Identify two major policy issues that affect the current state of health care delivery and population health equity in the United States (may be state or federal). What impact do these population health policies and initiatives have on advanced nursing practice?     

Identify two major policy issues that affect the current state of health care delivery and population health equity in the United States (may be state or federal). What impact do these population health policies and initiatives have on advanced nursing practice?

Identify two major policy issues that affect the current state of health care delivery and population health equity in the United States (may be state or federal). What impact do these population health policies and initiatives have on advanced nursing practice?

Topic 7 DQ 1

The two main policy issues affecting the current state of health care delivery and population health equity in the country are nursing shortage and emergence of infectious diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other public health concerns. These policy issues imply that more resources should be deployed to meet improve care delivery. For instance, nursing shortage is a serious policy issue as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2022) show that more than 275,000 nurses would be required each year through 2020 to 2030. The agency also projects more employment opportunities for nurses by close to 10% because of the increased care demand, retiring population, and nurse turnover rates as well as nurses changing their professional approach. The emergence of infectious diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic implies that policymakers should develop high levels of preparedness and allocate sufficient resources to mitigate the healthcare sector from being overrun as witnessed at the height of the pandemic (Shahzad et al., 2019). The situation demonstrated increased levels of disparities that impact health equity as low-income and racial minority populations were the most affected due to limited access to healthcare resources.

These population health policies and initiatives affect the advanced nursing practice as they imply that these nurses should assume more specialized roles to meet the diverse care demands (Williams et al., 2018). The nursing shortage means that nurses take on more duties and roles, work for longer hours, and deal with patients from diverse backgrounds (Daniel et al., 2018).  The initiatives also imply that nurses should participate in public health programs to prepare populations against epidemics and pandemics. The implication is that as policymakers, advanced practice nurses should implement initiatives that focus on increasing access to care and reducing the existing inequities and disparities, especially among low-income households and racial minorities.

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2022). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

Daniel, H., Bornstein, S. S., Kane, G. C., & Health and Public Policy Committee of the

American College of Physicians. (2018). Addressing social determinants to improve patient care and promote health equity: An American College of Physicians position paper. Annals of internal medicine, 168(8), 577-578. https://doi.org/10.7326/M17-2441

Shahzad, M., Upshur, R., Donnelly, P., Bharmal, A., Wei, X., Feng, P., & Brown, A. D. (2019).

A population-based approach to integrated healthcare delivery: a scoping review of clinical care and public health collaboration. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7002-z

Williams, S. D., Phillips, J. M & Koyama, K. (2018). Nurse advocacy: Adopting a health in all

policies approach. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(3), 1-12. DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No03Man01

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Topic 7 DQ 1

Identify two major policy issues that affect the current state of health care delivery and population health equity in the United States (may be state or federal). What impact do these population health policies and initiatives have on advanced nursing practice?