Name
Capella University
NURS FPX6026
Instructor’s Name
October 01, 2024
Population Health Policy Advocacy
Some plans are being made in health care to help the professionals handling different forms of health calamities and other scenarios. These guidelines assist the nurses to work correctly by the right procedures to ensure needy patients get their basic care while maintaining good ethical practices like fairness and integrity. Writing policies and strategies that aim to enhance the health of all people is helpful for society. Another way through which appropriate regulations is that it ensures that groups of people who are considered as vulnerable are too allowed to access health care services so that they receive equal services from other more privileged groups hence making them more inclusive.
I would like to talk about a major concern that has affected so many veterans in terms of health because of the many social aspects that affect a person’s health. The problem affects the health of veterans since it leads to opioid misuse, addiction, and death. Economic status factors which include, unemployment, homelessness, and lack of proper healthcare access to mental health are some of the major factors that explain the increasing opiate dependency among veterans. Therefore dealing with those listed social determinants of health would require the implementation of more corresponding interventions to address issues related to opioids among the veterans.
Evaluating the Current State of Quality Care & Outcomes for the Issue
Military members and veterans are one of the most exposed minorities who experience considerable suffering that comes from both bodily and psychological wounds received on the battlefield. As people live longer and experience more acute and chronic painful conditions, there is a problem with the use of opioids for suffering patients (Myers, 2020). Several defects make this worse: PTSD is common, too little is given, VHA care is too low quality, there are long waits for the treatment and no money. Because of these factors, trauma episodes get worse, and many users, including the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, end up relying on opioids as affordable and hazardous pain relievers.
Analyzing How the Issue of Quality Care Necessitates Policy Development
There is a need to develop the right policies to help in improving veterans’ health, especially on substance use disorders such as opioid overdose. Free medical treatment for combat veterans who develop PTSD with related conditions is one of the many recommendations made in Assessment 2. It has been established that veterans need their treatment and support approached from a holistic angle to meet the comprehensive needs they have; this will competently help in enhancing public health among veterans (Cropley et al., 2020).
The policy changes proposed here will facilitate the early detection of veterans who are at high risk or have become affected by opioids so that they may be given treatment for overdose without delay. This would help reduce the effects of opioids on their general health and reduce other addictions they would develop (Gandra et al., 2023). Families where at least one person is affected by opioid addiction can restore their normal lives and improve their financial standing, people will have access to better mental health treatment, and more lives will be saved. More data will support the need for such changes, thus strengthening the case for this policy change in combating opioid use among veterans.
Developed Policy Being Vital in Improving the Outcomes of this Issue
Clinical treatment guidelines are also included among the recommendations for policy changes because 12 percent of the members of the armed forces are substance users or addicted. A major emphasis is on the employment of assessment tools and protocols which have to be properly validated, including the COMM (Comprehensive Opioid Misuse Measures), SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment), and TAPS (Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription Medication and Other Substance use) tools (Connor et al., 2023). The other suggested modification is enhancing the professional’s training when it comes to handling opioid use disorder and the root cause of the problem.
The following policies would allow caregivers to give the best care and have a mechanism for delivering palliative care quickly by helping identify soldiers with addictions or those who are inclined to dependency (Bottomley et al., 2019). Some of the grounds for new policies include concerns raised over the nature of healthcare that soldiers get, lack of adequate health insurance, and poor access to quality treatment. Closing these gaps the proposed changes will enhance healthcare and also meet the needs of veterans with substance use disorder.
Policy Development in Other Care Settings
The proposed policy standards must be adopted throughout the veteran healthcare system to properly address the issues of opioid addiction, as well as to provide proper and needed care for military members (Bottomley et al., 2019). Such guidelines would apply to all veterans who are seeking services from different medical institutions, such as the emergency departments, primary care, and other inpatient healthcare settings to determine competency across this venue.
Therefore, it is necessary to apply these policy changes because the existing literature shows that veterans remain underrepresented in various healthcare settings (Dilles et al., 2021). Cooperation and knowledge-sharing activities among the healthcare workers will improve and will enable the right resources to reach the implementers, and well-coordinated treatment plans will be developed. It is very important in addressing opioid addiction while ensuring satisfactory multidisciplinary care is offered to veterans.
