Week 5

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Week 5: Discussion Board Posting Dr Waters 500 words
Discussion Board Posting #4 (3 points): Identify and explain a mental health global health related issue that needs to be addressed from a policy standpoint.

Develop a one page “fact sheet” about the identified global health or nursing education issue, to provide to a legislator, to underscore the need for governmental action.
The fact sheet should include at least three embedded resource/information links.
Copy and paste the fact sheet into the discussion board.
Propose a policy that would address the chosen global health issue and identify who the student would contact to lobby for the proposed policy. Provide contact information for at least two policy people (Professional Nursing Association, law maker, lobbyist, etc.

Week 4

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Week 4response to Kyla Dr waters 450 words
Kyla Baucom
Edited May 28 9:23am

Reply from Kyla Baucom
American Psychiatric Nurses Association

Professional nursing organizations provide accessibility to nurses seeking community and engagement in healthcare policy. This includes nursing organizations like the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). APNA is a national association founded in 1986 exclusively for psychiatric mental health nurses at all levels, from associates to doctoral-prepared nurses (APNA, 2024). APNA comprises members employed in various fields, from inpatient, outpatient, community, and administrative settings. This association is inclusive, aiming to promote patient health and wellness through psychiatric mental health nursing practice. In addition to this, the association also offers leadership opportunities to shape health policy in the mental health sector.

APNA Goals

APNA has numerous goals that are relevant to promoting health and equity in mental healthcare. Their first goal is to serve as a resource for “professional development, networking, and leadership” (APNA, 2024, para. 4). Their second goal is to be the leader in forming and improving stakeholder alliances for organizational advancement. Their third goal is to communicate and be identified as the expert in psychiatric mental health nursing. Their final goal is to be at the front line of merging research, education, and practice to combat mental health problems that hinder psychiatric nurses and their patients.

Advocacy Involvement

APNA’s active involvement in healthcare policy is a testament to its commitment to reform. Through collaborations with key stakeholders such as the Mental Health Liaison Group, the Nursing Community Coalition, the Opioid Response Network, and the National Quality Forum (APNA, 2024), APNA is making a tangible difference. This year alone, APNA has signed five letters from coalitions advocating for healthcare policies. Most notably, APNA signed a Mental Health Liaison Group letter on May 1st supporting the Medicaid Bump Act of 2024, a significant step towards encouraging U.S. states to increase behavioral health service coverage. Similarly, APNA has signed letters sent from coalitions to Congressional Leadership, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, addressing a range of crucial issues. These impactful letters can be found at https://www.apna.org/advocacy/.

Issue Statements

APNA has numerous published issue statements related to psychiatric mental health nursing. In May 2024, APNA posted an issue statement regarding the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion measures to improve mental health and mitigate health disparities. Previously, APNA has issued statements regarding workplace violence, the role of the psychiatric nurse in the growing mental health crisis, and the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare providers (APNA, 2024). Although APNA has not written any policies, its involvement in healthcare policy and advocacy is evident.

Advocacy Resources for Nurses

The APNA website contains numerous tools for psychiatric nurses who are eager to become involved in advocacy. It provides government contact information, example contact letters, and letter outlines designed to help nurses succinctly address the problem. The website also offers practical tips for contacting local news editors and links to associated websites for additional advocacy tools. These straightforward and user-friendly resources empower nurses to make a difference in their local communities and beyond.

Reference

American Psychiatric Nurses Assocation (2024). Home page. https://www.apna.org/

Week 3 response

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Week Three Response to Kyla Dr. Watters 450 words
Alcohol Use

Alcohol is one of the most used substances around the globe and is a growing source of public health problems. Alcohol, also chemically referred to as ethanol, is a recreational substance with sedating and potentially addictive properties (Ilhan & Yapar, 2020). Despite the reported harmful effects of alcohol, its use and implication in disease have only begun to be a topic of discussion in the past one hundred years. Not only does alcohol have the propensity to affect the individual negatively, but also the individual’s family, friends, and society (Ilhan & Yapar, 2020). For this reason and several others, alcohol must be regulated with enforceable alcohol use policies. These policies can be evaluated through the lens of Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework and Longest’s policy cycle model to build upon this issue further.

Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework & Longest’s Policy Cycle Model

Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework was developed by John Kingdon in 1984 to examine policies and policymaking across various settings (Hoefer, 2022). Kingdon believed that numerous solutions were available for any policy issue and therefore emphasized the ambiguity in defining the problem and the goal due to differing viewpoints among policymakers. Additionally, Kingdon believed that policymakers’ time and resources were limited, further influencing policymaking efforts (Hoefer, 2022). The Multiple Streams Framework can be applied to alcohol use policies and their development in Florida. As outlined by Kingdon, policymakers may differ on whether the economic, social, or physical health detriments of alcohol are the most significant, which may delay the ability to find common ground for policymaking. With limited time and resources, Florida policymakers must address emergencies first rather than debating the most effective solution to harmful alcohol use.

