NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3 Instructions: Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3

• Write a letter to the editor of a scholarly journal. The length and format of the letter is dictated by your choice of journal.

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3 Introduction

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

Advocating for new policies is an important aspect of the master’s-prepared nurse. For new policies to be compelling they need to be supported by evidence. Supporting data can be used to illustrate why new policies and interventions are needed to help address a specific health issue. Compelling data can help sway the stakeholders and gain support for your policy.

Another aspect of advocacy is disseminating new policies and interventions outside of the immediate care environment. This can be done by reaching out to professional organizations as well as academic and professional journals. A letter to the editor is one strategy for disseminating information to a wider audience and to potentially enlist support throughout the wider professional community.

Professional Context

Nurses have the opportunity to use their skills and develop programs to keep individuals and communities healthy. Health is complex, however, and the nurse needs to possess strong advocacy skills to successfully support a cause or interest. The American Nurses Association’s (2015) code of ethics describes the responsibility of a nurse to include working through and with appropriate stakeholders to advocate for the health of people in and out of the work environment.

To be an effective advocate, there are several important abilities a nurse must possess, including problem-solving, communication, and influencing others. One way a nurse can advocate to a broader population is through effective letter writing, both to legislators and through the media, such as with editorials and research articles.

Reference

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/Code-of-Ethics-For-Nurses.html

Scenario

Throughout this course, you have focused on a specific health issue occurring within a specific population. You researched position papers regarding this health concern, and you developed a health policy proposal to positively impact the health of the affected individuals. It is now time to reach a greater audience regarding your policy proposal.

You are going to write a letter to the editor of a peer-reviewed nursing journal. Choose from one of the journals in the Ultimate List of Nursing Journals and go to the journal’s Web site to find out the requirements for submitting an editorial, such as format requirements, topics, and word counts. Make sure you select a nursing journal that covers the topic about which you are going to write. If you want to use another journal that is not on this list, please make sure the journal does address health care, because this is the purpose of the assessment.

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3 Instructions

For this assessment, you will write a letter to the editor of a scholarly journal. Your goal is to be informative about the policy that you developed for your previous Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal assessment, while also being persuasive about the need for and benefit of similar policies in other health care settings. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your assessment submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy [DOC] to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.

• • Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

• • • Look back to the data or scenario you used in your previous assessment to address this criterion.

• • Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy.
  • Justify why the developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
  • Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.
  • Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of the policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
  • Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style (or the journal’s preferred style).

Example assessment: You may use the Assessment 3 Example [PDF] to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Submission Requirements for NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3

The submission requirements for your editorial will depend on the journal you choose. To find out the requirements, go to the journal’s Web site. There should be a section regarding submissions that will address how to format letters to the editor, and whether there is a word count limit (there usually is a limit).

• • If the journal does not have submission guidelines for the number of resources required, use 3–5 sources.
  • To be sure that your faculty knows the submission and formatting requirements for your letter, include the journal’s guidelines on a separate page at the end of the document you submit for this assessment.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• • Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care for achieving high-quality population outcomes.

• • • Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

• • • Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

• • Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population health outcomes.

• • • Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.

• • Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of their implications for health policy advocacy.

• • • Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy.

• • • Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.

• • Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.

• • • Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

• • • Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references.

Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Example Approach

Learner’s Name

Capella University

Biopsychosocial Concepts for Advanced Nursing Practice II

Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy

Assignment Due Date

The Current State of Opioid Addiction Treatment for Veterans

According to Oas (2019), approximately 20 percent of veterans suffer from opioid addiction or addiction to other drugs. This is further worsened by the fact that a larger percentage of veterans from Vietnam and Afghanistan/Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Oas, 2019). Opioids are among the most prescribed analgesics for managing both physical and psychological pain commonly associated with battlefield conditions and experienced by war veterans.

