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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 the 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.

By Day 3 of Week 8

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.

By Day 6 of Week 8

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’* posts by suggesting additional opportunities or recommendations for overcoming the challenges described by your colleagues.

*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues. Everything should be in APA 7 formart. At least 3 references all  with DOI number and at least 3 paragraphs for mainpost and 2 for replies.’

Discussion for reply one  (Guy)

 RNs and APRNs have crucial roles in health care to inform decisions of policy making. There are many opportunities that exist for nursing professionals to participate in policy making. According to Burke (2016), “It’s essential that policies exist that define and integrate appropriate standards for delivery of care and address conditions necessary for that care to occur. Through policy work, nurses can and should influence practice standards and processes to assure quality of care. Nurses who influence policy help share the care that will be provided today and tomorrow. Policies also impact resource allocation to support delivery of healthcare”. 

                 One opportunity that exists for nurses to become active in policy making is to become a member of the American Nurses Association. According to Catallo, Spalding, & Haghiri-Vijeh (2014), “Policy products that the ANA offers include a “policy activist took kit”. As part of this took kit, RNs are provided with resources that include how to get involved in a political campaign, writing letters to the editor, how to engage politicians and carry out lobbying activities”. The article “Nursing Professional Organizations: What Are They Doing to Engage Nurses in Health Policy?” discusses how nurses can become engaged in health policy activities and how to address policy issues. 

                  Another opportunity that exists for nurses to become active in policy making is to advance their education by becoming an APRN. According to Regis College (n.d), “Nurse practitioners have an opportunity to serve as advocates for patients, families, communities, other nurses, and health care organizations. Through this advocacy, nurse practitioners can influence health care policy. By gaining a comprehensive understanding in particular areas of health care, nurse practitioners are uniquely situated to support positions that will benefit out communities”. Becoming an APRN prepares your ability to participate in advocacy of health care policy making.

                  A strategy that can be used to promote nursing professionals involvement in policy making is to do so through nursing employers. For example, I would propose to create and implement a “Policy Committee” through my hospital organization to discuss the potential nurse advocacy benefits we can offer to policy making. In addition, as mentioned by Catallo et al,. (2014), to convey “Political awareness and understanding of the importance of being involved in nursing organizations, time to engage in policy development outside of nursing work, and resources to develop skills in policy participation”. 

                   Another strategy that can be implemented to overcome to barriers of nursing involvement in policy making is to do so through nursing education. According to Short (2008), “The foundations for a professional understanding of health care policy should be well laid in formal education and synthesized with practice and work environments. Without time to promote synthesis of policy concepts related to the practice environment, nurses have no basis for further exploration and may remain naive to the influences of policy throughout their career”. If nursing students (RN or APRN) were exposed to health care policy and the influence their roles can have on policy making during their nursing education, there would be much more nursing involvement in health care policy that is needed today. 

References 

Burke, A. (2016). Influence Through Policy: Nurses Have a Unique Role. Retrieved October 18, 2020 from https://nursingcentered.sigmanursing.org/commentary/more-commentary/Vol42_2_nurses-have-a-unique-role.

Catallo, C., Spalding, K., & Haghiri-Vijeh, R. (2014). Nursing Professional Organizations: What Are They Doing to Engage Nurses in Health Policy? SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014560534

Regis College (n.d). How Does Nursing Influence Health Care Policy? Retrieved October 18, 2020 from https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/how-does-nursing-influence-health-care-policy/

Short N. M. (2008). Influencing health policy: strategies for nursing education to partner with nursing practice. Journal of professional nursing: official journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 24(5), 264–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2007.10.004

Discussion for reply two(Megan)

“The design phase of the policy process is the point at which the original intent of a solution to a problem is understood and the appropriate tools are employed to achieve policy success” (Milstead, 2019). The creation of policies, or presenting your idea, is how nurses can participate in policymaking. Actively working in the nursing field can help nurses see problems that arise and a better solution to patient needs. Bringing these ideas to congress to make changes will benefit the need of the patients. “Nurses’ influence in health policies protects patient safety, increases quality of care, and facilitates their access to the required resources and promotes quality health care” (Arabi et al., 2014).

Advocacy is another way that nurses can participate in policymaking. “We have been patient advocates in our interactions with doctors and administrators, why not with Congress“ (L. Phillips, 2020). Nurses should feel excited and empowered that they get to have a voice in the political world to make healthcare changes. Advocating for our patients is our duty, and I cannot think of a better way to do this than policy creation or changes. “As a component of professional nursing, active participation in the policy process is essential in the formulation of policies designed to provide quality health care at sustainable costs to all individuals” (Milstead, 2019).         

