How can nurses and health care organizations influence health policy?

Overview

Investigate your organization’s compliance rate with one specific core measure of your choice and write a 2-3-page (maximum) executive summary analyzing the financial and regulatory impact of organizational compliance with your chosen measure. Include recommendations for improving performance on the measure.

In order to promote safe, caring, patient-centered environments, nurse leaders must both conceptually understand and be proficient at performing a wide variety of leadership skills. Effective nursing leaders develop and maintain awareness of issues that emerge at many levels within and outside of their organizations. In addition to developing self-assessing competencies necessary for their roles, nurse leaders must also acquire organizational and systems leadership skill sets.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 4: Policy, Finance, and Regulations – Understand the scope and role of policy, finance, and regulatory environments in relationship to individual and population outcomes.

Compare the compliance rates of a specific measure for different organizations.

Identify the financial implications associated with compliance.

Explain the importance of compliance in terms of policy, regulation, and finance.

Competency 5: Communication – Communicate effectively with all members of the health care team, including interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration for quality outcomes.

Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format, with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.

Competency 6: Organizational and Systems Management – Apply knowledge of organizational behavior, nursing theory, and systems (micro- and macro-) as appropriate for the scope and role of one’s own practice.

Identify the people affected by changes to a specific compliance measure.

Outline a plan to implement changes to a specific compliance measure.

Identify organizational barriers to change.

Explain strategies to overcome organizational barriers to change.

Competency 9: Professional Role – Incorporate the qualities, skills, behaviors, and knowledge required to function as a patient advocate, practice high-quality care, assess and evaluate patient outcomes, and provide leadership in improving care.

Describe changes that would improve compliance of a specific measure.

Context

In this program, you have examined the role, concepts, and principles of health care policy and how legal and regulatory agencies interact with professional nursing practice. You have also looked closely at the factors that impact disparities in health care access. This understanding of health care policy, as well as the multicultural, socioeconomic, political, legal, and regulatory elements that affect individuals, communities, and vulnerable populations, positions nurses to bring about change through effective communication with colleagues, consumers, and officials. Added to this is your demonstrated knowledge of financial management and cost containment, as well as how they affect quality of care.

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Questions to Consider

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

What is the relationship between financial reimbursement and quality of care?

How can nurses and health care organizations influence health policy?

What is the process in your organization to initiate, implement, and support improvement changes?

Suggested Resources

To help you prepare for this assessment, review the resources you used and the assessments you completed in BSN-FP4006, BSN-FP4008, and BSN-FP4012.

Assessment Instructions

For this assessment, write an executive summary analyzing the financial and regulatory impact of organizational compliance with a specific core measure of your choice. The summary must include recommendations for improving performance on the measure.

You must be able to explain the financial implications associated with the measure, as well as its importance in terms of policy, regulation, and finance. This is another good opportunity to consult with a key stakeholder within the organization. Talking to someone who works closely with the organization’s finances can help you develop a deeper understanding of the financial aspects of compliance. You also need to suggest ways your organization can improve compliance and how you would implement changes and overcome obstacles.

This may seem like an enormous undertaking, but you should approach it as if you were to present this information to your supervisor or manager. Keeping in mind that people in these positions do not have time to read a 10-12-page report, you would typically give them only an executive summary of your analyses and recommendations. That means that you will need to be very clear and very concise with the information you choose to include in the executive summary. Say as much as possible with as few words as possible.

Directions

Select a core measure and investigate your organization’s compliance rate with the measure. In your executive summary, address the following:

Compare the compliance rates of your organization with those of other organizations.

Identify the financial implications associated with the measure.

Explain why the measure is important in terms of policy, regulation, and finance.

Describe changes that could be made that would improve compliance with the measure.

Identify the people who would be affected by the changes.

Outline a plan to implement the changes within the organization.

Identify obstacles you would expect to encounter.

Explain your strategies for overcoming obstacles.

Additional Requirements

Format: Include a title page and references page. As this is an executive summary, do not use APA style and formatting. To determine the appropriate format, it may be helpful for you to review the documents used in your organization. How do they look? What kind of language is used in memos? These can help guide your development of this executive summary. Certainly, feel free to use bullet points as appropriate.

Length: Write a 2-3-page (maximum) summary of your information, not including the title page and references page.

References: You must still reference scholarly resources to support your work. Use at least three current scholarly or professional resources.

Font: Use 12-point, Times New Roman font.