Similarly, Longest’s policy cycle model was developed to map out the health policy cycle and its interrelationships with stakeholders and the healthcare environment (Tsay et al., 2019). This cycle includes three aspects: policy formation, implementation, and modification. Regarding alcohol use policies, Longest’s cycle could be used to map out initial policy formation, guide implementation, and evaluate policy revisions. Ultimately, this policy cycle model could be a helpful adjunct tool to monitor the legislative process for alcohol use policies.

Factors Influencing Implementation

Several factors may affect alcohol use policy implementation. Socially, alcohol is regularly used by 1 in 3 people around the world (Ilhan & Yapar, 2020). For this reason, many individuals may feel oppositional to alcohol use restrictions, which could limit the implementation of policy. Economically, many states benefit from alcohol taxation and may feel less likely to impose alcohol restrictions due to loss of revenue. Contrarily, the environmental impact of alcohol is substantial. Between farming and bottling, alcohol creation is energy intensive (Cook et al., 2024). Substantial water usage is required for alcohol production, and a significant amount of wastewater is created. The restriction of alcohol use may limit demand, which would have a positive benefit on the environment. This may encourage legislators to formulate policy regarding alcohol use, while social and economic factors may inhibit implementation due to potential gain.

References

Cook, M., Critchlow, N., O’Donnell, R., & MacLean, S. (2024). Alcohol’s contribution to climate change and other environmental degradation: A call for research. Health Promotion International, 39(1), daae004. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daae004

Hoefer R. (2022). The multiple streams framework: Understanding and applying the problems, policies, and politics approach. Journal of Policy Practice and Research, 3(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42972-022-00049-2

Ilhan, M. N., & Yapar, D. (2020). Alcohol consumption and alcohol policy. Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences, 50(5), 1197–1202. https://doi.org/10.3906/sag-2002-237

Tsay, S. L., Tsay, S. F., Ke, C. Y., Chen, C. M., & Tung, H. H. (2019). Analysis of nurse practitioner scope of practice in Taiwan using the Longest policy cycle model. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 31(3), 198–205. https://doi.org/10.1097/JXX.0000000000000127

Assignment 3

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assignment 3:
Personal Plan for Advocacy Implementation PowerPoint/Kaltura Presentation (13 points)

In this assignment, the student will present an advocacy plan for a specific policy issue. The student will develop a PowerPoint/ Kaltura Presentation introducing an advocacy plan, including a letter, to a government representative to address a national, state, or local policy issue. This assignment will demonstrate student growth toward becoming a political change agent.

Assignment Criteria:

DNP Students: Create a PowerPoint Presentation that addresses the students’ personal plan of advocacy for selected policy issue.
Title Slide
Introduction Slide
Slide to link to Essential V of the AACN’s (2006) DNP Essentials and its outcomes.
1-2 Slide(s) to lists policy challenges & opportumites.
1-2 Slide(s) to explain how each DNP Essential V outcome/competency has been met or will be met/demonstrated.
Slide to summarize personal growth toward becoming a DNP political change agent.
References Slide
PhD students: Create a PowerPoint Presentation that discusses faculty shortage in nursing academia or a major issue in nursing executive leadership.

Title Slide
Introduction Slide
Slide to explain the outcomes on nursing education or nursing leadership.
1-2 Slide(s) to present pioneering and collaborative solutions to expand nursing education or nursing executive leadership and scholarship and explain how these solutions will be met/demonstrated.
1-2 Slide(s) to lists policy challenges & opportunites.
Slide to summarize personal growth toward becoming a Ph.D. political change agent.
References Slide.
Develop a recorded PowerPoint presentation/PPT using Kaltura in the form of a scholarly presentation. Follow the instructions for using Kaltura in Canvas under Modules and APA Documents/Resources.
Once the PPT is created, use Kaltura media to present it with a voice-over (use a computer and microphone).
For presentation clarification, include the presenter’s notes in the click-to-add section to explain the slide.
The PowerPoint presentation should be no more than ten slides (excluding the title and reference slides) and 10-15 minutes long. It should be complete and concise. Use bulleted statements, not complete sentences or paragraphs.
Use APA format for PPT, which always includes a title slide, a reference slide, and APA requirements. Resources found in APA Documents/Resources.
A minimum of five (5) references will be required for this assignment. The references should be from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals (check Ulrich’s Periodical Directory) and less than five (5) years old.
Submit both the PPT and the Kaltura presentation by the posted due date.

