Write a letter to the editor of an academic or professional journal. The length and format of the letter is dictated by your choice of journal.
Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Advocating for new policies is an important aspect of the master’s-prepared nurse. For new policies to be compelling they need to be supported by evidence. Supporting data can be used to illustrate why new policies and interventions are needed to help address a specific health issue. Compelling data can help sway the stakeholders and gain support for your policy.
SHOW LESSAnother aspect of advocacy is disseminating new policies and interventions outside of the immediate care environment. This can be done by reaching out to professional organizations as well as academic and professional journals. A letter to the editor is one strategy for disseminating information to a wider audience, and to potentially enlist support throughout the wider professional community.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care for achieving high-quality population outcomes. Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population health outcomes. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population. Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of their implications for health policy advocacy. Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy. Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population. Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with organizational, professional, and scholarly standards. Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style. Competency Map
CHECK YOUR PROGRESSUse this online tool to track your performance and progress through your course. Toggle DrawerContextNurses have the opportunity to use their skills and develop programs to keep individuals and communities healthy. Health is complex however, and the nurse needs to possess strong advocacy skills to successfully support a cause or interest. The American Nurses Association’s code of ethics (2015) describes the responsibility of a nurse to include working through and with appropriate stakeholders to advocate for the health of people in and out of the work environment. To be an effective advocate, there are several important abilities a nurse must possess, including problem solving, communication, and influencing others. One way a nurse can advocate to a broader population is through effective letter writing, both to legislators and through the media, such as with editorials and research articles.
Reference
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/CodeofEthicsForNurses.html Toggle DrawerQuestions to ConsiderAs you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
SHOW LESSAssessment 3 will build upon the work you have done for your previous two assessments. For this assessment, you will be writing a letter to the editor of an academic or professional journal as a means to advocate for adoption or development of policies that will improve the quality of care and outcomes around your chosen health care issue and vulnerable population.
Looking at your health care issue from a prevention standpoint, what are the relevant levels of prevention? What would be the benefits and challenges of applying a specific level of prevention to your chosen issue and population? How might one or more approaches to prevention improve the care and outcomes? How could your policy be leveraged, or revised, to support the relevant levels of prevention? What are relevant strategies that you could use to help advocate for the policy you are proposing? How could these strategies help you advocate for your policy proposal? How does evidence from the literature support the benefits of your proposed policy? How does citing evidence help lend credibility to your advocacy? What academic or professional journal would be the best forum to advocate for your policy? Why is your chosen journal an appropriate forum? Which advocacy strategies would be most effective in this forum? How will you craft your message to best appeal to the likely audience of your chosen journal? Toggle DrawerResourcesMSN Program Journey
Please review this guide for your degree program. It can help you stay on track for your practicum experience, so you may wish to bookmark it for later reference.
MSN Program Journey | Transcript. Suggested Resources
The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The MSN-FP6026 – Biopsychosocial Concepts for Advanced Nursing Practice II Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.
Advocacy
Allen, D. D., Lauffenburger, J., Law, A. V., Vanderveen, R. P., & Lang, W. G. (2012). Report of the 2011–2012 standing committee on advocacy: The relevance of excellent research: Strategies for impacting public policy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 76(6), 13–25. Jansson, B. S., Nyamathi, A., Heidemann, G., Bird, M., Rogers Ward, C., Brown-Saltzman, K., . . . Kaplan, C. (2016). Predicting levels of policy advocacy engagement among acute-care health professionals. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 17(1), 43–55. Kung, Y. M., & Rudner Lugo, N. (2015). Political advocacy and practice barriers: A survey of Florida APRNs. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 27(3), 145–151. Standing up for somebody: What is advocacy and why do we do it? (2014). The Queensland Nurse, 33(3), 28–29. SHOW MORE Assessment InstructionsScenario
Throughout this course, you have focused on a specific health issue occurring within a specific population. You researched position papers regarding this health concern, and you developed a health policy proposal to positively impact the health of the affected individuals. It is now time to reach a greater audience regarding your policy proposal.
Instructions
Develop a letter to the editor of a peer-reviewed academic or professional nursing journal based on the policy proposal that you created for Assessment 2. Choose from one of the journals on the Ultimate List of Nursing Journals (in the Resources) and go to that journal’s Web site to find out the requirements for submitting a letter to the editor, such as format requirements, topics, and word counts. Make sure you select a nursing journal that covers the topic about which you are going to write. If you want to use another journal that is not on this list, please make sure the journal does address health care, because this is the purpose of the assessment.
The goal of your letter is to be informative about the policy that you developed for Assessment 2, while also being persuasive about the need for and benefit of similar policies in other health care settings. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Letter to the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy document to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.
Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Look back to the data or scenario you used in Assessment 1 to address this criterion. Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates health policy development and advocacy. Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target population. Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style (or the journal’s preferred style). Additional Requirements
The submission requirements for your editorial will depend on the journal you choose. To find out the requirements, go to the journal’s Web site. There should be a section regarding submissions that will address how to format letters to the editor, and whether there is a word count limit (there usually is a limit).
If the journal does not have submission guidelines for the number of resources required, use 3–5 sources. To be sure that your instructor knows the submission and formatting requirements for your letter, include the journal’s guidelines on a separate page at the end of the document you submit for this assessment.

