Feb 23, 2024 POLICY BRIEF NURS 8100
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: POLICY BRIEF NURS 8100
Communities live in different geographical locations with varying health resources, lifestyles, and sociopolitical factors. Jointly and independently, these factors affect public health outcomes since they determine the type and scope of public health issues.
As public health nurses and other professionals continue improving health, an in-depth understanding of complex public health concerns is vital. Such knowledge enables them to design and implement effective interventions through health policies. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a public health issue related to the environment and the purpose of policy in addressing the problem.
Public Health Issue Description
Communities require safe and adequately resourced environments to live healthily. Such environments should be pollution-free and provide people with food, water, and other essentials for a quality life. Unfortunately, climate change threatens the environment and health of all populations. Children, youth, and adults are all affected by climate change irrespective of their location, race, and other factors.
According to the American Public Health Association (2023), climate change creates new risks among children and young people, inhibiting their capacity to shape their future. Older adults, pregnant women, and indigenous communities experience more environmental dangers as climate change intensifies. Since all populations are affected, and collaborative interventions are required, it is right to deduce that climate change occurs at all levels.
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The effects of climate change illustrate its severity as an environmental threat and the risk it poses to all populations. Di Napoli et al. (2022) suggested that climate change hampers public health success via direct and indirect pathways. Direct pathways include health dangers caused by significant changes in temperature, such as cardiovascular disease and kidney problems. Indirect pathways include crop failure, reduced labor capacity, and expansion of disease vectors.
POLICY BRIEF NURS 8100
Besides, climate change hampers mental health and widens health equity gaps since susceptible groups experience its impact the most (American Public Health Association, 2023; Aylward et al., 2022). Solutions, including policies, disaster response services, and mental health support, should be problem-centered and specific to issues facing a particular group. The impacts show that no particular community group or age is immune to climate change dangers. Therefore, local, state, and nationwide interventions should be combined to address the severe public health concern.
Impact of the Current Policies
Policies include integrated interventions, such as laws and regulations, implemented to promote society’s health and wellness. President Biden’s administration has embraced various policies to prevent environmental degradation by controlling climate change. They include rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and the infrastructure bill to fund renewable energy programs (Kennedy et al., 2022).
The Paris Climate Agreement requires member states to pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.50C. Renewable energy technologies include biofuels for transport to reduce the increased reliance on fossil fuels, mitigating climate change dangers by reducing carbon emissions (White, 2021; Perera & Nadeau, 2022). If successfully implemented, the policies will reduce health concerns stemming from extreme temperatures and other effects of climate change.
Changes to the Current Policies and Steps for Initiating Policy Change
Policies implemented to reduce carbon emissions are vital for a healthy nation presently and in the future. However, achieving the desired outcomes could be challenging if laws hindering policy implementation are not abolished. For instance, the Supreme Court recently limited Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate emissions from power plants (Kennedy et al., 2022).
Such laws should be reviewed or prevented to encourage companies to use renewable energy sources. Commonly, policy change requires political willingness, where policymakers collaborate with politicians to propose and support policy change. Proposals can be reviewed and passed by Congress and other organs involved in policy formulation and implementation.
Stakeholders and their Importance
Policy change is an intensive process with different stakeholders depending on the type and scope of change. Policy changes involving health laws can be initiated by government officials at the state and federal levels. Their primary role is to design appropriate interventions for health problems, search for government funding, and be directly involved in policy implementation. During implementation, government officials such as politicians can mobilize human, material, and financial resources necessary for successful policy change.
Impact on the Health Care Delivery System
Health-related policies are crucial in creating healthy populations hence reducing the illness burden in the health care delivery system. According to the World Bank (2022), global food insecurity has increased progressively due to global warming and other adverse effects of climate change. Climate control interventions can prevent such an increase and reduce the number of people with health conditions stemming from food insecurity.
The mental health burden would also reduce, considering climate change is linked with hopelessness, anxiety, and depression (American Public Health Association, 2023). Addressing these issues through policy implies reducing health care spending while improving public health through illness prevention in the community.