Assignment 2

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Assignment 2: Dr Waters
State or Local Health Issue Policy and Application to Nursing Paper (30 points)

Your research interest should drive your legislative selection. This assignment should focus on the state or local government or community policymaking sphere, and your selected policymaker should be at the legislative or organizational board- level. The project is designed to offer an experience, allowing you to view the political process in action. The goal of the assignment is to gain knowledge on how an idea for a law is drafted into a bill, how a bill becomes law, the role voting plays, the concept of lobbying, and how public hearings affect the process and improve knowledge. In addition, community advocates’ role in a policy or bill’s success should be discussed.

Assignment Criteria:

Develop a scholarly paper that addresses the following criteria:

Describe the state or local issue or problem.
Discuss a brief history of the issue/problem.
Explain the background of the issue/problem, including social, ethical, legal, and political factors.
Compose the issue statement. Succinctly state the issue in one sentence.
Identify stakeholders, special interest groups (SIGs), and grassroots efforts involved in successfully enacting this policy issue.
Discuss policy goals and objectives.
Explore the role of the nursing discipline as it relates to the selected policy issue.
Propose policy options and alternatives if the bill is not passed. This can be at an institutional or professional nursing organization level.
The scholarly paper should be in narrative format and have ten (10) to twelve (12) pages excluding the title and reference page.
Include an introductory paragraph, a purpose statement, and a conclusion.
Include level 1 and 2 headings to organize the paper.
Write the paper in the third person, not the first person (meaning do not use ‘we’ or ‘I’) and in a scholarly manner. To clarify, I, we, you, me, our may not be used. In addition, describing yourself as the researcher or the author should not be used.
Include a minimum of ten (10) professional peer-reviewed scholarly journal references to support the paper (review in Ulrich Periodical Directory) and be less than five (5) years old.
APA format is required (attention to spelling/grammar, a title page, a reference page, and in-text citations).
Submit the assignment to Turnitin before the final submission, review the originality report, and make any needed changes.
Submit by the posted due date.

Response to Kyla

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Week2 Dr Waters Responce to Kyla 450 words please 🙏🏿

Background Problem

Inspiring change is a central theme of healthcare and public health policy. Nurses provide direct patient care to individuals across the lifespan, making them excellent candidates for invoking change (Inayat et al., 2023). By witnessing the impact of health policy firsthand, nurses are informed to serve in roles emphasizing policymaking. One problem that requires a need for policy is alcohol consumption. Alcohol is an addictive, intoxicating substance that is commonly used for entertainment around the globe (Ilhan & Yapar, 2020). Despite the potentially negative impact of alcohol, approximately one in three persons is a current drinker worldwide. Alcohol has been linked to more than 200 injuries and diseases, such as neuropsychiatric conditions, cardiovascular conditions, cancer, and death (Ilhan & Yapar, 2020). Additionally, over three million people die from detrimental alcohol use, and deaths related to alcohol account for more than 5% of all deaths worldwide. Current policies for alcohol are inadequately enforced, and as alcohol-related conditions rise, it is apparent that updated alcohol policies are necessary.

Proposed Policy

In the state of Florida, several strategies are in place to prevent excessive alcohol use and abuse. However, further opportunities are available to address this growing crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asserts that states can increase alcohol taxes, regulate alcohol outlet density, and maintain limits on sales to control alcohol use and misuse (CDC, 2024). Florida currently operates with state alcohol taxes, alcohol retail licensing, and limits hours of alcohol sales. However, Florida currently allows private retailers to sell alcohol against the recommendations of the CDC (CDC, 2024). Therefore, the implementation of policy could address this problem by limiting alcohol sales to government retailers per CDC recommendations.

Policy Process

To begin the implementation of the policy process, an advanced practice nurse (APN) would benefit from an outlined framework to guide their steps and highlight their skills to elicit change. The Yoder Wise Model is a framework designed for planned policy change for nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic (Anders, 2021). This framework outlines nine steps for success and begins with a precipitating event causing a critical point that demands action, such as increasing alcohol-related problems. The APN would then assess the situation to determine the need for additional action. Extensive planning would occur, including detailing definitions and timing and involving additional stakeholders to address the problem. Given that this policy would be addressed at the state level, this would require collaboration with legislators and representatives. The APN would then monitor the movement of the policy change with stakeholders until the subsequent enactment of the policy (Anders, 2021). The APN would routinely refocus with the team and evaluate the effectiveness of the policy when appropriate.

Implementation Challenges

The APN may encounter several barriers to the implementation of this policy. As previously discussed, many nurses feel they need more preparation for strategic policymaking due to inadequate education and preparation (Inayat et al., 2023). Given that this policy would address state-level concerns, it would be imperative for the APN to have experience with policy internships, training, or policymaking projects to improve readiness. Another problem the APN may encounter is hesitancy to eliminate the privatization of alcohol. Given that alcohol taxes raise revenue, the state of Florida may feel compelled to continue the widespread availability of alcohol to maintain taxation (CDC, 2024). Therefore, the APN must have robust data to support the detriment of privatization to initiate policy change at the state level.

