Incorporating a health policy practicum in a graduate training program to prepare advanced practice nursing health services researchers

Educational strategies to encourage participation in health policy for nurses: A systematic review

OBJECTIVES

To identify evidence on the types of educational interventions that have been developed to encourage participation in health policy for nurses and on the effectiveness of these interventions.

DESIGN

A systematic literature review.

DATA SOURCES

Six electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL, Web of Science, and SCOPUS) were searched.

REVIEW METHODS

All qualitative and quantitative studies on educational interventions developed to encourage participation in health policy for nurses were included in this study. Two researchers independently reviewed each article for inclusion and assessed the eligibility of the studies. The effects of educational interventions were analyzed through a thematic synthesis for the qualitative studies and data tabulation for the quantitative studies. A comprehensive framework of educational strategies to encourage participation in health policy was developed based on three stages of citizen participation in policy-making.

RESULTS

Seven articles were selected for the review: four quantitative studies and three qualitative studies. In all studies that confirmed the educational effect through quantitative design, statistically significant improvement in students' competency on policy participation was observed. In the qualitative study, it was possible to mainly confirm the students' positive feelings toward policy participation education, and three themes were derived: expanding the perspective of policy, understanding the actual feature of policymakers, and improving the possibility of policy participation. The education strategies were synthesized into six types, which were divided into three stages according to the level of citizen participation in policy-making: Listener, Observer, Twitterian, Analyst and Speaker, Interviewer, and Contributor.

CONCLUSION

Education on health policy increases the competency and interest of nurses concerning policy participation. We propose systematic policy education according to the policy participation stage. To realize this, nursing educators should secure faculty with relevant expertise and develop a verified curriculum.

Interprofessional Education: Reaching Health Professionals With an Interactive Professional Virtual/Online Event on Advocacy and Policy

Competencies in health policy and advocacy should be developed by all health professionals to effectively advance their professions but also effectively collaborate in interprofessional teams to improve public health. However, the COVID-19 epidemic presents a challenge to reaching students of health professions through face-to-face offerings. To meet this need, the University of South Florida College of Public Health developed asynchronous and synchronous online health policy and advocacy modules delivered to an interprofessional group of students pursuing health careers. After learning policy and advocacy material individually through a self-paced online curriculum, faculty gathered the students for a synchronous online event where they formed collaborative groups. In interprofessional teams, students prepared and presented advocacy briefs that were critiqued by the faculty. Post-event evaluation results showed that most students strongly agreed that the interprofessional event was very effective, and they all would recommend the program to other students. Universities and colleges educating students of health professions can take advantage of the technologies employed to keep students safe in the COVID-19 pandemic and still reach students effectively with interprofessional health policy and advocacy content.

A Staged Approach to Educating Nurses in Health Policy

Nurse leaders and health-care experts agree that nurses have a responsibility to address the health problems facing the nation by participating in health policy development. However, nurses have not fully realized their potential when it comes to engaging in health policy advocacy and leadership. Nurse leaders, professional nursing organizations, accrediting bodies, and the Institute of Medicine have all identified the need to educate nurses in heath policy. Valuable recommendations for content and learning activities in health policy have been made. We argue that nursing education in health policy and the many recommendations offered have been broad and overly ambitious. This article presents a proposal for a staged approach to educating nurses. This approach would tailor content to the role of the nurse at each level of nursing education. The focus of health policy content would progress from the organizational level to local, state, and finally national level health policies. The goal of this approach is to better prepare all levels of nursing students to participate in shaping effective health policies.

An integrative review of pursing policy and political competence

INTRODUCTION

For several decades, there have been repeated calls for nurses to become more involved in policy and political processes.

AIMS

The purpose of this article is to conduct an integrative review to identify and assess the current state of the science relating to supporting the pursuit of greater involvement by the nursing profession in policy and political processes.

DESIGN

Standard integrative review procedures were used to identify studies that examined how policy competence could be achieved. A comparative thematic approach to synthesis was used. Both published and grey literature written in English between January 1965 and January 2015 were identified via a structured search of CINAHL, SCOPUS, Science Direct and Google Scholar.

RESULTS

Forty-five primary studies were identified with literature from North America dominating, but contributions from low- and middle-income countries have recently started to feature. Studies tended to focus on the immediate impact of didactic and action learning-based approaches. The majority of articles were descriptive survey designs utilizing small convenience samples.

CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATION

Many programmes of education have focused on developing an understanding of legislative policy and political processes, but the development of policy and political competencies at team and institutional levels has been ignored. Existing research have looked at the short-term effects of educational programmes. At this time, there are conflicting reports on the impact of variables such as gender and educational preparation on policy and political competence. There is an urgent need to address these major gaps if nurses at all levels are to play a full role in shaping policy and political process.

Health Policy Training: A Review of the Literature

The context within which health care and public health systems operate is framed by health policies. There is growing consensus about the need for increased health policy leadership and a health professional workforce prepared to assume these leadership roles. At the same time, there is strong evidence supporting the need for a broader policy lens and the need to intentionally target health disparities. We reviewed the published literature between 1983 and 2013 regarding health policy training. From 5124 articles identified, 33 met inclusion criteria. Articles varied across common themes including target audience, goal(s), health policy definition, and core curricular content. The majority of articles were directed to medical or nursing audiences. Most articles framed health policy as health care policy and only a small number adopted a broader health in all policies definition. Few articles specifically addressed vulnerable populations or health disparities. The need for more rigorous research and evaluation to inform health policy training is compelling. Providing health professionals with the knowledge and skills to engage and take leadership roles in health policy will require training programs to move beyond their limited health care-oriented health policy framework to adopt a broader health and health equity in all policies approach.