Virtually everything a nurse does is impacted by health policy in some way, as professional standards, regulations, and financial incentives guide their actions. This leads many students to wonder if nurses have any say in health policy decisions. The short answer is a resounding yes!
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) encourages all nursing professionals to speak with a unified voice on multiple levels and openly discuss issues that affect nursing practice and health outcomes. This starts at the ground level in nursing education. Nurse educators like you can play an active role in shaping health policy by developing a curriculum that helps students connect policy to their clinical learning and professional development. By increasing student awareness of health policy, you give them a voice.
Health Policy in the AACN Essentials
Health policy is one of 8 professional nursing practice concepts interwoven throughout the AACN Essentials’ competencies and domains. It involves goal-directed health decision-making that results from an authorized public process.1 Even ideas like person-centered care and clinical judgment are driven by policy. That’s why nurses must be competent in recognizing, analyzing, and acting upon policies impacting their patients, community, and profession.
The 5 Ws and H Framework
Health policy can be a difficult concept to incorporate into your curriculum given its ubiquitous and invisible nature. To help you draw attention to health policy competencies, the AACN suggests using the “Why, Who, What, When, Where, and How Framework” from its Health Policy Concept Tool Kit.2
WHY
Effective health policy serves to optimize population health, equity, social welfare, and the nursing profession as a whole. It is commonly assessed through quality, access, and cost.
WHO
Stakeholders in health policy include patients, families, nurses, insurance companies, healthcare facilities, and voters. Policymakers include those who draft legislation, write regulations, implement programs, or write clinical protocols. Identifying who the stakeholders and policymakers are is the first step in determining how their interests might align and their influence over a policy.
WHAT
Health policies guide actions, decisions, and behaviors through laws, rules and regulations, procedures and protocols, professional standards, and more. Being able to distinguish the form and characteristics of a policy helps with understanding its implications.
WHEN
Students should be able to analyze the changing interests of stakeholders and policymakers. This involves understanding policy windows, such as when new curricular standards are released, and the stages of policy formulation, implementation, and modification. A recent example would be identifying the profession’s increased focus on cultural competency.
WHERE
The federal government, national professional organizations, states, municipalities, and healthcare organizations are responsible for making policy. Changes at one level naturally affect others. For example, the new AACN Essentials influences CCNE accreditation standards, which impacts schools of nursing.
HOW
Analysis and advocacy are used to shape policy. Having the ability to conduct rigorous analysis and effectively communicate evidence in advocacy are important parts of health policy competence. Enacting and implementing policy is also essential.
Integrating Health Policy into Nursing Education
Each topic in nursing school has health policy implications. Throughout your curriculum, you can emphasize the origin and intent of policies, and how they impact different aspects of patient care. This is achievable in numerous ways:
- Create in-class discussions using the 5 Ws and H Framework
- Introduce AACN Essentials domains and concepts through a health policy lens
- Encourage service-learning activities and participation in professional and advocacy organizations3
- Tailor content to the role of nursing students at each level of their education using a staged approach, progressing from the organizational level to local, state, and national health policies4
Using UWorld to Foster Health Policy Understanding
UWorld Nursing content can help you incorporate deeper health policy discussions into your curriculum.
- Real-world case studies: Immerse students in authentic patient scenarios using hundreds of assignable NGN-style case studies, vividly demonstrating the impact of health policies on patient care.
- Foster active learning and engagement: Ignite classroom discussions, stimulating debates, and interactive learning experiences with our thought-provoking health policy items, cultivating critical thinking and policy analysis skills.
- Integrate seamlessly into nursing curricula: Enhance various nursing courses by seamlessly incorporating health policy concepts, demonstrating their vital role across diverse practice settings.
By encouraging your students to analyze health policies, describe their implications, evaluate their effectiveness, and propose alternative solutions while using UWorld resources, they can develop critical thinking skills for productive policy engagement.
Empowering Future Nurses to Shape Health Policy
When your students understand how integral health policy is to nursing, as well as ways they can shape it, they will develop more rounded clinical judgment skills and the foundation needed to become future leaders in the profession. As nurse educators, we play a fundamental role in laying this foundation and inspiring students to advocate on behalf of their patients and communities.
References
- The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, AACN, 17 Jan. 2023, www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Publications/Essentials-2021.pdf.
- “Health Policy Concept - Why, Who, What, When, Where, and How” The Essentials Database Kit, AACN, https://www.aacnnursing.org/essentials/database/kit/i/c_health_policy_doc.
- Thomas, Teresa et al. “How to Engage Nursing Students in Health Policy: Results of a Survey Assessing Students' Competencies, Experiences, Interests, and Values.” Policy, politics & nursing practice vol. 21,1 (2020): 12-20. doi:10.1177/1527154419891129
- Ellenbecker, Carol Hall et al. “A Staged Approach to Educating Nurses in Health Policy.” Policy, politics & nursing practice vol. 18,1 (2017): 44-56. doi:10.1177/1527154417709254
