NR 506 Week 1: Discussion 1: The Four Spheres of Political Action in Nursing A+ Rated.

NR 506 Week 1: Discussion 1: The Four Spheres of Political Action in Nursing Nursing should not only focus to one specific task in providing effective nursing care, perhaps, nursing today is shown to be multidimensional that provides advanced holistic care and interdisciplinary team approach. The multidimensional aspect of nursing includes the promotion of health, safety, disease and illness prevention for patient, families, or within the communities. Because of this, nursing professionals largely influenced the political actions in healthcare by creating a change in improving the level of care as well as promotes effective rules and regulations and work safety. In this week’s lesson is about the review of values in politics and the Four Spheres of Political Action in Nursing (CCN, lesson 1, 2019). According to Manton (2016), the four spheres of political action in nursing includes government, professional organization, workplace or workforce, and community. The function of each spheres is relatively unique from each other, but it is more effective when both spheres are used to create a change. The sphere of workforce or workplace such as nursing home, acute/primary care, home care, school-based clinics, or physician office etc. focuses on the importance of effective policies and procedure that will impact and improve the patient care. The sphere of government is focused on the laws and regulations of clinical or nursing practice within the state or within the united states (US). For example, the government created a law that requires health care or hospitals to keep records of immunizations, birth records, provides protection of patient information and medical records, and also, they provide legal age limit for drinking alcohol. In addition, the government provides vital role in the nursing industry because it largely impacts the nursing services and impact the healthcare system (provides laws on health care coverage and drug price transparency). The sphere of professional organization is focused on different areas in nursing such as American Nurses Association (ANA), nursing credentialing system and nursing standard of practice that will help shape and strengthen the clinical practice and the profession of nursing. In addition, professional organization is vital in the creation of safe and high standard work environment for nurses, effective policies and procedure that will aid in providing advanced nursing practice and effective nursing services in the community. For example, American Nurses Association (ANA) is nationally recognized professional organization which promotes leadership, fosters high standards of nursing care, promotes safety and ethical work environment, and advocates for the nurses and public in regard to healthcare issues (ANA, n.d.). Lastly, the sphere of community addresses activities that leads to the community’s health issues. For example, improper waste disposal, and low socioeconomic are detrimental to the people’s health in the community. Although there are special organization that are available to help the community such as food banks, community organizations, and habitat for humanity. The role of the nurse in the community is to promote healthy food selections, proper waste disposal to create safe and clean environment that will aid in the disease and illness prevention (Manton, 2016). Nurses largely influence the creation of policies and procedure that will help improve health care system and the quality of patient care (hospital or community). According to Cameron, Ceci, & Salas, (2011) nurses often view themselves as individual with no power when it comes to policy making in healthcare. Also, nurses see their profession as a normal part of healthcare and not political opportunity to help develop change, but what nurses don’t realize is that being a nurse makes it more involved in healthcare politics. One best example in my current practice is the use of the Spheres of Political Action in Nursing that overlaps from each other is smoking free hospital. The spheres that are involved in banning the cigarette use are the government, workplace or work force and the community. The government provides laws and regulations that federally mandates hospital to promote smoke free environment. Smoking free hospital is vital in the healing process of all patients, it is not just promoting healthy lifestyle amongst staff but also keeps patient or the community safe from inhaling second hand smoke which is relatively dangerous as first-hand smoke (Chaffee, Mason, & Leavitt, 2014). The overall impact of smoke free environment improves public safety especially those frail elderly and children. For example, In the study conducted by Mons et al., (2012) found that there is a significant difference of respiratory diseases in children who lives in smoking free house hold versus smoker house hold. In this study the result shows that 72% of respiratory diseases in children is related to second hand smoke due to increased amount of tobacco use in the household, while children living in a smoke free house hold accounts for 12% of respiratory illness due to allergy or second-hand smoke from the community. References American Nurses Association, (n.d). About ANA. Retrieved from Cameron, B., Ceci, C., & Salas, A. S. (2011). Nursing and the Political. Nursing Philosophy, 12(3), 153-155. doi:10.1111/j.1466-769X.2011.00499.x. Chaffee, M. W., Mason, D. J., & Leavitt, J. K. (2014). A Framework for Action in Policy and Politics. Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 1. Chamberlain College of Nursing (2019). Chamberlain College of Nursing Master’s of Science. Lesson 1. Policy and Healthcare. Retrieved from Manton, A. (2016). Emergency Nurse as Citizen: The Power of Political Action. Journal of Emergency Nursing,42(5), 373-374. doi:10.1016/.2016.07.006 Mons, U., Nagelhout, G. E., Allwright, S., Guignard, R., Putte, B. V., Willemsen, M. C., . . . Breitling, L. P. (2012). Impact of national smoke-free legislation on home smoking bans: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project Europe Surveys. Tobacco Control,22(E1). doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011- Student response Hello Niari, Thank you so much for your response! I agree with you; health care providers are role model and a promoter of healthy lifestyle. However, there are several heath care professionals who engage in unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking. I myself, don't understand why there are health care provider who are supposed to be the role model of healthcare do not abide by healthcare mission. I feel like, when a nurse provide teaching regarding smoking cessation to his/her patient it would not be as effective as the patient education from a nurse who doesn’t use tobacco. According to American Lung Association (2019) smoking is one of the leading cause of death in the country, there are 480,000 people in the U.S die from smoking and second-hand smoke. According to Syamlal, Mazurek, Storey, & Dube, (2015), legislation to restrict smoking among heath care worker has been adapted in different country. For example, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand uses the legislation to implement health care smoking free policies. “In addition to legislative approaches, during 1992, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations began requiring accredited hospitals in the United States to disseminate and enforce hospital wide no-smoking policies” (Syamlal et al, 2015, para.4). The impact of smoke free policies promotes healthy work place environment. In addition, smoke free healthcare facilities promote patient compliance with smoking cessation which also helps prevents respiratory disease exacerbation as well as reduces fire hazards. One of the key components of tobacco control in the U.S or worldwide is the adaptation and enactment clean indoor air legislation such as smoking-cessation activities by healthcare worker. In the United States, the national health objectives for the year 2000 identify the importance of healthcare worker counseling patients about smoking cessation and the need for smoke-free policies in health-care facilities. One goal is to improve the healthcare worker and primary care providers proportion to at least seventy-five percentile who provides education on smoking cessation as well as provide follow-up assistance to all patients who smokes (Syamlal et al, 2015). Reference American Lung Association (2019). Smoking Facts. Retrieved from Syamlal, G., Mazurek, J. M., Storey, E., & Dube, S. R. (2015). Cigarette Smoking Prevalence Among Adults Working in the Health Care and Social Assistance Sector, 2008 to 2012. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,57(10), . doi:10.1097/jom. Instructor response Hi Stephanie - Thanks for broaching the topic of ethics and health care particularly when discussing policymakers determining disease treatments. We assume that a policymaker is well versed in the topic, but that is not always so, particularly in healthcare. Policymakers rely on topic experts to help guide them toward decision making, but sometimes a policymaker's influence is swayed thus causing incorrect decisions. Hopefully there is oversight to avoid this, but stuff does get passed through inappropriately - how can this be avoided? Hello Dr MJ. Federal, state and or local government largely influence the health policies on how health care providers or professionals provide care to their patients. According to Mebane & Blendon (2015), most health care practitioners believes that it is a mystery for them the process of health care policy making. “Health policy decisions made by elected and appointed officials in various branches of government are influenced by political factors often unfamiliar to the decision-making process of health care professionals” (Mebane & Blendon, 2015, para.1). This means that the decisions made to pass the health care policies are often based on the appointed officials or elected official’s negative or positive health care experience or political views rather than factual as evidenced by research and effective studies. However, health care practitioners can use their critical thinking to help contribute and influence the creation and implementation of healthcare policies that are appropriate for providing the best and effective nursing practice. What can we do to prevent future incorrect decisions made by elected officials on health care policies? First and foremost, recently, one senator talks about how nurses often play cards while on the job. I am sure most of us heard about this viral remark by the said senator. Anyway, the Washington state senate considering a bill SHB 1155 which provides healthcare professionals especially nurses with uninterrupted breaks. My understanding about her argument is that she opposes to include the “critical access hospitals, in rural areas, and hospitals with less than 25 beds from the bill” (Stracqualursi,2019, Para.3). This means that she is voting to exempt other hospitals to get amount of rest periods or breaks with less than 25 patients because she believes that most nurses are not busy nor working hard enough that don’t need uninterrupted breaks or rest period. Because of this, I think that one way to prevent incorrect decisions when creating health care policies is to have the policy maker shadow what really nurses do and most importantly is to promote strengthening relationship between healthcare researcher and policy maker. Because, according to Al-Riyami (2010), policy makers often have to address difficult issue or relevant questions when choosing the correct policies and programs that only healthcare or healthcare researcher can help answer the said questions. When healthcare researcher and policy makers have strong relationship, it will promote a positive policy decision and will prevent incorrect and maybe irrelevant healthcare policies which will help protect the healthcare professionals as well as health care recipients. Reference Al-Riyami, A., (2010). Health Researchers and Policy Makers: A Need to Strengthen Relationship. Oman Medical Journal. doi:10.5001/omj.2010.75 Mebane, F., & Blendon, R. J., (2015). Political Strategy 101: How to Make Health Policy and Influence Political People. Journal Of Child Neurology,16(07), 513. doi:10.2310/7010.2001.17012 Stracqualursi, V., (2019, April 20). Maureen Walsh: Washington state senator slammed for saying "playing cards for nurses" for "a considerable amount of day". Retrieved from