Conclusion
Clean and safe environments are crucial for high-quality public health. Since climate change causes global warming, food insecurity and other health dangers, preventing it should be prioritized by health care providers and governments at all levels. Health policies can effectively address climate change by preventing emissions and obligating organizations to implement measures for preventing global warming. Among others, such interventions can reduce the national disease burden and enable communities to live healthily.
References
American Public Health Association. (2023). How climate change impacts health. https://www.apha.org/Topics-and-Issues/Climate-Change/Health-Impacts
Aylward, B., Cunsolo, A., Vriezen, R., & Harper, S. L. (2022). Climate change is impacting mental health in North America: A systematic scoping review of the hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, risks and responses. International Review of Psychiatry, 34(1), 34-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2022.2029368
Di Napoli, C., McGushin, A., Romanello, M., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Cai, W., Chambers, J., … & Robinson, E. J. (2022). Tracking the impacts of climate change on human health via indicators: Lessons from the Lancet Countdown. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13055-6
Kennedy, B., Tyson, A., & Funk, C. (2022). Americans divided over direction of Biden’s climate change policies. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/07/14/americans-divided-over-direction-of-bidens-climate-change-policies/
Perera, F., & Nadeau, K. (2022). Climate change, fossil-fuel pollution, and children’s health. New England Journal of Medicine, 386(24), 2303-2314. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra2117706
The World Bank. (2022). What you need to know about food security and climate change. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/10/17/what-you-need-to-know-about-food-security-and-climate-change
White, T. (2021). Countering climate change with renewable energy technologies. Federation of American Scientists. https://fas.org/publication/countering-climate-change-with-renewable-energy-technologies/
From a general perspective, the primary role of health care delivery systems is ensuring that the population is safe from illnesses. Through health care providers, these systems identify health problems and develop solutions according to the problems’ severity. This intervention has been the standard approach for a long time.
As health care providers execute their professional mandates, it is disappointing that the extent of health risks continue to increase as time advances. One of the leading areas of health risks is changes in climate levels due to uncontrolled human activities. This paper discusses the impact of policy changes to minimize respiratory infections on children and older adults.
Policy Health Issue
Always, all population segments should be protected from health dangers. Increased efforts to achieve this objective have been a success, although disappointments are many due to the lack of cooperation from many industrial sectors.
Policy interventions ensure that there are adequate legal covers to oblige the public to stick to activities with minimal or no adverse impacts on people’s health. For a long time, the global climate change has been on a gradual rise. The United States is not an exception, and different population segments are affected and respond to extreme weather changes differently.
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Mostly, pollution is the main area of attention when examining public health issues related to an environmental issue within the U.S. health care delivery system. Far from that, Mirsaeidi et al. (2016) found that bacterial respiratory infections have become a nuisance due to the erratic nature of climate changes in the United States.
The central theme is that the distribution of some infectious diseases such as malaria and food and waterborne diseases has a direct relationship with the local environmental conditions. Unfortunately, rising temperatures have been an issue to children and the elderly since they cannot cope with abrupt changes in weather patterns.
Unlike adults, children metabolism cannot adapt to heat stress and temperature variations- this has been a leading cause of pneumonia (Quinton et al., 2018). The level of exposure is increasing gradually. Such situations imply that some population segments are disadvantaged when it comes to health and wellness and their health status can be detrimental to the health status of the entire population.
Regarding the level of the issue, respiratory problems are a national issue, and the perfect responses should strive to solve the problem from a national outlook. Quinton et al. (2018) noted that climate alterations affect the host immune responses, and fluctuations in climatic patterns affect variations in respiratory infections. To worsen the problem, climatic changes affect the distribution of some infections seasonally and in an unpredictable manner.
A suitable example is pneumonia and influenza leading to deaths of 53,282 people in 2013 in the United States, a proportion where children and the elderly were affected the most (Mirsaeidi et al., 2016). Since the impacts are not restricted to a place, the best way to respond to the problem is by initiating a policy response that tackles the problem from a national perspective.
Problem Statement
Irrespective of where a person lives, origin, social class, or age, among other factors, protection from harm should be a health objective. However, which United States Environmental Protection Agency (2016) observed, increase in human activities in the past decade have contributed substantially to climate change, with the increase in the level of Carbon (IV) Oxide and similar heat trapping gases being typical.