References

Anders R. L. (2021). Engaging nurses in health policy in the era of COVID-19. Nursing Forum, 56(1), 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12514

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024). Alcohol and public health: Florida. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/states/excessive-alcohol-use-united-states.html#FL

Ilhan, M. N., & Yapar, D. (2020). Alcohol consumption and alcohol policy. Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences, 50(5), 1197–1202. https://doi.org/10.3906/sag-2002-237

Inayat, S., Younas, A., Andleeb, S., Rasheed, S. P., & Ali, P. (2023). Enhancing nurses’ involvement in policy making: A qualitative study of nurse leaders. International nursing review, 70(3), 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12828

Week 1

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Response to Dr Waters
You statsed: “Nurses have in-depth knowledge and expertise that can benefit policy development. Due to their knowledge and interaction with the patients as frontline care providers, nurses’ involvement in healthcare policy development is valuable (Stavropoulou et al., 2022).” — Yes they do. The key here is to get nurses to be involved, to research, promote policy inquiry, policy change and the promote the actions to make those things happen. Thought about what and how the DNP can be the leader of these initiatives?

Week 4

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Dr waters week 4
TOPIC B: Unions and Collective Bargaining (3 points): There has been an increased awareness of working environments, staffing, healthcare provider safety, and quality patient care. With this topic, the conversation often revolves around unions and collective bargaining,

Present an argument in favor of or against nurses’
Explore the literature and provide the pros and cons of nursing’s participation in organized collective bargaining groups and
Illustrate the pros and cons related to the need for collective bargaining and unions to advance
Describe how nursing organizational policy can outline collective bargaining and how nurse educators should present this topic to nursing students.

Dr Waters assignment 1

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Dr Waters Assignment 1: National Health Issue Policy and Application to Nursing Practice Paper (30 points)

Your research interest should drive your legislative selection. This assignment should focus on the government or community sphere of policymaking, and your selected policymaker should be on the legislative or organizational board level. The project is designed to offer an experience, allowing you to view the political process in action. The goal of the assignment is to gain first-hand knowledge on how an idea for a law is drafted into a bill, how a bill becomes law, the role voting plays, the concept of lobbying, and how public hearings affect the process and improve knowledge. In addition, community advocates’ role in a policy or bill’s success should be discussed.

To gain first-hand knowledge,

Identify a state representative, senator, or lobbyist to contact related to your selected legislative bill. If possible, choose a nurse legislator or a representative active in healthcare.
Obtain their biography and review their commitment or priorities related to health issues and
Contact this legislative
If possible, interview your selected official related to your selected bill. Telephone and/or email correspondence is accepted, but if possible, visit your representative face to face.
Research the history of this political effort, how the bill was drafted, and the bill’s current status or progress.
If possible, visit a legislative session or, as an alternative, view the session on social media, the web, or TV.
Assignment Criteria:

Develop a scholarly paper that addresses the following criteria:

Describe the national issue or problem.
Discuss a brief history of the issue/problem.
Explain the background of the issue/problem to include social, ethical, legal, and political.
Compose the issue statement-succinctly state the issue in one
Report contact with legislator, aide, or office (Required information includes phone number, email, names, conversation, & follow-up).
Identify stakeholders, special interest groups (SIGs), and grassroots efforts involved in successfully enacting this policy issue.
Discuss policy goals and objectives.
Explore the role of the nursing discipline as it relates to the selected policy issue.
Propose policy options and alternatives if the bill is not passed. Will the status quo continue? Are other options available?
The scholarly paper should be in narrative format and have ten (10) to twelve (12) pages, excluding the title and reference page.
Include an introductory paragraph, a purpose statement, and a conclusion.
Include level 1 and 2 headings to organize the paper.
Write the paper in the third person, not the first person (meaning do not use ‘we’ or ‘I’) and in a scholarly manner. To clarify, we, you, and I may not be used. In addition, describing yourself as the researcher or the author should not be used.
Include a minimum of ten (10) professional peer-reviewed scholarly journal references to support the paper (review in Ulrich Periodical Directory) and be less than five (5) years old.
APA format is required (attention to spelling/grammar, a title page, a reference page, and in-text citations).
Submit the assignment to Turnitin before the final submission, review the originality report, and make any needed changes.
Submit by the posted due date.

Week 2 Dr Waters

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Week 2: Discussion Board Posting Dr Waters
Discussion Board Posting #2 (3 points): Identify a healthcare policy initiative in an area of research interest.

Describe the background problem that created the need for a policy
Explain the proposed policy and why it is needed
Discuss, from an advanced practice nurse’s (APN) perspective, two suggestions an APN would use to begin implementing this policy process.
Identify two or three challenges an APN might encounter with implementation and explain how the APN could address them.