Assignment: Social Justice Advocacy in Nursing
Assignment: Social Justice Advocacy in Nursing
Question Description
APA FORMAT
350-400 WORDS
Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates
What does it take to be an effective health advocate? As a nurse, you have many opportunities to advocate for patients and populations, whether formally or informally. Being an advocate involves more than knowing how to lobby or to whom to write letters. It requires passion and compassion, commitment and courage.
In this Discussion, you will consider the attributes of an effective advocate for population health and/or the nursing profession. You will analyze those attributes that help nurses be a powerful force in improving the quality of health care and in this case especially, the needs of returning veterans and their families.
To prepare:
Review the article “On Being a Good Nurse: Reflections on the Past and Preparing for the Future” and “War, its aftermath, and U.S. health policy: Toward a comprehensive health program for America’s military personnel, veterans, and their families” found in this week’s Learning Resources.
Consider the multiple health care needs of returning veterans and their families.
BY DAY 3
Post two types of health needs returning veterans and their families might need. How might you advocate for the needs of this population. What type of advocacy skills would you need and how could you develop them. What responsibility does a nurse have to be an advocate? Give specific examples.
Week 8: Advocacy
Nursing has a rich history of advocacy beginning with Florence Nightingale. Nightingale often advocated for better hospital conditions, especially with regard to sanitation, hygiene, hospital management, and planning. In the latter half of her life, she campaigned for health reform and policies to improve quality of care. Her efforts stand as an exemplar for nurses advocating for better standards, health care reform, and policy.
This rich tradition continues. Consider the following quote from Isabel Maitland Stewart on the role of nurses as leaders and advocates:
It is evident . . . that leadership in nursing . . . is of supreme importance at this time. Nursing has faced many critical situations in its long history, but probably none more critical than the situation it is now in, and none in which the possibilities, both of serious loss and of substantial advance, are greater. What the outcome will be depends in large measure on the kind of leadership the nursing profession can give in planning for the future and in solving stubborn and perplexing problems. . . if past experience is any criterion, little constructive action will be taken without intelligent and courageous leadership.
This quote was made over 50 years ago as Stewart assessed the field of nursing following World War II. Reflect on the field of nursing from the time of Florence Nightingale to Isabel Stewart, to current circumstances. How have things progressed? How have they remained the same?
Last week, you examined the far-reaching implications of creating policy; however, without sufficient advocacy, proposed policy is often not successfully implemented. This week, you will evaluate how nurses can prepare themselves to fulfill the role of health advocate in furthering policies that improve the quality of and access to health care. You will also begin to develop a health advocacy campaign.
Reference:
Stewart, I.M. (1953). The education of nurses. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, as quoted in White Paper on the Role of the Clinical Nurse Leader (2007), American Associations of Colleges of Nursing. Retrieved fromhttp://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/white-papers…
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze attributes of effective advocacy for patient and population health
Assess personal advocacy attributes
Evaluate the role of nurse as advocate
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Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
REQUIRED READINGS
Milstead, J. A. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.Chapter 3, “Government Response: Legislation” (pp. 36-54) (review)This chapter explores the multiple factors that influence the development of public policy through the legislative branch of government.
Begley, A. (2010). On being a good nurse: Reflections on the past and preparing for the future. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(6), 525–532.
On being a good nurse: Reflections on the past and preparing for the future by Begley, A. in International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(6). Copyright 2010 by John Wiley & Sons . Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons via the Copyright Clearance Center
In this article, the author reflects on the qualities of a good nurse in both the past and present. The article presents a 4-point framework that exemplifies the foundational qualities of modern professional ethics and conduct.
Davis-Alldritt, L. (2011). Presidential inaugural address: Advocacy, access, and achievement. Journal of School Nursing, 27(4), 249–251.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This address explicates links between school nursing, school health services, and student success. The author uses personal anecdotes to teach lessons in advocacy, access, and achievement.
Deyton, L., Hess, W. J., & Jackonis, M. J. (2008, Winter). War, its aftermath, and U.S. health policy: Toward a comprehensive health program for America’s military personnel, veterans, and their families. Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics, 36(4), 677–689.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Karpf, T., Ferguson, J. T., & Swift, R. (2010). Light still shines in the darkness: Decent care for all. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 28(4), 266–274.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article details the challenges of health care crises at the global, national, and local levels. The text proposes a values-based approach to health care that takes into account the voices of the population being served, rather than excluding them.
Paquin, S. O. (2011). Social justice advocacy in nursing: What is it? How do we get there? Creative Nursing, 17(2), 63–67.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This text defines social justice advocacy and contrasts it to the patient-nurse advocacy model. The article also discusses social justice advocacy’s challenges and their potential solutions.
International Council of Nurses. (2008). Promoting health: Advocacy guide for health professionals. Retrieved from http://www.whpa.org/PPE_Advocacy_Guide.pdf
This web resource documents the efforts of the International Council of Nurses to ensure quality nursing care for all, as well as sound health policies globally through the advancement of nursing knowledge and presence worldwide.
Vancouver Coastal Health. (n.d.). Vancouver Coastal Health Population Health: Advocacy guidelines and resources. Retrieved from http://www.vch.ca/Documents/Population-Health-Advo…
This article presents guidelines, parameters, and resources for conducting population health advocacy.
REQUIRED MEDIA
Laureate Education (Producer). (2012g). The needle exchange program. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 14 minutes.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Assignment: Social Justice Advocacy in Nursing
Assignment: Social Justice Advocacy in Nursing
