Vast changes in health care require nurses to be prepared to advocate effectively for improved health outcomes for all Americans, measured by quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. In order to be effective advocates, nurses must be full partners in shaping health and social policy.
A main part of your experience in this course involves a Position Paper shaped around a health care policy that you will choose this week. Examples of health policies include needle exchange programs, death pronouncement by nurses, the Death with Dignity Act, BSN legislation, staffing legislation, meaningful use legislation, and medical use of marijuana. Death with Dignity Act Essay Paper
Beginning with this Discussion, you will carry your selected policy throughout the course and into your Position Paper. Your Assignments for Weeks 2 and 3 will be formed around your selected policy. Select a policy that you have personal experience with and that you feel strongly about.
To prepare for this Discussion, review the following:
• Discussion Rubric, provided in the Course Information area
• This week’s Writing Resources and Program Success Tools (link to e-guide)
• This week’s readings in the Resources pertaining to various and changing health advocacy and health policy initiatives
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a response to the following:
• Select one health care policy related to access, equity, quality, or affordability that you have noted in your practice that is important to you. This policy will be the main theme of your Position Paper as well as the Assignments for Weeks 2 and 3.
• Give a detailed description of the health care policy that you selected.
o Include information on history, root causes for the introduction of the policy, and issues that the policy addresses.
• Analyze at least one personal impact that this policy has had on you as a professional or in the workplace environment.
o Provide at least one supporting and one opposing aspect of the policy, its implementation and its impact.
Note Initial Post: A 3-paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually less than or equal to 5 years old). Death with Dignity Act Essay Paper
Discussion Rubric: Required Content gives a detailed description of the health care policy including information on history, root causes for the introduction of the policy, and issues that the policy addresses. Provides at least one supporting and one opposing aspect of the policy, its implementation and its impact. Analyzes at least one personal impact that this policy has had on the nurse as a professional or in the workplace environment.
BUY A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
Note: Please I would like to choose death pronouncement by nurses, or the Death with Dignity Act,
Thanks
Death with Dignity Act
The Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) allows people having terminal illnesses to access and use lethal medications from their doctors to accelerate their death. According to the DWDA, termination one’s life according to the law does not include committing suicide (Blanke et al, 2017). The Act precisely prohibits euthanasia, where the healthcare provider or any other individual administers the medication directly to end the life of another individual. For an individual to be prescribed lethal medications, the Act requires that an individual should be 18 years and above; have mental capacity to make medical decisions, and have a diagnosis of terminal illness that will cause death in 6 months (Petrillo et al, 2017). Therefore, the law gives people voluntary choices to have the dignity, peace of mind, and control during their last days. The process of death with dignity involves two doctors confirming the residency, prognosis, mental capacity, diagnosis, and voluntariness of the request of the patient making the request to die with dignity (Blanke et al, 2017).
The law was endorsed in 1994 and while its implementation was in 1997. The use of the Act was evident when an elderly female from Oregon, with the help of a physician dosed herself with lethal substances, and as a result, died. The patient had survived with breast cancer for more than 20 years. Her last moments were peaceful and private, and she became among the first individuals in America to legally end their life (Blanke et al, 2017).
The Death with Dignity Act significantly impacts nursing professionals in various ways. First, the Act is a feasible end-of-life choice for patients with terminal illnesses and this contributes to the extensive improvement in end-of-life care (Rodríguez-Prat et al, 2016). For instance, healthcare providers attend hospice and palliative care training to ensure their competency in provision of palliative care and respond to challenging patients who want to discuss their Death with Dignity. Healthcare providers should be skilled and competent to conduct discussions with patients regarding their end-of-life care and offer patients the required tools and support to die with dignity (Rodríguez-Prat et al, 2016). Death with Dignity Act Essay Paper
References
Blanke B, LeBlanc M, Dawn H, Lee E & Frank M. (2017). Characterizing 18 Years of the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon. JAMA Oncol. 3(10), 1403–1406.
Petrillo L, Dzeng E, Harrison K, Forbes L, Scribner B & Koenig B. (2017). How California Prepared for Implementation of Physician-Assisted Death: A Primer. Am J Public Health. 107(6): 883–888.
Rodríguez-Prat A, Monforte-Royo C, Porta-Sales J, Escribano X & Balaguer A. (2016). Patient Perspectives of Dignity, Autonomy, and Control at the End of Life: Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography. PLoS ONE. 11(3), e0151435. Death with Dignity Act Essay Paper