Nursing Profession
Instructions:-
1.) Every day, nurses apply ethical principles in each step of the policy process as they follow the best evidence-based practice guidelines available. Nurses’ policy practices are driven by caring, respect, openness, and honesty. Analyze one key concept in the Nurses Code of Ethics that nurses can utilize while involved in healthcare policy activities.
2.) The essence of the nursing profession is both valued within a society and uniquely accountable to that society. This is considered to be the profession’s social contract. Using the American Nursing Association website, first identify a current healthcare policy that nurses are involved in at the local, state, or national level. Second, using Fowler’s Guide to Nursing’s Social Policy Statement: Understanding the Profession from Social Contract to Social Covenant, pp. 19–20, analyze how the nurses’ social contract is being upheld within that policy.
3.). Nurses have a tremendous advantage in the political process, given the public’s overall respect for the profession and nurses’ expertise in healthcare. Year after year, nursing is voted as the most “ethical” profession by Gallup polls, and the average person perceives nurses as altruistic, caring, and intelligent. Describe two key reasons that nurses are uniquely positioned to take the lead in challenging policy situations.
4.) Nurses understand that healthcare policy has important implications for patient quality and safety. Analyze how having a policy-making skill set, such as being able to write, review, and debate policies, leads to improvements in patient quality and safety.
5.) Involvement in healthcare policy is a natural extension of the nurse’s role as an advocate. Many opportunities exist for nurses to become involved in the policy process. Analyze the role of the nurse and how they might become an active participant in policy development/modification in at least two different aspects. For example, examine how a nurse can affect positive change in policy within their facility, and think about a way that a nurse can be part of the policymaking process at the state or national level.
References:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2017). Federal policy agenda. http://www.aacnnursing.org/Policy-Advocacy/About-Government-Affairs/Federal-Policy-Agenda
American Nurses Association (n.d.). State.
http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Policy-Advocacy/State/Legislative-Agenda-Reports
Fowler, M. D. M. (2015a). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: Development, interpretation, and application (2nd ed.). American Nurses Association.
Fowler, M. D. M. (2015b). Guide to nursing’s social policy statement: Understanding the profession from social contract to social covenant. American Nurses Association.