Elevator Speech
Nursing Health Policy
Name
Institution
Hello, my name is (insert name), and I am a nursing student currently studying at (insert college/university).
My concern is on the proposal to reduce the money required to sponsor nursing education under title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs within the Health Resources and Service Administration.
It is estimated that the population of Americans of 65 years of age is likely to double for the next 25 years. As a result, the nation can face a shortage of 12 000 to 31,000 primary health care providers, including nurses, by the year 2025. Besides, the United States is anticipated to experience a shortage of RNs due to the increased demand for health care services. Hence, strengthening the funding for nursing education, will build a diversified and increased number of educated nursing practitioners, which will positively impact the health of citizens across this state, including the District of Columbia. In relation to the scope of practice, nursing professionals are trained to make a diagnosis, offer treatment services and prescribe medications to their patients at the individual level, families, and community level. These services can be provided without necessarily involving a physician. Besides, IOM recommends nurses to engage in nursing practice to the full extent of their education and training, with minimal supervision from physicians. Even up to date, studies conducted by health scholars support the idea of nursing professionals as being of high quality and cost-effective health care providers (Berkowitz, 2017).
Increasing workforce funding will also motivate more people to join the workforce. This approach occurs as a result of the incentivisation of student loans through forgiveness after their studies to decrease the burden of repayment. Hence, nursing will be perceived as an attractive and lucrative profession among the population. The success of this strategy will be achieved through the establishment of several Nursing Loan Forgiveness Programs, where students will have to apply and qualify for the requirements to gain access to a student loan forgiveness program. These programs also provide an opportunity for selecting the most appropriate plan that is federally-funded, which provides the most significant and fastest outcomes.
The success of nursing practice is achieved through approaches that aid in understanding the response of people and individuals to health threats. The reaction of individuals and communities to health threats such as the outbreak of health conditions such as measles varies, and this calls for the identification and implementation of different health interventions. Nursing practitioners have the responsibility of assessing as well as understanding the effect of various conditions on the health and well-being of the population. These conditions include and are not limited to exposure to toxins, mental health issues, genetics, and poverty. Through adequate education and training, nursing practice is effectively implemented (LoBiondo and Haber, 2017). More so, nurses have a role in the provision of evidence-based interventions towards individuals, families, and the community, through approaches such as management of health conditions, counseling services and the administration of prescribed therapies and medication in disease management. Nurses provide evidence-based services in different centers that include and are not limited to the primary health care centers, community health centers, and the department of public health.
Service provision by nursing professionals is done independently and can range from primary health care nurses, midwives, renal nurses, nurse anesthetics, pediatric nurses and public health nurses. These responsibilities perceive nurses as being among the essential providers of health care. Hence, failure to decrease funds for nursing education may have a negative impact on the health of the population inclusive of the district of Columbia. This approach will also aid in accomplishing the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The focus of this department is towards ‘enhancing the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services as well as fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health and social services’ (Nairn and Pinnock, 2017).
I would like to thank you for your time, and please allow me to organize a follow-up meeting in support of this legislation.
References
Berkowitz, B. (2017). What nurses are fighting for: The elevator briefing. Nursing Outlook, 65(3), 252-253.
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2017). Nursing research-E-book: methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Nairn, S., & Pinnock, D. (2017). Pierre Bourdieu: Expanding the scope of nursing research and practice. Nursing Philosophy, 18(4), e12167.