This post covers the essentials of nurses’ involvement in clinical policy evaluation in sufficient detail. However, it might benefit from greater attention to the reasons why nurses may be reluctant to participate in the process. The last paragraph mentions that some nurses may not be ready to spend time getting acquainted with new policies and models, but does not elaborate on the possible reasons. These reasons may include burnout, compassion fatigue, and other negative effects of professional burdens (Nolte et al., 2017). Additionally, the last paragraph states that nurses face the fear of getting involved but does not illustrate the point more thoroughly. According to Lewinski and Simmons (2018), no more than one-third of nurses are involved in clinical policy evaluation. This statistic would have made the problem outlined in the post clearer for the reader, who would be able to better assess the magnitude of the issue.
This post provides a robust and clear, if necessarily concise, coverage of nurses and their role in clinical policy evaluation. All three paragraphs correspond to their respective goals, be that introducing the issue, clarifying how nurses can participate in policy evaluation, and outlining the existing challenges. The post could stress that the ability to evaluate “cost, quality, and safety and their influence on health care,” including particular clinical policies, is a core competency of a nurse (Thomas et al., 2017, p. 5). Additionally, the post could have mentioned the educational differences among the challenges. As noted by Edwards et al. (2018), nurses with the Doctor of Nursing Practice are generally much better prepared to evaluate clinical policies than those without a degree. Thus, encouraging continuous education may also be a strategy to increase nurses’ participation in policy evaluation.
References
Edwards, N. E., Coddington, J., Erler, C., & Kirkpatrick, J. (2018). The impact of the role of Doctor of Nursing practice nurses on healthcare and leadership. Medical Research Archives, 6(4). Web.
Lewinski, A. A., & Simmons, L. A. (2018). Nurse knowledge and engagement in health policy making: Findings from a pilot study. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49(9):407-415.
Nolte, A. G. W., Downing, C., Temane, A., & Hastings‐Tolsma, M. (2017). Compassion fatigue in nurses: A metasynthesis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(23-24), 4364-4378.
Thomas, A., Crabtree, M. K., Delaney, K., Dumas, M. A., Kleinpell, A., Marfell, J., Nativio, D., Udlis, K., & Wolf, A. (2017). Nurse practitioner core competencies content. LSU Health New Orleans. Web.