Health Care Policy
Question 1. 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 Nurses 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.
- For question one PLEASE SEE PAPER 2-6 below FOR FOWLER’S- Fowler, M. D. M. (2015b). Guide to nursing’s social policy statement: Understanding the profession from social contract to social covenant. American Nurses Association.
Question 2. Nurses make up the largest group of healthcare providers in the U.S. and are in key positions to engage in health policy, political participation, and/or political activism. Select one current healthcare policy at the local, state, or national level. For help identifying a policy idea, consider visiting the American Nurses Association’s Nursing Legislative Issues and Trends website or the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Federal Policy Agenda for Academic Nursing website (both links are found below). Describe the selected policy, identify its purpose, and evaluate its ideal outcomes, and drawbacks. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented a pay-for-performance (P4P) policy in 2016 which has 55% of fee-for-service Medicare shifting to quality-based payments. Naturally, this is a strategy to promote quality and value of healthcare services. However, a drawback of this policy is that it has had hospitals, nurses, and other healthcare providers scurrying to implement it, due to its complexity.
LINKS for Question two listed below
https://www.aacnnursing.org/Policy-Advocacy/Federal-Policy-Agenda
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/state/
Sample Answer
Health Care Policy
Nurses’ role in the provision of care to their patients is an asset to the society. The role is thus valued by the society since nurses are made accountable to the society’s wellness. There are several healthcare policies at the federal, state, and local government that nurses are involved in since its impacts their professional service and personal life in a variety of ways (Advocacy & Agenda, 2021). Some of the emergent healthcare policies that impact nurses’ roles include; Care coordination, Affordable Care Act (ACA), Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Medicare, Medicaid, health system transformation, and Health IT.
Care Coordination is among the transformative healthcare agendas suited to improving the provision of care while regulating healthcare costs. The policy has received positive responses from nurses and other medical practitioners since it is a policy that is embraced by health systems, hospitals, and insurance agencies to improve patients’ wellness and satisfaction while controlling the expenditures incurred in health (“State”, 2021). Registered nurses (RNs) are positively supporting the strategy by being actively involved in the policy’s creation, implementation, and assessment process. Some of the RNs contributions to the care coordination framework include; creation of patients’ care plans, patients’ and their families’ education, and facilitating a continuous care process for patients during and after discharge from the health facility.
Nurses have a moral obligation and responsibility to fulfill in society; they are valued and are expected to be accountable to society. Nurses’ social contract specify the set ethics and core values of their profession regarding the provision of health care to society and being accountable to society’s wellness. The nursing profession is in a social contract with the society; where nurses are granted the autonomy to deliver their services professionally without interference, while at the same time being obliged to always consider and safeguard public interests during their service (Fowler, 2015). According to Fowler, the contract specifies reciprocal expectations between nursing and society that upholds trust between the two parties; American nurses have received public recognition as the most ethical and honest profession for several years, approving the trust between them and society (2015). The Care Coordination framework where nurses are key stakeholders strongly upholds and strengthens nurses’ social contract. As part of the conditions laid by the policy, RNs are expected to partake in the improvement of patient care while receiving support and autonomy of practice from society, the government, and the medical fraternity. Their services are vital and are part of these policymakers entrusted to plan specific and continuous care plans and education for the patients and their families.
RNs are frontline workers who lobby for several developmental and effective policies in federal, state, and local governments. Their engagement in several health care policies is significant. The ANA has always been at the forefront in advocating for policies that utilize the value imparted by nurses while improving healthcare and general public Health. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), initiated in 2010, was a federal government policy intended to foster access to health care by all Americans, where millions of Americans have obtained coverage at the moment (“State,” 2021). The policy has been subjected to several crucial reforms to achieve the sustainability, innovativeness, and inclusiveness of health reform policies (Advocacy & Agenda, 2021). Though greatly politicized, ACA has been an all-inclusive policy that regulates insurers’ exploitation of civilians. It enables the low-income earners to afford their health insurance through the spread out costs and initiatives like Medicaid expansion and subsidies.
Consequently, the policy has made some significant contributions in the health department, benefitting the patients and the RNs. The outcomes witnessed since its induction entail; improved health outcomes, expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, better coverage, and enhancing equity in access to medical services. Nevertheless, ACA has had its drawbacks, for example, increased insurance coverage costs and premiums, raised tax rates for some individuals, and some Americans being forced into it without their free will.
