For this week's assignment, you will prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic related to health care that is currently impacted by a policy change or potential policy change. The policy that is or will impact change should be related to the health care system or nursing specifically. Look for information that shows that the policy, in your opinion, improved or did not improve the health care system or nursing practice.

Choose a Policy Issue

Review the Unit 3 study activities to read a list of potential policy issues that will give you a foundation to help you determine which policy change you are interested in. Choose one issue to focus on. The area that you choose to focus on could include particular interests that would lead you to explore articles that look at legal, ethical, and regulatory process in health care or nursing practice? What Is an Annotated Bibliography?

Use the four articles that you chose, keeping the following information in mind:

• A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, et cetera) one has used for researching a topic. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (that is, the author, title, publisher, et cetera).

• An annotation is a summary or evaluation.

• Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary or evaluation of each of the sources in the bibliography. For this assignment, you are expected to include both a summary and an evaluation.

• Your annotations should address the following three areas for EACH of the four articles you select:

1. Summarize: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this article or chapter? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this source is about, what would you say?

2. Evaluate: Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source? (Or the goal of the writer?)

3. Reflect: How does the source assist or fit into your practice? Was this source helpful to you? How might this source help you shape an argument (in favor of or against) the topic presented? Has the source changed how you think about this topic?