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 by Day 3 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.

Required Resources

Readings

• Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
  • Chapter 1, “Advanced Practice Nurses and Public Policy, Naturally” (pp. 1–27)

    This chapter explains public policy and the nurse’s role in directing health care issues to the government and securing a response.

  • Chapter 2, “Agenda Setting” (pp. 19–44)

    This chapter provides examples of the process of moving a problem to the attention of the government so the solution can be considered at the state and federal levels.

  • Chapter 3, “Government Response: Legislation—Politics: Playing the Game” (pp. 45–71)

    This chapter explores the multiple factors that influence the development of public policy through the legislative branch of government.

• Coalition for Patients’ Rights. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.patientsrightscoalition.org/
• This website details the initiative of the Coalition for Patients’ Rights, which seeks to ensure that patients everywhere have access to the quality health care providers of their choice.
• University of Washington School of Medicine. (n.d.) Ethics in medicine: Managed care. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/manag.html

  This article explains the effects and ethical concerns associated with managed care, which integrates payment with the delivery of health care.

Media

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012b). Health policy and politics. Baltimore, MD: Author.

  Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 16 minutes.

Optional Resources

• Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide(Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
  • Chapter 5, “Policy Design” (pp 111–123)
  • Chapter 6, “Implementation” (pp. 125–136)
  • Chapter 7, “Program Evaluation” (pp. 137–159)