Homework: Letter to the Editor- Population Health Policy Advocacy
Write a letter to the editor (3 to 5 pages) of an academic or professional journal. Your submission should be succinct yet substantive.
Note: Each homework in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous homework. Therefore, you must complete the homework in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Advocating for new policies is an important aspect of the master's-prepared nurse. For new policies to be compelling they need to be supported by evidence. Supporting data can be used to illustrate why new policies and interventions are needed to help address a specific health issue. Compelling data can help sway the stakeholders and gain support for your policy.
Another aspect of advocacy is disseminating new policies and interventions outside of the immediate care environment. This can be done by reaching out to professional organizations as well as academic and professional journals. A letter to the editor is one strategy for disseminating information to a wider audience, and to potentially enlist support throughout the wider professional community.
By successfully completing this homework, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and homework criteria:
1. Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care for achieving high-quality population outcomes.
a. Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
b. Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
2. Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population health outcomes.
a. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
3. Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of their implications for health policy advocacy.
a. Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy.
b. Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.
4. Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.
Nurses have the opportunity to use their skills and develop programs to keep individuals and communities healthy. Health is complex however, and the nurse needs to possess strong advocacy skills to successfully support a cause or interest. The American Nurses Association's code of ethics (2015) describes the responsibility of a nurse to include working through and with appropriate stakeholders to advocate for the health of people in and out of the work environment. To be an effective advocate, there are several important abilities a nurse must possess, including problem solving, communication, and influencing others. One way a nurse can advocate to a broader population is through effective letter writing, both to legislators and through the media, such as with editorials and research articles.
Resource
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements.
As you prepare to complete this homework, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your homework.
Homework will build upon the work you have done for your previous two homework. For this homework, you will be writing a letter to the editor of an academic or professional journal as a means to advocate for adoption or development of policies that will improve the quality of care and outcomes around your chosen health care issue and vulnerable population.
1. Looking at your health care issue from a prevention standpoint, what are the relevant levels of prevention?
a. What would be the benefits and challenges of applying a specific level of prevention to your chosen issue and population?
b. How might one or more approaches to prevention improve the care and outcomes?
i. How could your policy be leveraged, or revised, to support the relevant levels of prevention?
2. What are relevant strategies that you could use to help advocate for the policy you are proposing?
a. How could these strategies help you advocate for your policy proposal?
b. How does evidence from the literature support the benefits of your proposed policy?
i. How does citing evidence help lend credibility to your advocacy?
3. What academic or professional journal would be the best forum to advocate for your policy?
a. Why is your chosen journal an appropriate forum?
b. Which advocacy strategies would be most effective in this forum?
c. How will you craft your message to best appeal to the likely audience of your chosen journal?
Scenario
Throughout this course, you have focused on a specific health issue occurring within a specific population. You researched position papers regarding this health concern, and you developed a health policy proposal to positively impact the health of the affected individuals. It is now time to reach a greater audience regarding your policy proposal.
Instructions
Develop a letter to the editor of a peer-reviewed academic or professional nursing journal based on the policy proposal that you created for Homework 2. Choose from one of the journals on the Ultimate List of Nursing Journals (in the Resources) and go to that journal's Web site to find out the requirements for submitting a letter to the editor, such as format requirements, topics, and word counts. Make sure you select a nursing journal that covers the topic about which you are going to write. If you want to use another journal that is not on this list, please make sure the journal does address health care, because this is the purpose of the homework.
The goal of your letter is to be informative about the policy that you developed for Homework, while also being persuasive about the need for and benefit of similar policies in other health care settings. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy document to better understand how each criterion will be assessed.
1. Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
a. Look back to the data or scenario you used in Homework 1 to address this criterion.
2. Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy.
3. Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
4. Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.
5. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
6. Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
7. Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style (or the journal's preferred style).
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
1. The answer must be double spaced, typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the course title, the student's name, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.