The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
Some nurses may be hesitant to get involved with policy evaluation. The preference may be to focus on the care and well-being of their patients; some nurses may feel ill-equipped to enter the realm of policy and political activities. However, as you have examined previously, who better to advocate for patients and effective programs and polices than nurses? Already patient advocates in interactions with doctors and leadership, why not with government and regulatory agencies?
In this Discussion, you will reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation.
In the previous Discussion, you considered how professional nurses can become involved in policy-making.
Review the Resources and reflect on the role of professional nurses in policy evaluation.
Select an existing healthcare program or policy evaluation or choose one of interest to you.
Review community, state, or federal policy evaluation and reflect on the criteria used to measure the effectiveness of the program or policy described.
Post an evaluation topic and a brief description of the evaluation. Discuss how social determinants impact this issue.
The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
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The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy Evaluation
Policy evaluation is the best way to know whether a particular health policy is achieving its desired goals or not. Nurses play a crucial role in policy evaluation as they contribute to the collection of data to communicate the impacts of a health policy (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). A healthcare policy that is currently undergoing evaluation is the Strengthening and Amplifying Vaccination Efforts to Locally Immunize All Veterans and Every Spouse Act or the SAVE LIVES Act. The SAVE LIVES Act was signed into law on 24th March 2021. The goal of the law was to authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to vaccinate all Veterans, their spouses, and caregivers against COVID-19 (Congress.gov., n.d.). Under the law, the number of people eligible for COVID-19 vaccines increases from 9.5 million individuals to a number more than 33 million. The criteria used to measure the effectiveness of the SAVE LIVES Act is the number of Veterans, their spouses, and caregivers who receive COVID-19 vaccines. During the evaluation of the SAVE LIVES Act, it is also important to consider the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to veterans as either first or full vaccinations. Additionally, the evaluation team should assess the VA’s capacity to expand COVID-19 vaccination based on the number of doses supplied over a given period of time (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2021). The VA needs to streamline its registration, enrollment, scheduling, documentation, and data transmission systems to support the implementation of the SAVE LIVES Act.
A number of social determinants of health impact COVID-19 vaccination that is supported by the SAVE LIVES Act. Health literacy, healthcare access, community engagement, and social integration are some of the social determinants of health that are involved in the implementation of the SAVE LIVES Act (World Health Organization, 2022). For example, the literacy levels of veterans, their spouses, and caregivers will influence their decisions to receive COVID-19 vaccines.
References
Congress.gov. (n.d.). H.R.1276 – Strengthening and Amplifying Vaccination Efforts to Locally Immunize All Veterans and Every Spouse Act. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1276?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22public+health+and+healthcare+bills+2019-2022%22%2C%22public%22%2C%22health%22%2C%22and%22%2C%22healthcare%22%2C%22bills%22%2C%222019-2022%22%5D%7D&s=5&r=215
Turale, S. & Kunaviktikul, W. (2019). The contribution of nurses to health policy and advocacy requires leaders to provide training and mentorship. International Nursing Review, 66(3), 302-304. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12550
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2021). SAVE LIVES Act allows VA to soon provide COVID-19 vaccinations to all Veterans, their spouses and caregivers. https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5649#:~:text=The%20SAVE%20LIVES%20Act%20removed,care%20eligibility%20and%20priority%20groups.
World Health Organization. (2022). Social determinants of health. https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1