Some of the challenges nurses face when getting involved with policymaking are getting push back from legislators and finding the evidence-based practice to support ideas. Nurses must band together and fight for what we know is right and what our patients need. Becoming an active member of a nursing organization can help support new policies or change old policies. Support strength comes in numbers. Having multiple people that share the same ideas will decrease pushback. Finding evidence-based practice to support our ideas may pose a problem, but putting in work to find or create research will be worth it, in the end, to help our patients with new or changed policies. Also, becoming a member of a nursing association can assist with finding or creating evidence-based practice.

The strategies I think will help advocate for these opportunities is being involved in a nursing association and providing courses like this to nurses. I know I spoke of nursing associations already, but I cannot think of a better way to come together and share our similar experiences and ideas to improve processes and policies to assist our patients. Providing courses like this to help educate nurses and get them involved in politics helps drive home the importance of our voices.

References

Arabi, A., Rafii, F., Cheraghi, M., & Ghiyasvandian, S. (2014, May 19). Nurses’ policy influence: A concept analysis. PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061635/

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Pg.  97

 Phillips, R. (2003). Health Care Policy: The Nurse’s Crucial Role. American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing. https://www.aaacn.org/volunteer/teams/legislative/health-care-policy-nurses-crucial-role

As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format. Support your work, using your course lectures and textbook readings. Helpful APA guides and resources are available in the South University Online Library. Below are guides that are located in the library and can be accessed and downloaded via the South University Online Citation Resources: APA Style page. The American Psychological Association website also provides detailed guidance on formatting, citations, and references at APA Style.
• APA Citation Helper
• APA Citations Quick Sheet
• APA-Style Formatting Guidelines for a Written Essay
• Basic Essay Template

TASK

Post your initial response to one of the two topics below.

Topic 1:  Causes of Death

Using the CDC website, conduct a search to compare the causes of death among two ethnicities of the same age or two different ages of the same ethnicity.

Topic 2:  Responsibilities of a Nurse

Discuss the following with regard to the role and responsibilities of a nurse in a community:

• How are the roles of the BSN and the advanced practice nurse in community health different?
• How are nurse practitioners utilized in your community?
• Do they increase access to health care or work for physicians?
• What are the requirements for nurse practitioners in your state?
• What privileges do they have that general nurses do not have?
• Justify your responses using resources

I need these questions answered in 150 words each with individual references

Surveillance Data
 

1. If you work in the health care field please provide an example of surveillance data that you or your agency/department/office submits to local, state, or federal agencies. If you do not work with these directly, can you locate an example? If possible, also please include how often a report is submitted and how the information is used.
 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

3-D Mammography

2. Thank you for discussing validity and sensitivity of mammograms, Doreen.
 

Many women (43% of women ages 40 to 74 years), myself included, have dense breast tissue which makes identifying abnormal tissue more difficult (Breastcancer.org, 2016). Some solutions include using 3-D mammography or breast ultrasound for regular screening since they can detect more cancers in dense breasts (Breastcancer.org, 2016). These tests can help prevent false-positive tests, which is when a screening test finds an area that looks like cancer but turns out to be normal (Breastcancer.org, 2016).
 

I have had false positive tests that needed to be repeated, have any of you had any similar experiences?

Reference
 

Breastcancer.org. (2016). Adding 3-D Mammography or Ultrasound to Regular Screening Finds More Cancers in Dense Breasts. http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/add-3d-mammo-or-ultrasound-to-dense-breast-screening

Mind, body and psychotherapy

3. Well, I have personal confession to make.  Many years ago, my wife an LICSW, did a number of workshops with Jon Kabat Zinn on mindfulness.  Well, I was probably and associate professor at the time heavily committed to quantitative analysis, evidenced based practice and being an all-around hard scientist (i.e, annoying). As a result of which, I condescendingly  ignored what my wife was learning in her mindfulness workshops.  Then years later, did some workshops with Steve Hayes, (ACT) with an number of other ACT practitioners.  I discovered mindfulness!.  My wife was much more forgiving about my new found meaning of mindfulness! (Well, mostly forgiving).

When I work my horse, play tennis, and play music, I practice mindfulness.

The problem with alternative therapies

An Article is Attached

4. As we think about the question posed by this DQ, it is important to think critically about “alternative therapies”. 

The opening line of the attached article on pseudoscience and psychiatry is:

“As Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman reminded us, “the first principel is that you must not fool yourself, and your are the easiet person to fool.”

Psychology and particularly psychotherapy has historically been plagued by pseudoscientific therapies and charlatans. Our job as scientists is to think critically and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Your thoughts?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4679160/pdf/cjp-2015-vol60-dec2015-531-533.pdf

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 found in the APA Style Guide

In this mid-course entry into your Nurse E-Portfolio for this course, you will be examining your perceptions of the nurse in the role of collecting and assessing information. Using the e-portfolio format, answer the following questions. Make sure you spend some time thinking about the answers to these questions before writing.

