For this assessment, pretend you are a member of an interdisciplinary team attempting to improve the quality and outcomes of healthcare in a vulnerable or underserved population.

Develop a 4–6 page position summary and an analysis of relevant position papers on a healthcare issue in a chosen population.

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Introduction

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

Position papers are a method to evaluate the most current evidence and policies related to healthcare issues. They offer a way for researchers to explore the views of any number of organizations around a topic. This can help you to develop your own position and approach to care around a topic or issue.

This assessment will focus on analyzing position papers about an issue related to addiction, chronicity, emotional and mental health, genetics and genomics, or immunity. Many of these topics are quickly evolving as technology advances, or as we attempt to push past stigmas. For example, technological advances and DNA sequencing provide comprehensive information to allow treatment to become more targeted and effective for the individual. However, as a result, nurses must be able to understand and teach patients about the impact of this information. With this great power comes concerns that patient conditions are protected in an ethical and compassionate manner.

Professional Context

Position papers are a way for individuals, groups, and organizations to express their views and intentions toward a specific issue. In healthcare, many position papers address specific policies, regulations, or other approaches to care. As a master’s-prepared nurse, you should feel empowered to express and advocate for your own views on policy and care matters. This is especially important when it comes to populations you or your organization cares for that are not receiving the quality, type, or amount of care that they require.

An important skill in creating a position paper or policy proposal is the ability to analyze and synthesize others’ views about the population or issue of interest to you. By synthesizing the positive and negative views of an issue, you can become better equipped to strengthen your own arguments and to respond to opposing views in an informed and convincing way.

Scenario

For this assessment, pretend you are a member of an interdisciplinary team attempting to improve the quality and outcomes of healthcare in a vulnerable or underserved population. You should choose a population that’s of interest in the promotion of social justice, one negatively impacted by structural racism, or a population that’s negatively impacted in any other way by health inequity. For the first step in your team’s work, you have decided to conduct an analysis of current position papers that address the issue and population you are considering.

In your analysis, you will note the team’s initial views on the issue in the population as well as the views across a variety of relevant position papers. You have been tasked with finding the most current standard of care or evidenced-based practice and evaluating both the pros and cons of the issue. For the opposing viewpoints, it is important to discuss how the team could respond to encourage support. This paper will be presented to a committee of relevant stakeholders from your care setting and the community. If it receives enough support, you will be asked to create a new policy that could be enacted to improve the outcomes related to your chosen issue and target population.

The care setting, population, and healthcare issue that you use for this assessment will be used in the other assessments in this course. Consider your choice carefully. There are two main approaches for you to take in selecting the scenario for this assessment:

1.     You may use one of the issues and populations presented in the Vila Health: Health Challenges in Different Populations media piece. For this approach, you may consider the population in the context of the Vila Health care setting, or translate it into the context in which you currently practice or have had recent experience.

2.     You may select a population and issue that is of interest to you and set them in the context of your current or desired future care setting. While you are free to choose any population of interest, the issue you choose should fall within one of the following broad categories:

o   Genetics and genomics.

§  Sickle cell, asthma, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis.

o   Immunity.

§  Type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), congenital neutropenia syndrome.

o   Chronicity.

§  Arthritis, any type of cancer or lung or heart disease, obesity.

o   Addiction.

§  Abuse of alcohol, prescription drugs, tobacco, illegal substances.

o   Emotion and mental health.

§  Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, eating disorders, psychosis.

Note: If you choose the second option, contact your faculty to make sure that your chosen issue and population will fit within the topic areas for this course.

Instructions

For this assessment, you will develop a position summary and an analysis of relevant position papers on a healthcare issue in a chosen vulnerable or underserved population. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your assessment submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations [PDF] to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.

·        Explain a position with regard to health outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.

·        Explain the collaborative role of the interdisciplinary team in facilitating improvements for a specific issue in a target population.

·        Evaluate the evidence and positions of others that could support a team’s approach to improving the quality and outcomes of care for a specific issue in a target population negatively impacted by health inequity.

o   Your process of evaluation should include identifying potential barriers to implementing this approach.

·        Communicate an initial viewpoint regarding a specific issue in a target population and a synthesis of existing positions in a logically structured and concise manner, writing content clearly with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

·        Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

Example assessment: You may use the Assessment 1 Example [PDF] to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Submission Requirements

·        Length of submission: 4–6 double-spaced, typed pages, not including the title and reference pages. Your plan should be succinct yet substantive. No abstract is required.

·        Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your initial position on the issue, as well as a minimum of 2–3 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that express contrary views or opinions. Resources should be no more than five years old.

·        APA formatting: Use the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] to help you in writing and formatting your analysis.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

·        Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care for achieving high-quality population outcomes.

o   Evaluate the evidence and positions of others that could support a team’s approach to improving the quality and outcomes of care for a specific issue in a target population negatively impacted by health inequity.

·        Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interdisciplinary interventions in achieving desired population health outcomes.

o   Explain the collaborative role of the interdisciplinary team in facilitating improvements for a specific issue in a target population negatively impacted by health inequity.

·        Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes through the lens of social justice, structural racism, or health inequity and their implications for health policy advocacy.

o   Explain a position with regard to health outcomes for a specific issue in a target population negatively impacted by health inequity.

·        Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.

o   Communicate an initial viewpoint regarding a specific issue in a target population and a synthesis of existing positions in a logically structured and concise manner.

o   Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.