This course is intended to heighten awareness of power and politics, and to establish a
compendium of tools and techniques, strategies and analyses, that will serve to support
participation and leadership in successful policy development in spheres of influence for
health care agendas for the public good.
There are many issues in health care today that are in need of practical, ethical and
humanistic solutions. Issues affecting communities and consumers include access to care, ability
to choose caregiver relationships, education and support, catastrophic illness and environmental
safety. Issues affecting nursing as a profession include equal pay for equal work, nursing
staffing shortages, opportunities for advancement, scope of practice, attractiveness of nursing
as a profession, evidence based practice, and other issues. There are more pervasive social
issues that affect health, such as poverty, family systems, education, and violence in the
streets. This course will prepare the advanced practice nurse to be an advocate in areas of
public policy in chosen areas of practice or health care reform.
While there are case studies provided as illustrative examples, students are encouraged to
research and utilize contemporary issues and agendas in their own environment as the bases for
current analyses and discussion in this class.
This course is intended to familiarize graduate nursing students with the roles and
responsibilities, as well as the processes and strategies, that create and support policy-based
initiatives in health care today. Once familiar with strategies for influencing public policy,
it is the intent of this graduate preparation that students will apply the fundamentals gained
in this course in advocacy and leadership roles in search of creative solutions to pervasive
issues in health care.
This course is designed to assist each student to identify and explore public policy strategies
including the stages of policy, issue papers, coalition building, networking, working with the
media, public appointments and serving on committees, and other activities related to advancing
public policy initiatives.
Leadership and participatory roles in shaping policy-based initiatives in health care will be
identified in settings where nursing influence is prevalent, and in settings where nursing
influence could be more prevalent than it is currently. These settings include but are not
limited to the workplace, government, professional organizations, and the community.
Applications of strategies are explored, from case studies and participant observation, focused
on opportunities for advancing nursing agenda in shaping public policy for the public good.
Although case studies are taken from the American health care system and American nursing
organizations, there are opportunities to research contemporary issues in the student's own
context and setting, therefore this class will be of value for nurses of any nation or care
setting.
This course is intended introduce the student to contemporary policy opportunities and issues,
and strategies for advancing nursing agenda for the public good. The textbook readings will
provide background material and suggestions for successful action. Assignments are based on the
textbook as a guide, but will require some research and development regarding current
opportunities for policy development in the student's own professional context. This context
may be the workplace, state or local politics, national politics, community or social issues,
or issues supported or brought about by nursing practice acts, boards or professional
organizations. The student will be expected to research several policy issues for assignments in
this course. It is anticipated that information for these assignments will be readily available
in the press, professional literature, legislative testimony, agency research or other public
documents. Reference sites available on the Internet are provided within the Assignments area of
this electronic classroom.
Course assignments are designed such that they are individually tailored within an area of focus
as selected by the student, thus supporting the specific health care or role interest of each
student. The first few weeks of this course provides background regarding policy and politics,
then more specific areas of application are explored, such as working on committees, working
with the media, and working within professional organizations. An issue paper, as well as plans
of action, are expected outcomes that comprise partial fulfillment of this course.
This course has weekly discussion questions, which will draw upon both the reading and the
student's own experience. These discussion questions will be posted to the Message Board
in this electronic classroom. There are four political action assignments in this class that are
individual projects based on the student's own areas of interest. These assignment details are
listed in the Assignments section of this electronic classroom.
The midterm consists of all assignments that are listed through Week #4.
The final consists of all assignments that are due for this course through Week #8.
The eight discussion topics are worth 40% of the course grade.
The four brief independent projects regarding political action opportunities are
worth 60% of the course grade.
Requirements and specific details for papers and weekly discussions are given in the
classroom sections on this site, and may not be available for public view without an enrollment
password issued by Canyon College.
There is one book that is required in this course.
Mason, D., Leavitt, J. & Chaffee, M. (2006).Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care.
(5th ed.). Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders. ISBN: 1416023143 or ISBN13: 9781416023142 (available in paperback and hard cover).