1. What have you learned so far in this course that will help you conduct effective health assessments?
2. What skills do you have you gained?
3. Describe any areas that are still unclear and ways you will gain clarity.

Submit your completed assignment by following the directions linked below. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates.

Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document. (Mac users, please remember to append the “.docx” extension to the filename.) The name of the file should be your first initial and last name, followed by an underscore and the name of the assignment, and an underscore and the date. An example is shown below

PLEASE FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS IN THE UPLOADED DOCUTMENT!!!

In this assessment, you will evaluate the physicians’ practice financial condition based on the following Relative Value Unit (RVU) calculations and analysis:

1. Average and Marginal Costs per RVU,
2. Total Average Cost,
3. Total Marginal Cost per CPT code, and
4. Analyzing the information to assist the physicians in using these costs appropriately and making informed decisions.

Nurse-scholars have a significant obligation to their community as well. Their work must have academic and professional integrity. Their efforts are designed to add to the body of knowledge, advance the profession, and ultimately help in the care of patients. Work that lacks integrity is subject to erode quickly or worse.

Fortunately, there are strategies and tools that can help ensure integrity in academic and professional work. This Assignment asks you to consider these tools and how you might apply them to your own work.

In this Assignment you will continue developing your Academic Success and Professional Development Plan by appending the original document you began in the previous assignment.

To Prepare:

• Reflect on the strategies presented in the Resources for this Module in support of academic style, integrity, and scholarly ethics.
• Reflect on the connection between academic and professional integrity.

The Assignment:

Part 3, Section 1: Writing Sample: The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity

Using the Academic and Professional Success Development Template you began in Module 1 and expanded in Module 2, write a 2- to 3-paragraph analysis that includes the following:

• Explanation for the relationship between academic integrity and writing
• Explanation for the relationship between professional practices and scholarly ethics
• Cite at least two resources that support your arguments, being sure to use proper APA formatting.
• Use Grammarly and SafeAssign to improve the product.
• Explain how Grammarly, Safe Assign, and paraphrasing contributes to academic integrity.

Part 3, Section 2: Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work

Expand on your thoughts from Section 1 by:

• identifying and describing strategies you intend to pursue to maintain integrity and ethics of your: (1) academic work as a student of the MSN program and (2) professional work as a nurse throughout your career. Include a review of resources and approaches you propose to use as a student and a professional.

Submit both Section 1 and Section 2 of Part 3

Note: Add your work for this Assignment to the original document you began in the Module 1 Assignment, which was built from the Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template.

1. Identify      and issue or concern among community members (e.g. Obesity, access to      care, violence, education of youth, etc.)
2. Identify      social or political issue that affect this issue and how it relates to      health (2 points)
3. Outline      2 specific community based activities 2 address this issue(s) (2 points)
4. Identify      2 ways to promote community engagement (2points)
5. What 2      education resources might the nurse use (2points)
6. What      are the roles of a community health nurse can take to help address health      issue(s) (2points)

Note the theory will be on a General public not Nursing theory

Discussion week2

Choose a theory from your undergraduate education in any discipline.  It should be a commonly used theory for the general public.  Provide the theory in your response.  Identify the two concepts and the proposition between them.  Explain the concepts. How might the terms used differ from general use of the term.  How might the term be confused or misinterpreted?

Expectations

Initial Post:

· Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references

Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA format from within the last 5 years 

Discussion  week 5

Use the theory that you developed in week two.  Improve it by using the information you have obtained in the intervening weeks.  Use the Conceptual – Theoretical – Empirical Model (CTE) to link the operational definitions with the empirical indicators with the theoretical concepts and the conceptual model components.  Post your revised theory and explain how you would measure the concepts and proposition in a research study.

Expectations

Initial Post:

· Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references

Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA from within the last 5 years 

Discussion week6

Link the theory you developed in Weeks 2 and 5 with the Metaparadigm of Nursing.  Each of the elements of the Metaparadigm should be represented in your theory. Revise your theory if necessary, to include each of the components of the Metaparadigm.

Expectations

Initial Post:

· Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references

· Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA from within the last 5 years 

Discussion 6-2

Take one component in the Metaparadigm of Nursing and identify the concept or concepts of Watson’s Theory of Caring that support that Watson wrote a theory of nursing.

Expectations

Initial Post:

• Due: Saturday, 11:59 pm PT
• Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references
• Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA from within the last 5 years

The influence of leadership can be far-reaching in practice and improving patient outcomes even when not in a formal role. Describe advocacy strategies that you can use as a leader to create positive change in your current workplace (long term/rehab center). In response to peers, describe a time when you provided leadership and the outcome. Was there anything that you would do differently?