Nursing health policy and advocacy : Maternal Mental Disorders

As you plan, develop, implement and evaluate your nursing practicum project, reflect on how this project and your graduate education have prepared you to meet the growing needs of healthcare and the diverse populations we serve.This week you will address Essential VI: Health Policy and Advocacy.400 words ; 2 citesEssential VI: Health Policy and AdvocacyRationaleThe healthcare environment is ever-evolving and influenced by technological, economic,political, and sociocultural factors locally and globally. Graduates of master’s degreenursing programs have requisite knowledge and skills to promote health, help shape thehealth delivery system, and advance values like social justice through policy processesand advocacy. Nursing’s call to political activism and policy advocacy emerges frommany different viewpoints. As more evidence links the broad psychosocial, economic,and cultural factors to health status, nurses are compelled to incorporate these factors intotheir approach to care. Most often, policy processes and system-level strategies yield thestrongest influence on these broad determinants of health. Being accountable forimproving the quality of healthcare delivery, nurses must understand the legal andpolitical determinants of the system and have the requisite skills to partner for animproved system. Nurses’ involvement in policy debates brings our professional valuesto bear on the process (Warner, 2003). Master’s-prepared nurses will use their politicalefficacy and competence to improve the health outcomes of populations and improve thequality of the healthcare delivery system.Policy shapes healthcare systems, influences social determinants of health, and thereforedetermines accessibility, accountability, and affordability of health care. Health policycreates conditions that promote or impede equity in access to care and health outcomes.Implementing strategies that address health disparities serves as a prelude to influencingpolicy formation. In order to influence policy, the master’s-prepared nurse needs to workwithin and affect change in systems. To effectively collaborate with stakeholders, themaster’s-prepared nurse must understand the fiscal context in which they are practicingand make the linkages among policy, financing, and access to quality health care. Thegraduate must understand the principles of healthcare economics, finance, paymentmethods, and the relationships between policy and health economics.Advocacy for patients, the profession, and health-promoting policies is operationalized indivergent ways. Attributes of advocacy include safeguarding autonomy, promoting socialjustice, using ethical principles, and empowering self and others (Grace, 2001; Hanks,2007; Xiaoyan & Jezewski, 2006). Giving voice and persuasion to needs and preferreddirection at the individual, institution, state, or federal policy level is integral for themaster’s-prepared nurse.The master’s-degree program prepares the graduate to:1. Analyze how policies influence the structure and financing of health care,practice, and health outcomes.2. Participate in the development and implementation of institutional, local, and stateand federal policy.3. Examine the effect of legal and regulatory processes on nursing practice,healthcare delivery, and outcomes.4. Interpret research, bringing the nursing perspective, for policy makers andstakeholders.5. Advocate for policies that improve the health of the public and the profession ofnursing.Sample Content• Policy process: development, implementation, and evaluation• Structure of healthcare delivery systems• Theories and models of policy making• Policy making environments: values, economies, politics, social• Policy-making process at various levels of government• Ethical and value-based frameworks guiding policy making22• General principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics, accounting, andmarketing strategies.• Globalization and global health• Interaction between regulatory processes and quality control• Health disparities• Social justice• Political activism• Economics of health care