The combination of PTSD and opioid treatment makes veterans susceptible to opioid addiction to relieve their pain completely. This has raised concern about better training for physicians on the management and prescription of opioids for veterans to avoid possible addiction. The rise in suicide cases among veterans daily has not been directly linked to opioid use. However, opioid-related suicides in the general population can be implicated as a cause of suicide amongst veterans (Dembek et al., 2020).

Opioid Addiction and the Need for Health Policy Development

The drafting and implementation of policies to help curb the unnecessary and unmonitored dispensation of opioids to patients, especially veterans, is critical to ensure unwanted addiction is experienced by this population group (Rogal et al., 2020). The policies that have been currently enforced include those that deal with the prescription of opioids to veterans.

These policies include the one that stipulates the maximum dosages of opioids that can be given at a time to veterans requiring opioid analgesics and the state prescription drug monitoring programs that require verification of any refill of certain vital drugs, including opioids. There are also voluntary guidelines that advise primary care clinicians treating veterans with chronic pain to consider alternatives to prescription medicines like hydrocodone and oxycodone, limit treatment duration, and evaluate their patients to see if opioids are the best option for them. As Rogal et al. (2020) note, all these guidelines and policies function to limit cases of chronic usage that may lead to addiction.

Treatment of Opioid Addiction Patients: Improving the Quality of Care

Evidence-based practice in the prescription of opioids and other analgesics to patients with chronic and psychological conditions will play an essential role in improving the quality of care for war veterans and other specific populations (Hagedorn et al., 2018). This will enable the development of alternatives to opioids, in addition to oxycodone and hydrocodone, for the relief of such pain. These alternatives reduce the duration of treatment and hence the risk of addiction associated with opioid usage.

Education of the public will also play a significant role in ensuring improved quality of care for patients requiring opioid intervention. Through education, the public gets informed, eliminating myths and misconceptions regarding opioid usage and pain management, such as the usage of strong opioids to relieve stress and pain, which acts as a short-term solution but in turn sinks an individual into addiction (Hagedorn et al., 2018).

Establishment of drug prescription programs with well-organized management that ensures centralized dispensation of opioids and other sensitive drugs will help reduce cases of opioid addiction among the general population, including veterans (Weimer et al., 2019). Monitored decentralized opioid prescription and dispensation will reduce instances of wrongful and illegal prescription of opioids to individuals.

Additionally, qualified and competent specialists in pain management, including specialists, counselors, psychiatric consultants, and senior advanced nurses in these programs, will ensure the correct administration of care for patients with chronic pain and psychological problems. This holistic care of patients reduces the chances of unnecessary prescription of opioids to patients who would rather have psychological evaluation and therapy (Weimer et al., 2019).

How the Policy will Support Achievement of Desired Outcomes

The “desired outcome” in managing opioid prescriptions and dispensations is to increase the usage of alternative pain medication and reduce related addiction. Implementing the suggested policies and guidelines will play an important role in ensuring favorable outcomes are achieved (Rogal et al., 2020). This, however, will require significant monetary and human resources.

The rationale for implementing the suggested policies is based on the fact that studies have indicated that every dollar spent towards the prevention of drug abuse and treatment results in significant savings at the national level. Implementation of the suggested policies and guidelines is expected to significantly reduce the number of cases of opioid addiction and ensure quality care for specific populations, such as war veterans who are susceptible to drug addiction (Rogal et al., 2020).

Policy Development Advocacy and the Importance of Interprofessional Involvement

Application of the proposed policy outside the hospital setting is essential in ensuring holistic care of addiction patients and those susceptible to opioid addictions. Veterans interact with a variety of individuals outside the medical field. This essentially means that their care does not come from health personnel in its entirety. Other areas, such as surrounding communities, family/relatives, and potential places of work, require an understanding of the state of the individuals, their predilection for opioid abuse, and how to assist such individuals in avoiding possible addictions (Barglow, 2018).

