Nurses can advocate for healthcare policies to promote justice, fairness, and health equity at facility, local, state, national, and global levels. Writing a letter of concern for or support towards a particular policy or legislation is an effective way to hold leaders accountable in their positions.
Assignment Instructions:
In the Week 2 Policy Letter Checkpoint, you began this assignment by completing the following:
- Identifying a pending healthcare bill that needs improvement or proposing a new bill recommendation relevant to your current practice, community health needs, or personal interests.
- Explaining why that bill or recommendation is important.
- Identifying the leader or change agent (local, state, and national leader/legislator) who is appropriate to advocate for this policy change or adoption.
- Identifying the official mailing or email address of this leader. Note: Your elected officials’ email and physical addresses are available on their websites. You can find out who represents you on the HouseLinks to an external site. and SenateLinks to an external site. websites.
- Identified and discussed your advocacy efforts with community members.
For this assignment you will use the bill and leader identified in Week 2 to compose a letter or email to the leader or change agent using the following sections. Use proper letter or email format including address lines, greeting, subject line, date, salutation, and professional closing. Use this sample letterLinks to an external site.Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader as a guide. Use complete sentences with professional language and accurate grammar/sentence structure. The letter or email should be concise, with a maximum of 2 pages. Use APA-recommended font.
Paragraph 1 Introduction:
- Introduce yourself, your current role, and your relationship to the leader or change agent.
- Summarize why this issue is important to your role.
- Explain your perspective on this issue.
- State your position/request/reason for writing.
- Note: If your letter pertains to a specific piece of legislation, identify it accordingly as federal or state, e.g., H.R. 1234 (for a House resolution) or S.B. 234 (for a Senate bill).
Paragraph 2 Summary & History:
- Summarize the pending healthcare bill or the lack there of if you chose to recommend a new bill. (Attach existing bill or link to piece of legislation to this letter.)
- Outline the history or evolution of this piece of pending legislation.
- Outline the policy development process at this level.
- Explain your rationale for recommending a new or changed healthcare bill.
Paragraphs 3 & 4 Recommendations:
- If you are supporting the recommended changes proposed by the bill, describe its impact on patient care and your nursing role at bedside, higher organizational levels, local, state, national, and global levels.
- If you are recommending a new piece of legislation, describe the need for it and the impact(s) of the lack of policy on patient care and your nursing role at bedside, higher organizational levels, local, state, national, and global levels (as applicable). Draft a proposal for the new bill.
- If you are recommending an improvement or additions to an existing piece of legislation, propose specific areas within the existing bill that need improvement. Refer to specifics in the existing bill or legislation and draft changes. Describe the areas that you would want to change and how they could benefit patient care, community or population health, or nursing practice at the bedside, higher organizational levels, local, state, national, and global levels (as applicable).
- Provide justification and at least 2 pieces of factual evidence to support your recommendations with proper APA in-text citations.
- Describe the conversation you had with your identified community member. You should have met with this person (face to face, over the phone, or online) to discuss the policy you are advocating for during week 2. In your letter to your representative, explain:
- The community member’s positive feedback towards your efforts.
- The community member’s concerns or additions they think you should include.
Paragraph 5 Closing:
- Explain what you want the leader to do or steps you want them to take and request a response from them on the issue.
- Explain how you can help facilitate this change or be involved in the policy development process.
- Provide additional resources or recommendations as applicable.
Appendix:
- On a separate page, include a 2-4 paragraph reflection on this assignment addressing the following prompts:
- State if you mailed or emailed the letter and include the date it was sent.
- Describe your experience, feelings, and perceptions throughout this assignment.
- Do you think this is an effective way to advocate for your changes? Why or why not?
- Describe the conversation with your community member(s). State their name, date, and location the conversation took place. How did including stakeholder validation tool help your advocacy efforts?
- What is your expected response from your legislator or representative?
- How will you follow up or what are your next steps or other actions you can take?
- What are your views about the nurse’s role in healthcare policy advocacy after completing this assignment?
Assignment Submission Requirement:
- Submit the assignment (letter and appendix) to dropbox as a Word document.
- Send the letter or email to the leader after completing the assignment.
