Feb 23, 2024 NURS 8100 Discussion Policy Brief
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 8100 Discussion Policy Brief
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
NURS 8100 Discussion Policy Brief
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.
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/
People’s productivity depends on their health statuses, and it is crucial to keep health at an optimal level always. Disappointingly, many problems hampering care provision at the global, state, and community levels make it challenging to achieve the optimization required. For instance, the world’s global warming level keeps on rising, risking the populace’s health.
Due to the far-reaching effects of such problems, public health policies usually play a fundamental role in controlling the magnitude of damage and remedy situations. The declining state of air quality in California due to pollution is a worrying issue that can be remedied through policy interventions.
Policy Health Issue: Description
The respiratory system functions at the best level required when people breathe fresh air. Despite this general fact, not many people are guaranteed quality air as pollution levels increase progressively. As highlighted in the American Public Health Association (APHA) website, climate change over the years has been increasing ground-level ozone and other types of air pollution, and the state of California is among the most affected.
Frankly, the entire population is affected, but the damage is more severe among older people due to their low immunity levels (Simoni et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2015). They appear the most affected since the direct consequences of air pollution such as air toxics and particulate matter increase their hospitalization and infection with asthma and bronchitis. California has eight out of the ten most polluted cities in the United States (American Lung Association, 2020). This figure implies that the problem is critical in California, and more interventions to supplement the current frameworks are crucial.
Problem Statement
The environment plays an instrumental role in keeping people healthy. Food production and quality of air depend, to a large extent, on the climatic patterns. When climate change is unfavorable, the entire population faces considerable risks, which typifies what has been happening in California. According to Cart (2020), air pollution has been worsening over time; its severity can be confirmed because staying at home during the Covid-19 pandemic has not decreased it to the level required in any notable way.
Emissions that increase the danger have been increasing over time too. Sommer et al. (2020) noted that emissions, combined with hot and stagnant weather, make air pollution hit dangerous levels, particularly in the summer, leading to a scenario where California does not comply with federal air standards. Such situations need robust policies to remedy.
The current situation and notable efforts show that there has been an effort to reduce air toxicity in California, but there is a lot to be done. The extent of danger is greater than the control measures. For instance, pollution reductions under the Clean Air Act have prevented approximately 205,000 premature deaths (Revesz & Lienke, 2016).
However, the general objective of policies and supplementary laws should be to accomplish a state where every population segment is safe. Policies should further protect the most vulnerable, which does not happen in California.
The Current Policy: Breathing Fresh Act of California
From a general viewpoint, this policy is anchored on the idea principle that a policy should define a vision for the future. The Breathing Fresh Act follows a similar concept with the Clean Air Act but improves when it comes to reviewing.
Unlike requiring the state to review its environmental protection guidelines after eight years like the Clean Air Act, the Breathing Fresh Act will obligate the state to review its rules every three years. Furthermore, all organizations should have elaborate social responsibility programs centered on environmental protection while concentrating on making the air free from pollution.
Initiating this policy follows the general procedure of policymaking. The first step is identifying the need, which has already been done. The damaging effect of toxic air should be minimized to health-friendly levels. The second step is delegating responsibility. A team should work on it to develop ways in which the authorities will be reached and informed.
After that, a draft policy will be composed, followed by consultation with appropriate stakeholders. Here, the target stakeholders are the politicians and other government officials, particularly the Senator, who can sponsor the recommendations as a bill. The main budgetary consideration to make is how to print copies of the act and distribute it to influential individuals at the community level.
Impact on the Health Care Delivery System
Health care provision is centered on a patient-centered practice that prioritizes quality. In agreement with Bhatt and Bathija (2018), one way of ensuring that people get quality care is by reducing infections as much as possible and protecting the vulnerable populations with more resources. Health care providers should never be overburdened too.
Implementing the Breath Fresh Act implies that the California health care fraternity and the government are committed to reducing respiratory infections in the state. Doing so will keep everyone safe from such infections and ensure that the state’s productivity does not decline as industrialization that increases air pollution grows at all levels.
Admittedly, no state can guarantee its people total protection from illnesses. Challenges must emerge often, and environmental damage has been a leading source of public health problems. In California, air quality has been declining due to continuous pollution, causing diseases such as asthma and bronchitis. The proposed policy recognizes the need for practical and long-lasting solutions to such problems. It is hoped to make a massive impact on keeping people productive at the community, state, and national levels.
References
American Lung Association. (2020, Apr 21). Nearly half of US breathing unhealthy air; record-breaking air pollution in nine cities. Eureka Alert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/ala-nho041720.php
Bhatt, J., & Bathija, P. (2018). Ensuring access to quality health care in vulnerable communities. Academic Medicine, 93(9), 1271-1275. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002254
Cart, J. (2020, Apr 12). As Californians stay at home, air quality improves – for now. Cal Matters. https://calmatters.org/health/2020/04/as-californians-stay-at-home-air-quality-improves-for-now/
Chen, Z., Salam, M. T., Eckel, S. P., Breton, C. V., & Gilliland, F. D. (2015). Chronic effects of air pollution on respiratory health in Southern California children: findings from the Southern California Children’s Health Study. Journal of thoracic disease, 7(1), 46–58. https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.12.20
Revesz, R. L., & Lienke, J. (2016). Struggling for air: Power plants and the “war on coal”. Oxford University Press.