Additionally, interprofessional involvement is essential in ensuring the effective implementation of such policies. The involvement of different levels of health personnel, including psychiatric specialists, senior nurses, counselors, community health providers, etc., will ensure efficient implementation of these policies from the top level to the grassroots with significant success. Interprofessional collaboration significantly improves the holistic approach to opioid abuse and addiction prevention in vulnerable populations (Weimer et al., 2019).

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3 References

Barglow, P. (2018). Commentary: The opioid overdose epidemic: Evidence-based interventions: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic. The American Journal on Addictions, 27(8), 605–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajad.12823

Dembek, Z. F., Chekol, T., & Wu, A. (2020). The opioid epidemic: Challenge to military medicine and national security. Military Medicine, 185(5–6), e662–e667. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usz487

Hagedorn, H., Kenny, M., Gordon, A. J., Ackland, P. E., Noorbaloochi, S., Yu, W., & Harris, A. H. S. (2018). Advancing pharmacological treatments for opioid use disorder (ADaPT-OUD): protocol for testing a novel strategy to improve implementation of medication-assisted treatment for veterans with opioid use disorders in low-performing facilities. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 13(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-018-0127-z

Rogal, S. S., Chinman, M., Gellad, W. F., Mor, M. K., Zhang, H., McCarthy, S. A., Mauro, G. T., Hale, J. A., Lewis, E. T., Oliva, E. M., Trafton, J. A., Yakovchenko, V., Gordon, A. J., & Hausmann, L. R. M. (2020). Tracking implementation strategies in the randomized rollout of a Veterans Affairs national opioid risk management initiative. Implementation Science: IS, 15(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-020-01005-y

Weimer, M. B., Tetrault, J. M., & Fiellin, D. A. (2019). Patients with opioid use disorder deserve trained providers. Annals of Internal Medicine, 171(12), 931. https://doi.org/10.7326/m19-2303

NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 3 Guiding Questions

Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy assessment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assessment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assessment. Do not turn in this document as your assessment submission.

Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

• Based on the data that you used to identify your chosen issue in Assessment 1, what is the current state of the quality of care and outcomes?
• To what degree does the current state of the quality of care and outcomes need to be improved?
• How does the current performance compare to any relevant benchmarks?
• How does the current performance adversely impact the health of the target population?

Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy.

• How does the current state of the quality of care and outcomes related to your chosen issue and target population illustrate the need for improvements?
  • Why do you consider policy development and advocacy necessary?
  • How will developing a health policy help to improve the quality of care and outcomes related to your chosen issue and target population?
  • Why is advocating for health policy development necessary to drive improvements?

Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

• Why will your proposed policy (from Assessment 2) be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes related to your chosen issue and target population?
  • How will your proposed policy help drive improvements?
    • What evidence or best-practices supports this? How does the evidence provide support?

Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.

• Why is it important that policy development focused on your chosen issue and target population take place in care environments and settings beyond that for which you proposed the policy?
  • How will wider development of policies help to drive improvements related to your chosen issue and target population?
  • Ideally, what is the end result of wider policy development and implementation?

Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.

• What are the relevant interprofessional aspects of your policy?
  • How will these interprofessional aspects support efficient achievement of your desired outcomes for your target population?
  • How will these interprofessional aspects support effective achievement of your desired outcomes for your target population?

Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

• Is your writing clear and professional?
• Is your writing free from errors?
• Is your writing persuasive?
• Does your submission conform to the format and length requirements of your chosen journal?

Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references.

• Did you use 3–5 sources (or the number required by your chosen journal) in your assessment?
  • Are the sources you used no more than five years old?
• Are your sources cited in APA format (or the journal’s preferred style) throughout your letter?
• Have you included an attached reference list?
• Did you follow the formatting guidelines of your chosen journal?
  • Did you attach the submission and formatting guidelines for your chosen journal at the end of your assessment submission?

Also Read: NURSFPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations