Discussion: Health Care Policy

In this week's media presentation, Dr. Trautman, Dr. Wakefield, and Ms. Coyle discuss how public policies initiated at the national or state level ultimately influence what occurs at the institutional and local level of nursing practice and health care delivery. Health care policy usually is developed to address health care cost, quality, or access, or a combination of the three. Due to the nature of their interaction with patients, nurses are well situated to be effective, knowledgeable advocates for their patients.

In this week's Discussion, you will examine how current policies impact how you as a nurse provide health care. You will then select an issue of interest and determine how you could advocate for policy in that area.

To prepare: • Select one public policy that currently is impacting you and your practice. Consider the following:

• What health care driver was the policy designed to address: cost, quality, access, or a combination?

• Does the policy appear to be achieving its intended results? On what data are you basing your assumption?

• What have been the effects (adverse or positive) of this policy on health care cost, quality, and access?

• How is this policy affecting your nursing practice?

• Next, select a health care issue-something you see or experience on a daily basis-about which you would like to influence a practice change through the policy process.

• Review the Learning Resources, focusing on Kingdon's Model. How would you utilize this model to guide your policy development?

Post a brief description of a public policy that is having an impact on your practice; summarize your analysis of the policy using the bulleted list above as a guide. Then, summarize the issue you would like to influence though a change in public policy, and outline how you would utilize Kingdon's Model to guide your policy development.

Read a selection of your colleagues' responses.