Policy, Politics, & Global Health Trends
Order Description:
Competency 7007.1.4: Ethical Theories Applied to Nurses’ Policy Positions – The graduate analyzes the values that drive policies.
Competency 7007.1.5: Advocate for policies that improve the health of the public and the profession of nursing – The graduate analyzes strategies that healthcare advocates use to affect policies with the goal of improving the public health and the profession of nursing.
Introduction:
For this assessment, you will actively participate in policy development and implementation in order to advocate for policies that improve the health of the public and/or the nursing profession. You will utilize both a top-down and a bottom-up approach, bringing the nursing perspective to policy makers and stakeholders. You will identify the values and ethical perspectives that underpin your position and develop criteria to evaluate the success of your work. By the conclusion of the assessment, you will have a policy brief that can be sent to decision makers and a plan to work with an organization/community to promote policy change at the local level.
First, you will write a reflection on the following: 1) why you selected the health or nursing profession policy issue; 2) your values and the ethical positions that underpin your perspectives; and 3) the criteria you will use to evaluate the success (outcomes) of your proposed policy change. You will then write a policy brief for policy makers or stakeholders on the health or nursing profession issue with the purpose of initiating or supporting a top-down approach to policy. You will support your position with nursing research. Finally, you will create a plan from a bottom-up approach to promote a policy change within a community or organization utilizing the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Please use the same issue throughout your project.
Requirements:
A. Analyze the values and ethics (suggested length of 2–3 pages) of a policy issue by doing the following:
1. Analyze a health or nursing profession policy issue that impacts a group of people and requires a policy change.
a. Discuss why you selected the issue.
b. Discuss the issue’s relevance to health or the nursing profession, using two pieces of academically appropriate literature from the last five years.
2. Analyze how your values impact your position on the policy issue.
a. Discuss the ethical principle (e.g., autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice) or theory (e.g., utilitarianism based on consequentialism; nursing and midwifery code of conduct based on deontological theory) that underpins your perspective.
B. Discuss how you will evaluate the success of your work for the following:
1. Your policy brief (a top-down approach)
2. A community/organization plan (a bottom-up approach)
C. Develop a policy brief for the issue discussed in part A (suggested length of 4–6 pages) in which you do the following:
1. Identify the decision maker (name and title) who will receive the policy brief.
a. Explain why the issue requires the decision maker’s attention, using relevant nursing research from the last five years to support your position.
2. Discuss the main challenges of addressing the selected issue.
3. Discuss the primary options/interventions for the decision maker, including why they are tangible.
4. Propose a persuasive course of action for the decision maker, including ways to avoid the challenges identified in part C2.
D. Create a plan (suggested length of 2–3 pages) for working with a community/organization to address the policy issue discussed in part A by doing the following:
1. Identify an organization/community that has expressed interest in your selected health or nursing profession issue.
a. Summarize evidence supporting why the organization/community has expressed interest in the selected issue.
2. Identify three CBPR principles you could use to work with the organization/community to address a policy change.
a. Explain how you could approach and collaborate with the organization/community.
b. Discuss how the goal of the community/organization aligns with your goal for this policy issue.
c. Discuss the action steps to achieve your goal from part D2b.
d. Discuss the possible roles/responsibilities of community/organization members, including problem-solving and capacity-building roles.
e. Discuss key elements (e.g., social justice, patient autonomy, professional responsibility, individual responsibility, utilitarianism) of developing a collaborative evaluation plan, using CBPR principles (i.e., how the organization could evaluate success of the plan).
E. Analyze (suggested length of 1 page) the strengths and challenges of the top-down and bottom-up approaches in achieving policy change(s) to support your selected issue.
F. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.
Note: For definitions of terms commonly used in the rubric, see the Rubric Terms web link included in the Evaluation Procedures section.