Discussion NURS6050 - Week 9

**DEADLINE: FRIDAY 01/29/2021 BY 08:00 PM EST**

INSTRUCTIONS:

Respond to your colleague by suggesting additional opportunities or recommendations for overcoming the challenges described by your colleagues.

Ozichukwu Awusah 

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The RNs and APRNs are professionals who have the responsibility and capacity to influence the existing and prospect healthcare delivery programs. The major role of the RNs and APRNs is to promote quality health. Through policy work, nurses can and should influence practice standards and processes to assure quality of care. Nurses who influence policy help shape the care that will be provided today and tomorrow. Policies also impact resource allocation to support delivery of healthcare. The RN and APRNS involvement in policy review and evaluation is vital for promoting quality healthcare. The work nurses do in influencing policy affects decisions that impact quality of life and universal access to care. Becoming influential in policy work is a process that requires commitment to developing skills and acquiring knowledge about activities that lead to change.

 Nurses are the leading workforce of any healthcare system, therefore for nurses to get involved in policy reviews and evaluations, we need to engage ourselves into the positions that facilitates meeting with the stakeholders of the institutions and be able to participate in policy analysis process. Their critical insights and expertise must be applied during the policy review and evaluation. Nurses must assess the impact and effectiveness of clinical interventions, procedures, or clinical practices as a part of critical steps for policy review. This includes planning, implementing, collecting data, and disseminating results (Milstead & Short,2019). Evaluation is the critical aspects of healthcare system, to improve quality, safety, efficiency of clinical practice and assessing the impact of emerging innovations and science (Polit & Beck, 2012)

RNs and APRNs can influence the policy to shape up the quality of health care they provide. Nurses also get an opportunity to actively participate in policy review by joining the nursing organizations like American Association of Colleges of Nursing, AARP and National League for Nursing and the American Nurses Association, where they expect nurses to address policy professionally. There are also opportunities for nurses to partner with leaders in the community and political leadership to exert their influence on a policy depending on what needs to be achieved at a policy level.

Some of the challenges nurses face during policy review and program evaluation are inadequate data collection and lack of resources. The absence of skilled and knowledgeable professionals is also a big challenge in policy evaluation. Lack of stakeholder’s collaboration, rapid or delayed pace of policy evolution, demand for prelimiary results, request for further evaluation, social media, public opinion and campaigning are the other challenges faced during policy review. These challenges can be addressed with appropriate planning, using effective evaluation plan, making use of consistent indicators of data collection and appropriate use of analysis and reporting. Appointing a skilled champion who is responsible for completing policy review and having adequate resources are important for successful evaluation (Milstead & Short,2019).

Many of the leading nursing organizations promote active participation by nurses in policy formulation. Many of the nursing organizations state wide promote nursing education and help nurses in the process of attaining higher educational standards. Education and knowledge help nurses to become aware of existing healthcare policies and understand what needs to be amended for better treatment and patient outcomes. Nurses are also invited to leadership positions as they work alongside with healthcare institutions or organizations. This gives them an opportunity to become knowledgeable about health care policies at the national and global level and contribute to policy making and evaluations more effectively. Nurses are encouraged to obtain leadership training and interprofessional learning which can contribute to advance nurses in roles of advocacy and quality improvement, it also provides an opportunity to healthcare programming and policy reviewing (IOM,2010).

Reference

Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2010). Future of nursing 2010 report.  

Retrieved from,   https://campaignforaction.org/resource/future-nursing-iom-  report/

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

Polit, D., & Beck, C. (2012). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams         & Wilkins.

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