As stated in The Essentials, healthcare policy can facilitate or hinder healthcare delivery, and legislation directly affects the environment in which advanced practice nurses (APN) practice. APNs are called to participate in the legislative process, influencing policy development to better meet the needs of providers and care recipients. Ultimately, MSN and DNP education have two outcomes related to healthcare policy and advocacy: (a) examine and evaluate the policy process and (b) engage in political activism as it relates to ensuring healthcare policy reduces disparities, improves access and quality, reduces costs, and promotes equity.

Policy Brief Instructions and Rubric

As stated in The Essentials, healthcare policy can facilitate or hinder healthcare delivery, and legislation directly affects the environment in which advanced practice nurses (APN) practice. APNs are called to participate in the legislative process, influencing policy development to better meet the needs of providers and care recipients. Ultimately, MSN and DNP education have two outcomes related to healthcare policy and advocacy: (a) examine and evaluate the policy process and (b) engage in political activism as it relates to ensuring healthcare policy reduces disparities, improves access and quality, reduces costs, and promotes equity.

This assignment focuses on the student’s ability to understand and evaluate policy processes and make decisions on whether certain policies achieve the goals outlined above. From there, graduates can transform this knowledge into political activism: Developing a policy brief is one way to accomplish this. By utilizing this strategy, graduates can ensure that they have a seat at the table when decisions about their practice are being made.

Policy briefs are succinct documents that are easy to review and work to persuade a chosen audience to support or remove support for the development of a particular policy. The following steps outline what you need to accomplish for this assignment. Additional questions are wel- come and should be posted in the Course Q&A.

Step 1:

Bill Selection. Choose a federal-level healthcare bill that addresses healthcare problem of your choosing. You must choose a federal bill from the 117th Congress (Jan. 3, 2021 to Jan. 2023). The bill must still be pending. You may not select a bill that has already passed both the Senate and the House or one that is waiting on signature from President. You  may use a bill that has only passed one of the congressional branches— either the House or the Senate, but not both. It is recommended that you use congress.gov,senate.gov,house.gov,legiscan.com,ortheThomasLibraryof Congress to search for a health-related bill to analyze for this brief.

Step 2:

Executive Summary. Begin your brief with an executive summary that introduces the chosen healthcare issue. This will be your audience’s initial contact with your brief so you want to make sure it is compelling so that they continue to read.

In 1-2 paragraphs, you should (a) describe the issue, (b) address its impact,(c) express why it’s time to address this issue now, and(d)introduce what the major outcomes that would result from fixing the problem. Support this section with relevant facts, figures, statistics, and costs.

Step 3:

Background and Significance. Discuss how each of the following factors relate to your problem. Include explanations of (a) how they contribute to the existence and magnitude of your problem, and (b) how your problem affects them:

1. Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
2. The Local, State, or national economy
3. The Healthcare System or Advanced Nursing Practice
4. Ethical Theories or Bioethical Principles

Each of these should be developed and supported separately and include facts, numbers, figures, research, and statistics to support your statements. Specific SDOH and their connection to your issue should be included. In your ethical section, connect your discussion to a particular ethical factor or theory that is relevant to your topic. This section should paint the picture of the far-reaching impact of the issue. Focus on the problem and not potential solutions, including the bill you chose.

Step 4:

Historical context. Summarize the history of your issue as a public health concern. Discuss if the issue has been debated in the past and the major opinions that prevailed. Lastly, summarize the past legislative attempts to resolve this problem and their outcomes/impact.

Step 5:

Policy Recommendation: Introduce your policy recommendation using its bill number and title (if titled) and summarize what it is intended to do. Support your selection of this bill by addressing (a) how it fills in gaps left by previous legislation and (b) why it is preferred to other methods of solving the problem. Support this section with evidence. Include a working link to your bill.

Step 6:

Criteria for Evaluation. This section is the central aspect of this assignment and requires you to use evidence to analyze the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity (three Es) of the bill you selected as described below:

1. Effectiveness: Summarize current evidence describing how the specific strategies proposed in the bill are effective at solving the chosen problem. Discuss the immediate, short, and long-term outcomes that are achievable following the implementation of this bill.
2. Efficiency: Summarize current evidence that demonstrates how the specific strategies in the bill are efficient. Include illustrations of cost versus benefit and/or cost versus effectiveness that are supported by numerical figures.
3. Equity: Discuss how the specific strategies in the bill have been shown to impact health disparities and inequities. Also consider whether implementation of the bill itself is equitable. Identify any concerns about the fairness of cost-sharing or burden of implementation

Specific examples of strategies from your bill should be included in each section above. The ability to perform objective analysis is key to quality policy evaluation. The conclusions presented in this section should be the result of synthesizing research findings from the literature. It is not meant to reflect your opinion. The bill itself cannot be used for support for any of the three Es.

Step 7:

Areas of Concern. Explain at least one potential unintended negative consequence of this bill. Discuss gaps in knowledge, data, or evidence that make predicting outcomes difficult or that bar you from fully supporting a particular aspect of the bill. Support with evidence.

Step 8:

Potential Barriers. Identify and discuss potential barriers to implementation and/or full realization of intended outcomes. These may be social, educational, cultural, or legally based for example. You may also describe factors not listed here. Support with evidence.

Step 9:

Reference List. There should be a minimum of 10 references published within the last 5 years on your list. The majority must be peer-reviewed references. Additional references types may include current events, information from professional organization sites, and relevant publications from corporation websites. In-text citations and reference list entries should be presented in APA format.

Additional Notes:

• The document should be organized with headings presented in the same order in which they are presented in the rubric. Creativity in the use of space is allowed and encouraged, however.
• With styling, the assignment should be approximately 6 single-spaced pages in length (excluding the reference pages and any appendices) and must have a minimum often (10) references, the majority of which should peer reviewed. References should be timely: published within the previous five (5) years.

Submission Instructions: The assignment is to be submitted in the form of a policy brief (not an APA paper) in a single PDF to the appropriate assignment area. Your work will automatically be submitted to turnitin.com upon submission to the course.

DO:

• Single space and submit as a PDF
• Format this as an actual policy brief using bullets, panels, bold font, underline, color, boxes, and photos strategically
• Maintain APA format where applicable (eg, citations, references, numbers, capitalization, abbreviations, etc.). This includes the citation and reference format for your bill(s).
• Maintain your professional voice (avoid first person, colloquialisms, and unprofessional language)
• Use the advanced search feature in Google Images to filter results by images that are free for use or sharing and/or give credit to the source of your image in your work

DO NOT:

• Let the styling overshadow you message. Find a balance. Simple presentations work well also. You’ll note that most professional policy briefs rely on a combination of columns and color/color blocking to make their impact.
• Include an APA formatted title page.

APA

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