Learnscape Process

This assignment requires that I develop and thoroughly analyze a public policy in order to advocate for one that improves the health of the public and/or the nursing profession globally (local, state, national or international). To do this, I must reflect on several aspects of being a policy maker within the nursing profession. I was instructed to consider the following:

Through education and clinical experience, I have gained the knowledge, skills, and proficiency that have prepared me an expert acute care nurse. This has developed the root of my personal philosophy of informatics. This philosophy holds the exceptionality of every individual and the certainty that everyone has the ability to improve his or her knowledge if directed in the right direction. Based on this, my ambition as an informatics nurse is to use

The nursing field is caring, dependable, and effective. None of which could be accomplished without teamwork, collaboration and informatics. I believe these concepts are fundamental in the nursing profession. Nurses must work with other healthcare staff, the patients and their families to provide patient-centered and quality care. The use of informatics enhance both the quality of care the clients receive and the teamwork and collaboration aspect of nursing. No one nurse can do it all on their own. Nursing requires the use of teamwork and new technology.

In order to practice as a nurse informatics or NI specialist, one must know and understand the standard to which he or she is held. The purpose and function of scopes and standards of practice for nursing informatics is to provide an overview of the specialty, assist future specialists understand their scope of practice, and practice at a competent level to guide and support nursing care. The scopes and standards of practice further provides an insight into the foundation of clinical decision making processes and cognitive concepts as the nurse moves data to wisdom in the clinical setting. As a NI specialist, the informatics nurse follows the concepts, scopes and standards of practice to guide and define their profession. This paper will further discuss the principles that guides nurse informatics specialist, the scope and standards of practice, professional performance, functional areas for nurse informatics, competencies, evolution, progress, and the future the specialty.

The American Health Care system needs to be constantly improved to keep up with the demands of America’s health care system. In order for the American Health Care system to improve policies must be constantly reviewed. Congress still plays a powerful role in public policy making (Morone, Litman, & Robins, 2008). A health care policy is put in place to reach a desired health outcome, which may have a meaningful effect on people. People in position of authority advocates for a new policy for the group they have special interest in helping. The Health care system is formed by the health care policy making process (Abood, 2007). There are public, institutional, and business policies related to health care developed by hospitals, accrediting organizations, or managed care organizations (Abood, 2007). A policy is implemented to improve the health among people in the United States. Some policies

The organization which I have chosen to exemplify my policy change will be the Florida state board of nursing. Every aspect that pertains to the nursing, and overall healthcare is embedded into the board of nursing and that is why for these and other reasons which I will later discuss, I have chosen this organization. The Florida board of nursing plays an essential role in health care regulation as the board members and staff interact regularly with other nursing associations affiliated with state legislators, as well as the National Council of State Board of Nursing. The board of nursing works with law politicians to change or invoke new healthcare policies, which play an integrate role in patient care.

In choosing one of the QSEN competencies to describe and how it impact our practice, and the future of our practice teamwork and collaboration and informatics both came to mind. It was difficult to separate the two, because for many of us technology (informatics), has changed the way we all communicate in our individual practices, and many nurses feel that health informatics and its clinical application at the bedside in some instances actually take away from patient care, some facilities have not yet made the integration from paper to electronic records and documentation.

Nurses have the ability to have their voice received which can aid with change in health care by a number of ways, one of which is to become active within the community and advocate for nursing and advanced care for the public. One way this can be done is to influence legislators by becoming active in supporting health care bills.

“The purpose of public policy is to direct problems to government and secure government’s response, while politics is the use of influence to direct the responses toward goals” (Milstead, 2013, p. 12). Policies are used as guidelines to reach a common goal. In healthcare, policies can affect and have an impact on how we provide care for our patients’. For this reason, it is important for nurses to be knowledgeable and involved in important healthcare decisions. “Knowledgeable nurses in advanced practice must demonstrate their commitment to action by being a part of relevant decisions that will ensure the delivery of quality health care by appropriate providers in a cost-effective manner” (Milstead, 2013, p. 1).

Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the aging of the population are the three major factors driving healthcare costs at this time (CMS, 2014). The nursing profession has the ability to contribute to refining the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of care through the delivery of evidenced-based treatment strategies to known populations with communal needs, and by advocating for polices that address the fundamental aspects that influence health and healthcare (Curley & Vitale, 2016, p. 5). The NE must be well-informed of laws entrenched in policy, as well as those central to both healthcare delivery systems and payment structures. Having knowledge of policy and law will enable the nurse leader to provide financial stability and sustain quality

Informatics is a specialty in the nursing field that is combined with certain science. As stated by ANA (2008) “nursing informatics (NI) is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (p. 65). ANA further focus on the functional areas rather than the role that guides the scope of practice within NI. These functional areas include: “administration, leadership, and management; analysis; compliance and integrity management; consultation; coordination, facilitation, and integration; development; educational and professional development; research and evaluation; policy development and advocacy; and telehealth” (CCN, 2015, para. 1). With these functional areas in mind, a nursing informatics specialist can perform proficiently, depending on the specific task. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the result of an interview with a NI specialist and analyze the differences and similarities between the interviewee’s functional areas with that of scholarly ones.

The health care, policy-making process is composed of three major stages; the formulation stage, legislative stage, and the implementation stage. The policy process refers to the specific decisions and events that are required for a policy to be proposed, considered, and finally either implemented and/or set aside. It is an interactive process with multiple points of access providing opportunities to influence the multiple decision makers involved at each stage (Abood, 2007). Each stage presents a unique set of events for a policy to be proposed, considered, and either implemented or rejected. In the formulation stage there is

I would define the nurse as the facilitators of patient care on all levels from management to direct patient care , unfortunately nurses aren’t always included in policy changes or changes in direction of patient care on the local and other levels . They may find it difficult to initiate or identify change when they identify problems due lack of support and training. I see great changes in nursing over the next 10 years. The affordable care Act will potentially change the paradigm of healthcare and offer many challenges to the nursing profession, as more people than ever in the history of our country now have access to healthcare, nursing shortages combined with struggles to get RN’s educated at a BSN or higher degrees will stress the healthcare system. We must embrace change , this includes education about policy and politics for our nurses , nursing students , and collaborate with other professions and disciplines to reach our goals as stated in the Future of Nursing report by IOM ( Hendren 2010 ) . Nurses we now have center stage due to Obama Care. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and help decide how we will deliver healthcare to our patient’s .to the make a

It has been proven that stakeholders, either an individual or an health care organization play a key role within strategic implementations and policy developments

The five core competencies identified by IOM and the sixth added by QSEN, safety, are believed to be necessary to improve both quality and safety of the healthcare system within which nurses work (Multimethod teaching). The six core competencies outlined are patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, informatics, and safety (Diffusing Qsen). While all competencies are significant to the healthcare system, patient centered care is vital to positive patient outcomes and focuses on the patient’s perspective within the healthcare system.