  Discussion—Barrier to Implementing EBPH

Public health is credited with many notable lifestyle modifications or improvements over the last century. A large part of these improvements can be attributed to the provision of safe water and food, sewage treatment and disposal, tobacco use prevention and cessation, injury prevention, control of infectious diseases through immunization and other means, and other population-based interventions.

Despite these successes, many additional opportunities to improve the public’s health remain. To achieve these new gains in public health, more widespread adoption of evidence-based strategies has been recommended. Despite the known benefits of EBPH, there are also known barriers to the adoption of EBPH.

Based on the readings assigned and suggested for this week and a review of the seven-stage, sequential framework to promote greater use of EBPH, do the following: Provide a description and relevance of each of the seven stages in the application or achievement of EBPH. To provide context and relevance to your response, identify a specific health-related problem, issue, situation, or concern in your community or state in the application of the EBPH framework. Keep this public health problem, issue, situation, or concern in mind because you will be using this problem, issue, situation, or concern throughout this course for other assignments and ultimately for your final project. As you review each stage of the framework, identify at least one barrier or challenge for each stage in the implementation of EBPH. For each of the barriers you identify, provide a possible solution to that barrier.

Write your initial response in approximately 300 words.

By the due date assigned, post your response to the appropriate Discussion Area. Through the end of the week, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses. Consider commenting on their identified barrier/challenge and possible solution. Would you propose a different solution to their barrier/challenge and why?

Support your answers with examples and research. Your responses should clarify your understanding of the topic. They should be your own, original, and free from plagiarism. Follow the APA format for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources. Evaluation Criteria: Provided a description and relevance of each of the seven stages in the application or achievement of EBPH. Identified a specific health-related problem, issue, situation, or concern in your community or state in the application of the EBPH framework. Identified at least one barrier or challenge for each stage in the implementation of EBPH. For each of the barriers identified, provided a possible solution to that barrier. Responses demonstrated in-depth research and analysis. Justified your answers with appropriate research and reasoning.

As agreed.

Throughout this course you will be developing a formal, evidence-based practice proposal.

The proposal is the plan for an evidence-based practice project designed to address a problem, issue, or concern in the professional work setting. Although several types of evidence can be used to support a proposed solution, a sufficient and compelling base of support from valid research studies is required as the major component of that evidence. Proposals are submitted in a format suitable for obtaining formal approval in the work setting. Proposals will vary in length depending upon the problem or issue addressed; they can be between 3,500 and 5,000 words. The cover sheet, abstract, references page, and appendices are not included in the word limit.

Section headings and letters for each section component are required. Responses are addressed in narrative form in relation to that number. Evaluation of the proposal in all sections is based upon the extent to which the depth of content reflects graduate-level critical-thinking skills.

This project contains seven formal sections: Section A: Organizational Culture and Readiness Assessment Section B: Problem Description Section C: Literature Support Section D: Solution Description Section E: Change Model Section F: Implementation Plan Section G: Evaluation of Process

Each section (A-G) will be submitted as separate assignments so your instructor can provide feedback (refer to applicable modules for further descriptions of each section).

The final paper will consist of the completed project (with revisions to all sections), title page, abstract, reference list, and appendices. Appendices will include a conceptual model for the project, handouts, data and evaluation collection tools, a budget, a timeline, resource lists, and approval forms.

Use the “NUR-699 EBP Implementation Plan Guide” and “NUR-699 Evidence-Based Practice Project Student Example” to assist you. Also refer to “NUR-699 Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal Format.”

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

NUR699.R.Evidence-BasedPracticeProjectProposalFormat_student.docxNUR699.R.EBPStudentExample_Student.docxNUR699.R.EvidenceBasedPracticeProposalFinalPaperOverview_student.docxNUR699.R.EBPimplementationPlanGuide_student.docx