Simoni, M., Baldacci, S., Maio, S., Cerrai, S., Sarno, G., & Viegi, G. (2015). Adverse effects of outdoor pollution in the elderly. Journal of thoracic disease, 7(1), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.12.10
Sommer, L., Hersher, R., Jingnan, H., & Beniscasa, R. (2020, May 19). Traffic Is Way Down Because Of Lockdown, But Air Pollution? Not So Much. NPR.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Future of Nursing Report Brief addresses four very important elements of nursing practice that are in need of change. According to Kershaw (2011), the four areas of needed change include nurses practicing to the fullest scope of their license, nurses engaging in seeking and attaining higher levels of education, nurses being considered as equals with their physician colleagues when taking the initiative to redesign health care, and nurses creating a foundation of data through research and evidence-based practice to support policies and procedures in nursing practice.
The area of specific interest to me is item number three. This initiative focuses on nurses becoming full partners with physicians when redesigning healthcare in the United States (Kershawm 2011). The reason this initiative is important to me is that I work in an acute care setting where physicians are still revered as gods by the hospital leadership and nurses are considered the handmaiden to the physician.
It is a large hospital but set in a rural community and the founding fathers who opened the community hospital 16 years ago (Now part of a larger system) were very physician-focused. The bylaws do not promote employing mid-level practitioners, they do not recognize that certified nurse-midwives can practice independently, and have a strong working relationship with a Kaiser Permanente group that feels very threatened by the thought of utilizing mid-level providers and advance practice nurses (APNs).
According to Abraham et al. (2019), APNs are far more cost-effective than physicians, and they increase patient experience scores and clinical outcomes. Constable et al. (2022) describe an increase in provider communications scores from 69% to 85% when APRNs were used in the acute care setting. This specific article also outlined a reduction in endotracheal tube-associated pressure injuries by 50% because of the care the APN provided to this population.
The reason for this is that APNs are trained to treat patients holistically and not be solely focused on a diagnosis or disease. Physicians are trained with a primary focus on disease. Collaboration between these two groups is essential when health care reform is being considered.
The IOM report brief nailed this issue on the head. There is a need to include APNs in health care reform and the recommendation in the article suggests this will happen through leadership training and the attainment of leadership competencies by all APNs. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) offers leadership training for all levels of nurse leaders.
The sole focus of the AONE is to promote leadership excellence among nurses, advance the practice, increase the engagement of research by nurses, and facilitate the preparation of nurses who will influence legislation and public policy (www.aha.org). For far too long the shape of health care has been formed by only a select portion of the population who provides it. Now is the time to think globally about healthcare reform and invite all of the contributors to the table.
References:
Abraham, C. M., Norful, A. A., Stone, P. W., &Poghosyan, L. (2019). Cost-Effectiveness of Advanced Practice Nurses Compared to Physician-Led Care for Chronic Diseases: A Systematic Review. Nursing Economic$, 37(6), 293–305.
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (February, 2022). AHA releases 2022-2024 strategic plan and updates to vision and mission statements. Retrieved: https://www.aha.org/special-bulletin/2022-02-08-aha-releases-2022-2024-strategic-plan-and-updates-vision-and-mission
Constable, M., Mulkey, M., &Aucoin, J. (2022). Hospital value–based purchasing: How acute care advanced practice nurses demonstrate value. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 34(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1097/JXX.0000000000000606
Kershaw, B. (2011). The future of nursing – leading change, advancing health. Nursing Standard, 26(7), 31–31. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns2011.10.26.7.31.b1274
Professional nursing organizations have influenced the policy agenda by identifying needs, developing ideas, and bringing them to the policy table; they have had a positive impact on both the nursing profession and nursing practice. This week’s Discussion asks you to think about the policy proposal you looked at for the policy brief (Assignment 2, due in Week 3) and consider what opportunities a professional nursing organization might have to advance 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:
NURS 8100 Discussion Policy Brief
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.
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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.
Submission and Grading InformationGrading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 7 Discussion Rubric
Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6
To participate in this Discussion:
Week 7 Discussion
Name: NURS_8100_Week7_Discussion_Rubric
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You have provided and detailed and impeccable post on the policy brief. Policy advocacy is a primary element of nursing social mandate and also become a fundamental function of professional nursing organizations. Professional nursing organizations internationally have obligations and processes for nurses to involve at a certain level in policy development. The nursing profession has a long history of involving in policy advocacy to strengthen and improve the nursing profession, health systems, patient care, and public policy (Chiu et al., 2020).
Therefore, when nurses advocate for policies in full partnership with physicians when redesigning healthcare in the United States, professional nursing organizations can provide opportunities for policy agenda through political processes to instigate, enact, and implement structural and policy transformations (Chiu et al., 2021). Overall, policy advocacy is a core component in realizing the social mandate of the nursing profession. However, despite the efforts by nursing organizations to push nursing policy agendas, it is challenging to motivate nurses to be politically proactive and participate in policy advocacy for various reasons such as lack of understanding of the value of the policy or lack of political awareness.
References
Chiu, P., Cummings, G. G., Thorne, S., & Schick-Makaroff, K. (2021). Policy advocacy and nursing organizations: A scoping review. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 22(4), 276-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/15271544211050611
Chiu, P., Duncan, S., & Whyte, N. (2020). Charting a research agenda for the advancement of nursing organizations’ influence on health systems and policy. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 52(3), 185-193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0844562120928794
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