NUR 550 As an advanced registered nurse, discuss your future role in advocating for equitable population health services and policies

As patient advocates and primary healthcare providers, advanced registered nurses have an obligation and role in advocating for equitable population health policies and even services. In its report on the future of nursing, 2020 to 2030, the National Academy of Medicine explores different ways that nurses can work with the focus of reducing health disparities and promoting equity while also reducing the costs and leveraging technology to attain patient and family-centered care (Wakefield et al., 2021). A core part of this role is to promote equity through policy advocacy and increased expansion to primary care interventions (Guastaferro et al., 2019). Nurses as critical part of the healthcare system focus on the translational of research evidence into clinical practice and health populations through educating their patients and communities that they serve. Again, nurses participate in offering feedback and input to national research entities on the different aspects of care that need improvement to enhance care delivery for patients. The third that nurses can use to promote health equity is through participation in policy formulation by interacting with patients, health populations and communities that need better healthcare services, especially preventive care (Sundean, 2019). The implication us that nurses must work collaboratively with all stakeholders to reduce the underlying health disparities and ensure that patients attain health equity.

Population advocacy can present a host of challenges or barriers to nurses. These include need for sufficient resources, support from the organizational management, increased collaboration that may not be possible, and experience as well as advanced skills to navigate the process and the diverse stakeholders involved in the process. Meeting these challenges requires nurses to focus on support and leverage EBP findings that will make it easy to implement a raft of measures in the long-term in advocating for population health.

References

Guastaferro, K., & Collins, L. M. (2019). Achieving the goals of translational science in public

health intervention research: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). American Journal of Public Health, 109(S2), S128-S129.

Sundean, L. (2019). Overview of community, public, and population health. In D. R. Editor. & J.

C. Editor (Eds.), Population health for nurses: Improving Community Outcomes (pp. 4-16). Springer Publishing. doi:10.1891/9780826148346.0001

Wakefield, M., Williams, D. R., & Le Menestrel, S. (2021). The future of nursing 2020-2030:

Charting a path to achieve health equity. National Academy of Sciences.

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It is true that patient advocacy extends to healthcare policymaking processes. Therefore, healthcare workers such as primary healthcare providers and advanced registered nurses should have a position in the decision-making table. Patient advocates should be allowed to voice patient concerns in the policymaking process (Brown et al., 2022). Acknowledging the role of patient advocates in decision-making process improve their professional input. Healthcare workers interact with different patients. These engagements between healthcare workers and their patients create room to understand patient preferences and their concerns. At the same time, prolonged durations of healthcare workers in their environments expose them to different information that can impact policymaking process. Promoting equity is the assignment of healthcare providers and workers (Cole et al., 2022). Therefore, healthcare stakeholders understand the importance of patient advocacy in promoting health equity. Healthcare professionals use their competence and knowledge to participate in addressing health disparities. The inclusion of healthcare workers in critical positions of tackling health disparities boasts the routine.

References

Brown, A., Bethishou, L., Taheri, R., & Nation, A. (2022). Interprofessional virtual simulation to promote leadership and patient advocacy skills in pharmacy and nursing students. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 29, 100536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2022.100536

Cole, C., Mummery, J., & Peck, B. (2022). Empowerment as an alternative to traditional patient advocacy roles. Nursing Ethics, 29(7-8), 1553-1561. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330211020434

Since I have decided to continue my education at Grand Canyon University, I have learned a lot these last few classes about all of the many opportunities that are available to nurses and advanced registered nurses surrounding joining a professional nursing organization. Professional nursing organizations empower nurses to work together to improve population health and policy ensuring the voices of nurses are heard at all levels where decisions are made (American Nurses Association, n.d.). One way to accomplish this is through lobbying. Lobbying is advocating to support a certain cause, and can be done by a group, but one challenge is non-profit organizations can lose their tax-exempt status for excessive lobbying (Nash et al., 2019). Lobbying is a protected right, but people, whether individuals or groups, must register and disclose certain information. To overcome challenges, it is beneficial to utilize different lobbying methods and include preferences, resources, and the likelihood of success (Nash et al., 2019).

References

American Nurses Association. (n.d.). Health Policy. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/health-policy/

Nash, D. B., Skoufalos, A., Fabius, R. J., & Oglesby, W. H. (2019). Population health: Creating a culture of wellness (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

The advanced practice nurse (ANP) role has expanded exponentially within the community. More times than not, patients are seeing nurse practitioners rather than medical doctors when needing routine medical visits as well as addressing chronic disease maintenance. It is suggested that “The development of advance practice role was part of a strategic development…” to address emerging and future service needs (Thompson & McNamara, 2021). More than 70 countries include ANP in the community nursing workforce (Scanlon et al., 2022). ANP is considered a leader and as such, is expected to participate in innovative research as well as become involved in policy that affects the community; the role is expected to assist in the management of health by participating in policy development.

I have become more aware of the opportunities to become involved in advocating for the community by becoming involved in legislation and public policy development. I have learned through other leadership courses the availability of our current legislators and elected officials. It is a matter of making a phone call and or writing a letter; they have a team that addresses community concerns by going through the communication. The only barrier I foresee in participating in policy is the time constraints. The process of policy making is long and time consuming but it is important to rise to the challenge and still participate and contribute in any way possible; this can be by voting, showing up to events, as well as educating others so that they too make educated contributions to the processes.

References

Scanlon, A., Murphy, M., Smolowitz, J., & Lewis, V. (2022). United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 Target Indicators: Examples of Advanced Practice Nurses’ Actions. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 18(10), 1067–1070. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2022.03.005

Thomposon, W., & McNamara, M. (2021). Constructing the advanced nurse practitioner identity in the healthcare system: A discourse analysis. Journal of advanced nursing. Retrieved March 10, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34622473/

I consider advanced practice nurses (ANPs) more convenient and reliable healthcare professional than medical doctors. Assumingly, medical doctors are always engaged. As a result, getting medical doctor may be challenging compared to accessing ANP. The easy accessibility of ANP has resulted to the expansion of public duties. At the same time, there has been an increase in ANP due to the additional roles. Regrettably, many healthcare facilities have complained of shortage of nursing staff (Cole et al., 2019). As a result, limited available ANPs are forced to assume extra nursing roles. Advanced practice nurses are important in health policymaking process. These healthcare professionals have adequate and reliable knowledge to guide decision-making process. Also, the massive engagement between nurse practitioners and their patients equip nurses with important information (Nsiah et al., 2019). Adequate representation of healthcare professionals in the decision-making process enables these experts to lobby for patient welfare. Similarly, the participation allows healthcare professionals to understand health policies before spearheading the implementation process.

References

Cole, D. A., Bersick, E., Skarbek, A., Cummins, K., Dugan, K., & Grantoza, R. (2019). The courage to speak out: A study describing nurses’ attitudes to report unsafe practices in patient care. Journal of nursing management, 27(6), 1176-1181. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12789

Nsiah, C., Siakwa, M., & Ninnoni, J. P. (2019). Registered nurses’ description of patient advocacy in the clinical setting. Nursing Open, 6(3), 1124-1132. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.307

NUR 550 As an advanced registered nurse, discuss your future role in advocating for equitable population health services and policies