of counseling clients with psychiatric disorders *

* The Assignment related to this Learning Objective is introduced this week and submitted in Week 7.

Select two clients you observed or counseled this week during a family therapy session. Note: The two clients you select must have attended the same family session. Do not select the same family you selected for Week 2.

Then, address in your Practicum Journal the following:

  • Using the Group Therapy Progress Note in this week’s Learning Resources, document the family session.
  • Describe each client (without violating HIPAA regulations) and identify any pertinent history or medical information, including prescribed medications.
  • Using the DSM-5, explain and justify your diagnosis for each client.
  • Explain whether solution-focused or cognitive behavioral therapy would be more effective with this family. Include expected outcomes based on these therapeutic approaches.
  • Explain any legal and/or ethical implications related to counseling each client.
  • Support your approach with evidence-based literature.