Course Reflection

*REST OF INSTRUCTIONS IN ATTACHMENT (course reflection)

*Book attached to use as additional source if possible

The BSN Essentials (AACN, 2008) outline a number of healthcare policy and advocacy competencies for the BSN-prepared nurse. Reflect on the NUR4636 course readings, discussion threads, and applications you have completed across this course and write a reflective essay regarding the extent to which you feel you are now prepared to (choose 4):

1. “Demonstrate basic knowledge of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, including local, state, national, and global healthcare trends.

2. Describe how health care is organized and financed, including the implications of business principles, such as patient and system cost factors.

3. Compare the benefits and limitations of the major forms of reimbursement on the delivery of healthcare services.

4. Examine legislative and regulatory processes relevant to the provision of health care.

5. Describe state and national statutes, rules, and regulations that authorize and define professional nursing practice.

6. Explore the impact of socio­cultural, economic, legal, and political factors influencing healthcare delivery and practice.

7. Examine the roles and responsibilities of the regulatory agencies and their effect on patient care quality, workplace safety, and the scope of nursing and other health professionals’ practice.

8. Discuss the implications of healthcare policy on issues of access, equity, affordability, and social justice in healthcare delivery.

9. Use an ethical framework to evaluate the impact of social policies on health care, especially for vulnerable populations.

10. Articulate, through a nursing perspective, issues concerning healthcare delivery to decision makers within healthcare organizations and other policy arenas.

11. Participate as a nursing professional in political processes and grassroots legislative efforts to influence healthcare policy.

12. Advocate for consumers and the nursing profession.

13. Assess protective and predictive factors, including genetics, which influence the health of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.

14. Conduct a health history, including environmental exposure and a family history that recognizes genetic risks, to identify current and future health problems.

15. Assess health/illness beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.

16. Use behavioral change techniques to promote health and manage illness.

17. Use evidence­ based practices to guide health teaching, health counseling, screening, outreach, disease and outbreak investigation, referral, and follow-up throughout the lifespan.

18. Use information and communication technologies in preventive care.

19. Collaborate with other healthcare professionals and patients to provide spiritually and culturally appropriate health promotion and disease and injury prevention interventions.

20. Assess the health, healthcare, and emergency preparedness needs of a defined population.

21. Use clinical judgment and decision-making skills in appropriate, timely nursing care during disaster, mass casualty, and other emergency situations.

22. Collaborate with others to develop an intervention plan that takes into account determinants of health, available resources, and the range of activities that contribute to health and the prevention of illness, injury, disability, and premature death.

23. Participate in clinical prevention and population ­focused interventions with attention to effectiveness, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and equity.

24. Advocate for social justice, including a commitment to the health of vulnerable populations and the elimination of health disparities.

25. Use evaluation results to influence the delivery of care, deployment of resources, and to provide input into the development of policies to promote health and prevent disease.” (pp. 20-21, 24-25).