Week 1 Discussion
Name
Institution
Course
Instructor
Date
There is a worryingly decline in the number of nursing practitioners in rural populations. This worrying decline has also made it worse for an increasing rural population that needs healthcare services every day. The most affected population in this sector are vulnerable populations. These population suffer from a significant condition that require the interventions of nurse practitioners. Policies, however, are the best bet available for eradication of this aspect and facilitation of avenues that will offer rural populations much better access to health, through providing more nurse practitioners (Jensen et al., 2020).
Lack of autonomy for APRNs mean that they are incapable of directly influencing healthcare (Elahi et al., 2020). This means that they are constantly on the directions of other professionals. Consequently, they are unable to exert influence on various health programs for these rural populations. Health programs are one of the most important considerations towards improving the health and wellbeing of rural populations (Elahi et al., 2020). Their inability to be incorporated into these health programs will further disparage the plight of the rural populations.
Efficiency of disseminating healthcare services has also been severely impacted by lack of autonomy for APRNs. This happens because lack of autonomy makes nurses unable to make certain decisions that are out of their area of jurisdiction (Elahi et al., 2020). Moreover, they can also not become involved in other aspects of care, regardless of their expertise. As a result, the rural population patients have to wait for the appropriate party, which further worsens their health outcomes and experiences.
As a healthcare policy in an advocacy role, I would begin by familiarizing myself with national and state policies. This will provide a stepping stone for coming up with areas where better policies would be needed so as to advance the independence of APRNs. I would then compare the findings with recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report. The IOM contains substantial reports on how healthcare practice can be improved. These recommendations and opinions are what will shape novel policy formulation. Moreover, the state’s board of nursing can as well be a useful resource in shaping policy. The state board of nursing will also present recommendations from various healthcare facilities as well as other experts. Some of the recommendations include the scope of practice of nurses, particularly APRNs. The novel policies should widen the practice scope for APRNs in order to ensure that they are not limited in their area of practice. The collaborative partners that will play a much-advanced role are nurses involved in policy and advocacy matters. With their expertise, they will present the most formidable ground work for advocating for ratification of these policies.
References
Elahi, N., Rouhi-Balasi, L., Ebadi, A., Jahani, S., & Hazrati, M. (2020). Professional autonomy of nurses: A qualitative meta-synthesis study. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 25(4), 273. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijnmr.ijnmr_213_19
Jensen, L., Monnat, S. M., Green, J. J., Hunter, L. M., & Sliwinski, M. J. (2020). Rural Population Health and Aging: Toward a Multilevel and Multidimensional Research Agenda for the 2020s. American Journal of Public Health, 110(9), 1328–1331. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2020.305782