Offer your opinion of the effectiveness of the existing policy or

Purpose:

In this Assignment you will select a current health care topic or issue and offer policy solutions that increase quality, expand access to care, or reduce the costs of health care. You will offer an informed opinion on the selected healthcare problem and support your opinion with evidence.

This Assignment will serve as a course level assessment for Course Outcome 1:

• DN733-1: Examine culturally proficient and congruent approaches to the care of diverse communities and vulnerable and underserved populations.

Directions:

Write a scholarly paper, no less than 6 pages excluding the title page and references, and include the following:

1. Select a current health care issue or problem that represents an ethical dilemma or health disparity (see criteria and suggestions for topic/issue selection).
2. Identify the scope of the problem
   1. How does the problem or issue impact the public or /population/ or disenfranchised segment of a community? Use federal or state data/statistics if available
   2. Identify stakeholders
   3. Identify the ethical dilemmas
   4. Identify any cultural diversity relevance or disparities issues
3. Specify policy based solutions
   1. Is there a policy that addresses this problem/issue
   2. Include evidence/ science on why this policy is helpful
   3. What level(s) of government does your issue involve (local, state, federal)? What level of government is your immediate target?
   4. If there is no current policy that addresses the problem/issue, should a policy be developed? Who should lead the policy development? What policy solution(s) should be initiated? Include evidence to support this policy development.
4. Offer your opinion of the effectiveness of the existing policy or proposed policy solutions related to this problem/issue. Review the ANA Nursing Code of Ethics and the ICN Code of Ethics and select one you find most applicable to the healthcare topic/issue and policy and/or policy solution.
5. Include Five or more scholarly peer reviewed articles to support the content. Make sure to review grading rubric.

Criteria and Suggestions for Selecting Issues

Selected topics must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Be linked to the 2015 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report and/or Healthy People 2020
2. Be practice-focused and highly relevant to primary health care
3. Have cultural implications
4. Have implications for health policy

• Topic must be amenable to legislation or government regulation for a solution or improvement. Not every issue/problem should be legislated! The topic should be manageable… “Mental Health” as a topic is too large but “suicide prevention intervention(s)” is manageable.

1. Have some research evidence as well as other evidence to support the area
2. Be current, relevant and significant
3. Relate to at least one of the following aspects of care: access, quality, or cost

The following lists of topics are intended as suggestions of broad topics you might consider, and then you can narrow your topic:

Transitional Care

Immunizations

Disease Prevention

Disaster Preparedness

Drug Shortages

Genomics

Nutrition/Obesity

Health Literacy

Wellness/Health Promotion

Reproductive Health

Palliative Care

Nurse Managed or School based Health Centers

Health/Disease Screening

APRN Professional Issues (e.g., scope of practice)

Health Workforce Issues

Health Information Technology

End-of-Life

Medicaid/Medicare/CHIP

Chronic Disease Management

Medication Costs for Elderly

Long Term Care

Alternative and Complementary Therapies

Attachments area