The Interprofessional Aspects of Developed Policy
The use of the integrative review is another strength in our strategy because this problem is one of the biggest challenges for the community the integration of resources and information. With this approach, interdisciplinary work teams comprising a counselor, nurses, and Clinical, and mental health professionals such as psychotherapists, psychological help can be accelerated greatly (Disch, 2020). Appropriate interdisciplinary collaboration guarantees the identification of all the causes of the problem and the determination of the best-suitable approaches to addressing each patient characteristically. In particular, care coordinators, caseworkers, and caregivers are essential to help minimize the existing gaps in healthcare services for patient populations (Tielemans et al., 2023). Their participation helps to follow patients and explain to them what they need to do about the complicated treatment process and where they can go to obtain necessary services, which helps to avoid time gaps between the corresponding stages.
Thus, this integrative approach also provides an opportunity to reduce inequalities in healthcare by improving communication, cooperation, and sharing experience and information among the various sectors of the healthcare system (Chiu et al., 2021). Healthcare professionals should ideally work in conjunction because they can more easily recognize high-risk patients, establish ways of avoiding the worsening of critical health situations, and assist with maintaining patient stability in the extended run. It is most relevant for minority populations, for example, veterans who are often confronted with such problems as PTSD, substance dependency, or lack of transportation to an appropriate clinic (Heinen et al., 2019). Resources are coordinated and there is good working collaboration between healthcare providers hence the work of support is well fortified in such a method as it provides a guarantee of timely and appropriate care to a given population hence promoting the overall health status of this population.
NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 2 Conclusion
The summary of the topic gives clear and simple information regarding the topic of conversation identifying that policy changes are requisite for enduring and temporary enhancement of the health of the military personnel (Waterfield et al., 2022). All of these changes proposed are aimed at filling the glaring lacunas existent in the management of veteran health, especially the capacity to manage opioid addiction and adequate mental health support. More information for anyone interested in getting more information about the problem or help on how to go through reforms in the existing health care system is available to help understand the need for the reforms.
NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 2 References
Bottomley, A., Reijneveld, J. C., Koller, M., Flechtner, H., Tomaszewski, K. A., & Greimel, E. (2019). The current state of quality of life and patient-reported outcomes research. European Journal of Cancer (Oxford, England: 1990), 121, 55–63.https://www.ejcancer.com/article/S0959-8049(19)30476-9/fulltext
Connor, L., Dean, J., McNett, M., Tydings, D. M., Shrout, A., Gorsuch, P. F., Hole, A., Moore, L., Brown, R., Melnyk, B. M., & Gallagher, L. (2023). Evidence-based practice improves patient outcomes and healthcare system return on investment: Findings from a scoping review. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 20(1), 6–15.https://sigmapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/wvn.12621
Chiu, P., Cummings, G. G., Thorne, S., & Schick, K. (2021). Policy advocacy and nursing organizations: A scoping review. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 22(4), 271–291.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15271544211050611
Cropley, S., Hughes, M., & Belcik, K. (2022). Engaging leadership competencies through population health policy advocacy: A review of the evidence. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 23(4), 259–271.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15271544221112893
Dilles, T., Heczkova, J., Tziaferi, S., Helgesen, A. K., Grøndahl, V. A., Van Rompaey, B., Sino, C. G., & Jordan, S. (2021). Nurses and pharmaceutical care: interprofessional, evidence-based work to improve patient care and outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(11), 5973.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5973
Disch, J. (2020). Nursing leadership in policy formation. Nursing Forum, 55(1), 4–10.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nuf.12375
Gandra, E. C., & da Silva, K. L. (2023). Teaching strategies for health advocacy for undergraduate nursing students: A scoping review. Nursing Education Perspectives, 44(2), 92–97.https://journals.lww.com/neponline/abstract/2023/03000/teaching_strategies_for_health_advocacy_for.6.aspx
Heinen, M., Oostveen, C., Peters, J., Vermeulen, H., & Huis, A. (2019). An integrative review of leadership competencies and attributes in advanced nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(11), 2378–2392.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jan.14092
Myers C. R. (2020). Promoting population health: nurse advocacy, policy making, and use of media. The Nursing Clinics of North America, 55(1), 11–20.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0029646519300866?via%3Dihub
Tielemans, C., Kleijn, R., van der Valk, E., van den Broek, S., & Schaaf, M. (2023). Preparing medical and nursing students for interprofessional feedback dialogues. Perspectives on Medical Education, 12(1), 472–479.https://pmejournal.org/articles/10.5334/pme.1069
Waterfield, D., & Barnason, S. (2022). The integration of care ethics and nursing workload: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(7), 2194–2206.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jonm.13723
