Teaching Students to Become Active in Public Policy

Abstract

Nurses as professionals and as individual consumers are affected by health policy and bear a responsibility for participating in the health policy arena. Nursing's growing recognition of the importance of public policy issues is increasingly being translated into action by various groups within the profession. Persuading student nurses of the importance of health policy provides a special challenge to faculty. A clinical practicum was designed that requires senior baccalaureate students in various community settings to identify, analyze, and challenge health policy issues. The course design, integration into the curriculum, and evaluation can be models for faculty considering the challenge of stimulating student interest in health policy issues.Mobilizing nurses to become active in key health care policy issues is imperative if America is to achieve a health care delivery system that is equitable for all. Health policy is a defined set of principles that guide activities to safeguard and promote the health of the public (Clark, 1992). Nursing's agenda for health care reform (ANA, 1991) is an example of a proposal to change the focus of health care policy from illness to wellness.

Policy Advocacy for Public Health Practitioners: Workshops on Policy Change

“…Inclusion of public health advocacy in the curricula of nursing schools (e.g., Thomas & Shelton, 1994) and medical schools (e.g., Chapman & Lupton, 1994), as well as intensive training initiatives like the Public Health Leadership Institute developed by the Centers for Disease Control (Scutchfield, Spain, Pointer, & Hafey, 1995), indicate that the skills needed to facilitate health-promoting policy change are recognized as integral to improving health and quality of life. Given current fiscal restraints, however, some creativity is required to impart this information to practitioners.…”

Nursing and Health Policy

“…Nursing literature, however, is sprinkled with articles about the importance of nurses' involvement in public policy and political processes. Some authors have noted the need for nurses to increase their participation to influence legislation that affects health care, nursing practice, or patients, and many have provided prescriptive statements regarding why policy activity is important and how it should be taught (Brown, 1996, Buerhaus, 1992Martin, White, & Hansen, 1989;Stimpson & Hanley, 1991;Thomas & Shelton, 1994). Engaging students in policy content has been stated perhaps most strongly by Cohen and associates (1996) who indicated that "Every graduate of a doctoral program in nursing should be able to articulate the policy relevance of his or her research" (p. 265, 1996).…”

Cultivating Health Policy Analysis and Communication Skills in Undergraduate Public Health Education: An Active Learning Approach

“…Discomfort with policy is a barrier to health policy education (Gakh, 2019), and existing health policy pedagogy literature is focused on graduate-level education for public health, medical, and nursing students and practitioners (Gakh, 2019; Heiman et al, 2015). Furthermore, most of this work describes experiential or service-learning components (Cohen & Milone-Nuzzo, 2001; DiCenso et al, 2012; Heiman et al, 2015; O’Brien-Larivee, 2011; Seifer & Kahn, 1994; Thomas & Shelton, 1994), which may not be feasible in large classes at public universities or requires external partnerships.…”