Policy for National Nursing Shortage in the United States

Policy Issue Analysis - due by Day 7 of Week Five
Analyze a piece of health care legislation, a regulation, or a policy issue with significance to nursing. You may identify an issue from media reports, the professional literature, or from personal interest. The policy should not be specific to a facility.
Write a 3-4 page policy issue analysis using the following guidelines and evaluation criteria. Use a minimum of seven references from the professional nursing literature in the assigned course readings and other references in the Walden Library. If they are relevant, you may use one or two professional web sites in addition to the literature references.
Since this is a policy issue analysis, there is no introductory paragraph in this assignment. Use the title of your policy issue analysis for the main heading on the cover page and the first page of the analysis. Use the following headings for the rest of the analysis.
Problem identification (1 paragraph) - 30 points
Identify a health care legislative effort, regulation or policy that is significant to nursing. In this section, provide an overview of the problem, history and current methods of funding.
Background (1-2 paragraphs) - 30 points
Contains social, economic, ethical, legal and political factors, depending upon the policy selected
Stakeholders (1 paragraph) - 30 points
There may be a broad range of individuals that are impacted by this health policy –who will this process serve and involve?
Issue statement (1 sentence or question) - 30 points
An explanation of the issue statement –or question – One sentence –two at the most
 Either a statement that explains in a statement the nature of the issue –or asks a question. As example:
 Statement: The government should fund nurse practitioner education to increase the number of primary care providers in rural areas.
 Question: Should the government provide funding for nurse practitioner education to increase primary care providers in rural areas?
Policy objectives (1 introductory sentence and 1 objective) - 40 points
 Policy goals and objectives – Either numbered or bulleted is fine
 What does this policy hope to accomplish?
 May have several goals in one policy
Policy alternatives (1 paragraph) - 30 points
 What could be done if this policy was not put into place?
 There are usually 2-3 options of how to create change if the policy is not accepted.
Evaluation criteria (1 introductory sentence and 1 criterion for evaluation) - 40 points
 How will you evaluate if the policy was effective (measureable outcome)
Summary and recommended policy (1 paragraph) - 20 points
Legislative Resources:
1. Your local state nurses association - Will have a policy and political action area - where they address policies on the state level -and what the State NA thinks should happen - are they for or against the policy.
2. If you belong to a Nursing association (Emergency room nurses, Critical Care Nurses, Nephrology Nurses) - they all have web sites -and have legislature that is currently being considered -another excellent place to check for policies that maybe important to you.
3. Federalreg and Congressweb – Has a list of proposed policies –and also previous proposals –you can always search there (congress web is another excellent resource for info)
4. If it is a state policy, look at the state government website – ( XX. stategov) –and you will find that state info.
Format/style
Proofread your paper as described in the tips for success in this course and correct any typos, grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, or APA format errors before submitting your paper in the Dropbox. You can have up to 50 points deducted from your grade for this assignment for these types of errors, or for not using at least the minimum number of required professional literature references. Total points for assignment = 250 points.