Students may use Mason & Leavitt (2002) 4th edition (ISBN Number 0721695345), or 3rd (0721670385) as the readings will be essentially the same. The more current issues in nursing and health care will be addressed in the 5th edition, but there may be used copies of the 3rd or 4th available for the budget-minded student.
There are journal articles and visits to web sites of interest that the
student will need to review for specific assignments in this course. The articles and other
contemporary information may be selected by the student, and are not limited to those resources
provided by the instructor. A list of Online nursing journals and other Internet resources will
be located in the course assignment section of this course for convenience of the student. Any
appropriate nursing journal article of interest, legislative issue, professional or other policy
item from any available source in health care may be used for the course assignments.
On-Line Participation. Since this course is offered over the Internet, which allows students to
participate at "any time, any where," it is important to plan your time carefully. Students are
expected to pace themselves to access assignments, prepare their work and necessary research,
and submit assignments to the instructor by the established due dates. Students are expected to
make use of local resources as well as required readings.
Course Week and Due Dates.
Generally, Monday is the first of the course week, and Sunday is the last day of the course
week. Assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be sent to the instructor
via e-mail or fax by end of the day Sunday, determined by your own time zone. If a student is
sending assignments through the postal service, please make prior arrangements with instructor,
as there is no postal delivery on Sunday. Given that this is a course about communities and
environments, and that some outside contact and independent research is necessary to fulfill
assignments, some flexibility regarding due dates may be granted by mutual agreement between
student and instructor.
Submitting Assignments - Instructions.
There are weekly discussion topics that are to be posted to the classroom Message Board
in order that ideas can be shared among students. Please label your posts as indicated in the
Discussion Question, such as Topic One, Topic Two and so on.
Students may submit the four political action projects in MSWord
(any version) or WordPerfect (any version) or HTML and send as an e-mail note or file
attachment. If you use another word processing program (such as Works), please save as an .rtf
file.
Formats for files received other than those specified here that your instructor cannot
open using MSWord or a Word converter program for PC or Macintosh will be returned to you for
reprocessing, and will be considered late. Any questions on formatting of your file attachment
documents, Email your instructor with any questions
now and we can find a format that will work for your particular needs. Thanks in advance on this
matter.
Please include name, reply address, title of assignment, title of course, and date submitted
on the document itself, in addition to the email text. Please indicate "NR525" in the subject
line of your e-mail.
Late Assignment Penalties.
Weekly assignments must be received by the instructor not later than Sunday midnight (your time
zone) of the week assigned. Students who anticipate that their schedule may cause assignments to
be out of compliance are advised to contact instructor at least one week in advance, as an
extension may be permitted with prior mutual agreement. Instructor discretion regarding point
penalties for any late work will be considered final.
Absentee Policy.
While this course is designed to be completed through independent study, "attendance" is recorded
through assignment submissions in a timely manner to the instructor's e-mail address (or via
post or fax). However, please note that any student who has not participated (completed
assignments) for 14 consecutive days without prior discussion with the instructor regarding such
absence shall be recommended for administrative withdrawal. The school shall make
recommendations to the instructor as to what action will be taken.
Academic Honesty.
Canyon College policies are in effect. All work must be your own. Presenting as one's own the
words, ideas, or expression of another in any form is cheating through plagiarism, and will not
be tolerated. Instructor retains the right to engage academic search services for Internet
Plagiarism at any time on any student papers submitted for credit in this course.
Assignments will be graded based on completeness, correctness and timeliness of submissions.
There is a total of 100 points possible.
Homework.
Weekly assignments may have more than one component, and the point value for each component is
worth points as shown on the assignment detail.
Midterm and Final Weeks.
The Midterm grade is determined by aggregate point performance of work submitted in weeks 1-4
including the midterm assignment. The Final point allocation is determined through aggregate
points submitted for all weeks of the course.
Final Letter Grade.
Letter grades will be assigned at the conclusion of the eight weeks based on cumulative points
achieved over the entirety of the eight week course. The grading scale based on 100 possible
points is as follows:
