Assignment: Health Policy Proposal Analysis (Policy Brief)

Nurses engaged in the policy arena often are asked to provide information on a health care topic of interest to policy makers. This is frequently accomplished through developing a policy brief. A policy brief advocates for a particular recommendation (prior to the enactment of a policy). Learning how to write a policy brief in a clear, succinct, scholarly, and professional manner is an essential skill for advanced practice nurses.

For this Assignment, you will assess one of the recommendations from the Institute of Medicine's The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health: Report Recommendations. You will then develop a policy brief to advocate for this recommendation (the written policy brief is due in Week 7).

To prepare:

• Review the Lavis et al. article on preparing and writing policy briefs provided in the Learning Resources (See attached file).

• Select one of the recommendations within the IOM The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health: Report Recommendations to focus on for this assignment.

• Research the history of the problem behind the recommendation and what has been done to try to solve the problem.

• What does the recommendation say should be done? Are there any groups, nursing and others, currently supporting work to implement the recommendation (e.g., Kaiser Family Foundation, professional organizations)? Does the recommendation suggest specific groups that should be involved in the implementation? Think critically about how the recommendation should be implemented - did the IOM get it right? What other strategies are possible to consider?

To complete:

• Develop a scholarly and professionally written 2- to 3-page single-spaced policy brief on the recommendation you selected from the IOM report following the format presented in the Lavis et al. article. (See attached file for the article). Include the following:

1. Short introduction with statement of the problem.
2. The selected recommendation (from the IOM Report)
3. Background
4. Current characteristics
5. The impact of the recommendation from the perspective of consumers, nurses, other health professionals, and additional stakeholders
6. Current solutions
7. Current status in the health policy arena
8. Final conclusions
9. Resources used to create the policy brief

Required Readings

Hyder, A., Syed, S., Puvanachandra, P., Bloom, G., Sundaram, S., Mahmood, S., ... Peters, D. (2010). Stakeholder analysis for health research: case studies from low- and middle-income countries. Public Health, 124(3), 159-166.

This study demonstrates how the engagement of stakeholders in research and policy making can assist in the successful implementation of policy proposals. The authors propose that by engaging stakeholders, researchers and policy makers are provided with multiple perspectives on proposed policies, which can lead to greater success with policy adoption and implementation.

Lavis, J. N., Permanand, G., Oxman, A. D., Lewin, S., & Fretheim, A. (2009). SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP) 13: Preparing and using policy briefs to support evidence-informed policymaking. Health Research Policy & Systems, 71-79. doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-7-S1-S13

The purpose of a policy brief is to communicate an issue clearly and definitively to policy makers. The authors of this article propose an outline for policy briefs and also stress the importance of using research when creating a policy brief (SEE ATTACHED FILE).

Lowery, B. (2009). Obesity, bariatric nursing, and the policy process: The connecting points for patient advocacy. Bariatric Nursing & Surgical Patient Care, 4(2), 133-138.

This article provides an example of nurse involvement in policy making by examining a bariatric nursing issue. The author stresses that nurses, in their patient-advocacy role, have a responsibility to be involved in the health care policy process.

Moore, K. (2006). How can basic research on children and families be useful for the policy process? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(2), 365-375.

Institute of Medicine. (2010). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health: Report recommendations.

Introduced in Week 2, this IOM report highlights four key recommendations in its proposal for the future directions of the nursing profession. These recommendations focus on nursing practice, education and training, partnerships with other healthcare professionals, and workforce planning and policymaking.

National Center for Policy Analysis (2010). Ideas changing the world: Free-market health care policy.

The NCPA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes private sector solutions to public policy issues.

Slack, B. (2011). The policy Process.

The author presents a policy-making framework and provides details on the four steps of that process: problem definition, policy objectives and options, policy implementation, and policy evaluation and maintenance.

Required Media

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Healthcare policy and advocacy: Agenda setting and the policy process. Baltimore: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 17 minutes.

Dr. Kathleen White and Dr. Joan Stanley share their insights into agenda setting and how issues are moved forward into the policy process.

Optional Resources

Barnes, M., Hanson, C., Novilla, L., Meacham, A., McIntyre, E., & Erickson, B. (2008). Analysis of media agenda setting during and after Hurricane Katrina: Implications for emergency preparedness, disaster response, and disaster policy. American Journal of Public Health, 98(4), 604-610.

Jennings, C. (2002). The power of the policy brief. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 3(3), 261-263. doi: 10.1177/152715440200300310

Neumann, P. J., Palmer, J. A., Daniels, N., Quigley, K., Gold, M. R., & Chao, S. (2008). A strategic plan for integrating cost-effectiveness analysis into the US health care system. American Journal of Managed Care, 14(4), 185-188.

Plan, Policy, Procedure Relationship Diagram. (n.d.).