Discussion Prompt
Advocacy is a critical skill for APNs to have for promoting solutions to health concerns within a community. Identify a health issue in your community or state. Discuss a systems-level advocacy strategy to address the concern. In the strategy, students should identify specific groups or individuals that they would target as well as how they would target these individuals. For example, a student may choose to contact a legislator with a letter-writing campaign and would describe strategies for implementing that campaign.
Nursing Systems-Level Advocacy
Nurse advocacy seeks to improve the quality of care through innovative models and improved clinical productivity. As a nurse, I have witnessed worrying levels of substance abuse in my community. Although our nursing fraternity in the community is doing a commendable job, I feel that we should carry out frequent education workshops to inform the youth and help them shun substance use.
Education provides an avenue for systems-level advocacy to promote health and wellbeing. According to Walker et al. (2015), nurses must play the advocacy role by setting educational goals, educating and training communities regarding various health issues, and utilizing leadership and professional opportunities to execute the advocacy role (p.68) successfully. I believe that the State Department of Health should partner with nurses, social workers, and community health care providers to educate youth about the relationship between substance abuse and health. In educating the youth about substance abuse, the State Department of Health will identify training and education centres, appropriate dates to hold workshops, methods of influencing the youth to attend these functions, and the motivational factors the campaigns and workshops can utilize to meet its objectives.
However, nurses must play their advocacy role in this education campaign to achieve the projected outcome. Nursing advocacy explores health and issue-related causes and their direct implications on the affected population and target population (Williams et al., 2018, p.1). As a nurse practitioner and committed professional, I will carry out a research and windshield survey of my community to establish the extent of the health concern, most affected areas and age group, and the probable cause of this issue. If successful, I believe my partnership with the State Department of Health will successfully tackle this issue and provide opportunities to the youth that will change their lives. The advocacy campaign will depend on the state’s willingness to commit time and money to reduce/end this health concern.
References
Walker, D. K., Barton-Burke, M., Saria, M. G., Gosselin, T., Ireland, A., Norton, V., & Newton,
- (2015). Everyday advocates: Nursing advocacy is a full-time job. American Journal of Nursing, 115(8), 66-70.
Williams, S. D., Phillips, J. M., & Koyama, K. (2018). Nurse advocacy: Adopting a health in all
policies approach. Online Journal of Issues Nursing, 23(3).
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