Policy versus Law and Nursing’s Political Influence

Policy versus Law and Nursing’s Political Influence Assignment

Students will post their initial replies before seeing other students’ responses.

Nurses are involved in politics on a daily basis.  Negotiating at work for a work schedule, a patient assignment, resources for a unit by the manager, and so on.  Nurses are political in nature and you are usually striving to meet your personal agenda.  But what if your “agenda” is health care for a community center, the health of a city or state, or country?  What if you are passionate about a specific disease and active in the community raising money or awareness for that disease….is this political behavior?  Is sitting on a nursing committee at work that has a goal of improving care on your unit, but you need personnel or additional equipment and supplies … would you need to act in a political manner to obtain what you needed?

Politics (from the Greek word politika or “affairs of the city”) is defined differently by various dictionaries.  What if we considered families, communities, community centers, schools, and state and top governments in countries in our definition of politics?  What are nursing units or departments?

Being “political” does not mean just being a member of a political party or holding a particular party’s beliefs or voting for certain individuals.  Nurses need to use their political savvy to get the limited resources needed to care for patients, families, and populations of people.

Here is a great online article about nursing as a political entity.  What is the role of nursing?  It’s political! Read this article for a primer in some of our great nursing theorists’ ideas about politics and nursing, and why it is important.

Barroso de Sousa, L. (2022, April 12). Is nursing a political thing? A brief theoretical reflection. Nursology. https://nursology.net/2022/04/12/is-nursing-a-political-thing-a-brief-theoretical-reflection/

Recently the Royal College of Nursing Fellows published an online video about the role of nursing and politics and why this is important.  If you have time, you may watch it here (select “cc” for closed captions):

RCN (2022, July 12). In conversation with nursing pioneers: Nursing and politics.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEOxFmtpQz0

In this discussion, we’ll look at the differences between policies and laws in healthcare.  Nursing also has skill-related “policies”, right?  We have policies that guide our behavior, practice, and skills in the workplace.  What is the difference between a health care policy and a health care law?  Later in the course, your teams will be analyzing a healthcare policy.  Let’s see what we can learn here.

• • Examples of Health Care Laws:  https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/health-care-laws
  • Examples of Health Care Policies:  https://www.healthaffairs.org/topics
  • Ballotpedia (2022). Healthcare policy in Virginia.  https://ballotpedia.org/Healthcare_policy_in_Virginia
  • Ballotpedia (2022). Healthcare policy in North Carolina.  https://ballotpedia.org/Healthcare_policy_in_North_Carolina
  • For other states, go to the  https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page and conduct a search from the home page.

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This Policy versus Law and Nursing’s Political Influence Discussion supports Course Objective 4:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of healthcare politics and policies by developing appropriate political strategies that may perpetuate changes in healthcare and the nursing profession. (EPSLO 1, 8)

Instructions

It is important to stay current in these discussion threads. Read all discussion postings. You must be an active and regular participant. One or two sentences or just simply agreeing with a classmate’s post will not be sufficient.

For posts on this Policy versus Law and Nursing’s Political Influence topic:

Submit your original post to the topic below by the due date before 11:59 pm EST. This post must be a minimum of 200 words.

Reply to at least 2 classmates by Sunday of this week, 11:59 pm EST. 

APA Format is required for writing in-text citations and references. No direct quotes should be used.

Policy versus Law and Nursing’s Political Influence Discussion Rubric and Grading Information

Discussion Topic

Initial Post

 For your initial post, complete the following:

• First, discuss the difference between a policy and a law and indicate why they are both needed in maintaining the health of a population or country.
• Next, identify and describe a policy in your state that addresses a health care issue.
• Lastly, identify and describe a healthcare law in your state or the U.S. that addresses a healthcare issue.
• Conclude with how is nursing involved in the healthcare problem addressed by the law or the policy.

Response Posts

 In your responses to your classmates, address the following:

• Enhance your peer’s post(s) to include more information to build the class’s knowledge about the topic.
• Adding online graphics, credible websites, our textbook pages, etc. all help to improve our knowledge base.  Bring in the added resources in the introduction to this discussion and share them with the class.
• Remember to use credible references for each post you want to count as participation posts.