With the surge in greenhouse effect and a gradual temperature rise inevitable, some population segments are at a high risk of respiratory infections. The issue is a concern since the increase is inconsistent since there is a huge gap between winter and summer temperatures.
During transition, many people are unable to cope with temperature changes, with the elderly women and children being affected the most (Gaard, 2015). In such a case, practical measures that address the root of the problem should be initiated. The focus should be preventing occurrence by all means.
The Current Policy
To address the problem of respiratory infections to children and elderly, the current policy proposes two interdependent measures aimed at controlling climate damage. The first is obliging organizations to develop elaborate waste disposal mechanisms regardless of their type and community status.
Secondly, all organizations must commit 1% of their revenue towards climate control programs such as afforestation, cleanup exercises, and use of renewable energy. Yearly review of their commitment should be a legal obligation. To initiate policy change, the first step is always identifying a need; the policy can be initiated in anticipation of a need or in response to a need (Loversidge & Zurmehly, 2019). Next, the policy formulator identifies who will take responsibility while gathering information about similar policies and how they succeeded or failed.
A draft of the policy follows as the formulator consults appropriate stakeholders and supporters. Relevant stakeholders include the state’s Senator, environmentalists, and supporters of positive social change. After the policy approval, it is important to follow its progress through media and communication with the Senator until it becomes a law. Budget considerations include communication, printing copies, and organizing sensitization forums.
Impact on the Health Care Delivery System
Health care providers have a professional mandate of keeping people safe from illnesses. Challenges are part of their mandate, and a situation where some population segments are at risk of illnesses is common. The policy seeks to protect vulnerable populations [children and the elderly] from respiratory illnesses. Doing so will promote health to all and reduce cost involved in taking care of children and older people when they get ill.
In conclusion, policies identify a need and develop strategies of addressing the need. Undeniably, increasing respiratory illnesses in children and older adults is a severe public health issue related to an environmental issue since the origin is practices causing global temperatures fluctuation making adaptation a challenge. As a result, the policy looks forward to a situation where organizations will be more responsible of their actions. The rates of respiratory illnesses are expected to reduce if the climate levels remain stable.
References
Gaard, G. (2015). Ecofeminism and climate change. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 49, pp. 20-33). Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.02.004
Loversidge, J., & Zurmehly, J. (2019). Supplemental materials for evidence-informed health policy. Sigma Theta Tau International.
Mirsaeidi, M., Motahari, H., Taghizadeh Khamesi, M., Sharifi, A., Campos, M., & Schraufnagel, D. E. (2016). Climate change and respiratory infections. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 13(8), 1223-1230. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201511-729PS
Quinton, L. J., Walkey, A. J., & Mizgerd, J. P. (2018). Integrative Physiology of Pneumonia. Physiological reviews, 98(3), 1417–1464. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2017
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2016, Dec 27). Causes of Climate Change. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-change-science/causes-climate-change_.html
Professional nursing organizations have influenced the policy agenda by identifying needs, generating ideas, and bringing them into the policy arena; they have had a positive impact on the profession of nursing as well as nursing practice. This week’s Discussion asks you to consider the policy proposal you examined for the policy brief (Assignment 2, assigned in Week 3) and reflect on the opportunities a professional nursing organization might have to further the issue.
To prepare:
Review this week’s media presentation focusing on Dr. White and Dr. Stanley’s comments on the role of professional organizations in the policy process.
Consider the policy brief you developed for Application Assignment 2 (due this week), and evaluate how a professional nursing organization might provide additional support or influence.
By Day 3
Post in your small group thread a cohesive response that addresses the following:
Briefly summarize the policy proposal you selected from the IOM Future of Nursing Practice Report Brief (Application 2). Based on your analysis of the policy proposal, did the IOM get it right?
Identify any professional organizations dealing with the issue/recommendation and provide at least two specific ways in which the professional organizations have supported or could support the policy proposal/recommendation.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
By Day 6
Respond to at least two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Note: Please see the Syllabus and Discussion Rubric for formal Discussion question posting and response evaluation criteria.
Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you learned and/or any insights you gained as a result of the comments made by your colleagues.
Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and any additional sources.
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