NR 506 Week 1 – Discussion 1

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The 4 spheres of political action are the workplace, the government, the professional organizations, and the community. Discuss how these four spheres interconnect and overlap by sharing a scenario ... from your practice environment. 1) Discussing the spheres of political action in nursing. - Government: they are involved in everything from how to operate schools, food and drug regulations, social security, aiding in natural disasters and more. - The workplace: policies in the workplace serve as a guide on how things are to be done. In nursing, these affect patient care (staffing, clinical procedures etc.) External policies also affect the workplace such as state laws, regulations (OHSA), nursing licensures, etc. - Associations and interest groups: Many of these groups advocate policies which provide sustenance or support to their members, learning and networking are improved, they serve the community, funding can be available in order to support causes (cancer foundations, patient support groups, etc.) - The community: the people we serve, they can share a legal boundary or have something in common. (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw & O'Grady, 2016). 2) Showing how these spheres interact: Ultimately the community is who receives the “benefits” of a specific policy. In order for a policy to pass, it was to be thought of, test it, be set up for approval, present it and finally, become official. In this whole process is where we can see the spheres interact. For example: a group of nurses identified a problem (in the workplace/community) to which they thought of and tested a solution. This project can then be taken to a group of interest that has the power to present this project to the government. Once this project is set into an official policy, it will then in return benefit the community the nurses are serving. It is like a circle coming together. Not only nurses can influence an organization in order to advocate for a community. Nathan, Braithwaite and Stephenson (2013) published an article where they show how a community participation coordinator was essential to advocate for a community in Australia. Nathan et al., 2013, write how it is imperative to establish a great partnership between health care services and the community. This community coordinator (CC) was able to represent and advocate for the community, healthcare services knowledge was shared thus engaging the community as a group. Issues were identified which were taken for “action and response”. The goal was to have the community participation in order to make improvements in the patient experience, but someone was needed in order to link both the community and health care policy making. 3) Discussing how you have seen or experienced these spheres in your own practice. Due to an increase in pressure ulcers; a couple of years ago the unit I work for ran a pilot about the frequency of patient turn in order to prevent pressure ulcers. A chart was developed that assisted the nurses and nurse assistants to remember to turn the patients and how (sitting up for breakfast, turn to left 2 hours later, sitting up for lunch, turn right 2 hours later, sitting up for dinner). This was placed inside the patient room to remind the patient as well. A magnet was also created and placed on the outside of the room’s door frame for a visual cue. The pilot was a success and unit acquired pressure ulcers went down to zero. This project was so effective that it was taken to the hospital’s CNO which made this a hospital-wide policy. 4) Discussing what various nursing leaders have done in some of these spheres of action. Nursing leaders such as Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster influenced the “city’s housing, sanitation, nutrition, and educational policies” (Mason et al., 2013). Sally Gadow was a pioneer in patient advocacy, while Curtin took it a bit further and focused on “human advocacy”. Kohnke on the other hand, advocated for patient decision making. Finally [Show More]

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