The document outlines a proposal for a health care policy aimed at improving outcomes for a specific target population. It emphasizes the role of master's-prepared nurses in advocating for effective and ethical care delivery, while addressing concerns related to cost and access. The proposal should include evidence-based guidelines, consider interprofessional collaboration, and adhere to professional communication standards.

1. Develop a 2–4-page proposal for a policy that should help to
improve health care and outcomes for your target population.
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.
Cost and access to care continue to be main concerns for
patients and providers. As technology improves our ability to
care for and improve outcomes in patients with chronic and
complex illnesses, questions of cost and access become
increasingly important. As a master’s-prepared nurse, you must
be able to develop policies that will ensure the delivery of care
that is effective and can be provided in an ethical and equitable
manner.
SHOW LESS
By successfully completing this assessment, you will
demonstrate your proficiency in the following course
competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care
for achieving high-quality population outcomes.
Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved
outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target
population.

2. Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of
interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population
health outcomes.
Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to
implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or
effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high quality
outcomes.
Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of
their implications for health policy advocacy.
Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of
current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a
target population.
Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse
audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with
organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.
Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner,
writing content clearly and logically with correct use of
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references using APA style.

3. CONTEXT:
As a master's-prepared nurse, you have a valuable viewpoint
and voice with which to advocate for policy developments. As a
nurse leader and health care practitioner, often on the front
lines of helping individuals and populations, you are able to
articulate and advocate for the patient more than any other
professional group in health care. This is especially true of
populations that may be underserved, underrepresented, or are
otherwise lacking a voice. By advocating for and developing
policies, you are able to help drive improvements in outcomes
for specific populations. The policies you advocate for could be
internal ones (just within a specific department or health care
setting) that ensure quality care and compliance. Or they could
be external policies (local, state, or federal) that may have more
wide-ranging effects on best practices and regulations.
Questions to Consider:
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to
think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or
broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the
questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work
associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional
community. Note that these questions are for your own
development and exploration and do not need to be completed
or submitted as part of your assessment.
SHOW LESS

4. Assessment 2 will build on the health issue, vulnerable
population, and position that you started to develop in the first
assessment. For Assessment 2, you will develop a proposal for a
policy and a set of guidelines that could be implemented to
ensure improvements in care and outcomes.
What are the relevant best practices from a population health
standpoint (cultural competence, disease prevention, and
interventions) for your chosen health issue and vulnerable
population?
How are these best practices relevant to your chosen health
issue and vulnerable population?
Do the best practices make any reference to standards of care or
benchmarks that should be achieved?
How could these best practices be leveraged to help inform or
develop a policy and guidelines to improve care and outcomes
for the vulnerable population you are working with?
How could technology be used to identify health concerns or
collect data that could help health care practitioners determine
which health care issues to focus on in a population?
What are the relevant laws, regulations, or policies for
employing any of the technology you might find useful?

5. What type of policy and guidelines would be most likely to
ensure improvements in care and outcomes related to your
chosen health issue and vulnerable population?
Are there any policies in existence that could help inform your
own policy development?
How might your proposed policy and guidelines influence the
way in which care is accessed?
How might your proposed policy and guidelines influence the
amount of access that is available?
Scenario
The analysis of position papers that your interprofessional team
presented to the committee has convinced them that it would be
worth the time and effort to develop a new policy to address
your specific issue in the target population. To that end, your
interprofessional team has been asked to submit a policy
proposal that outlines a specific approach to improving the
outcomes for your target population. This proposal should be
supported by evidence and best practices that illustrate why the
specific approaches are likely to be successful. Additionally,
you have been asked to address the ways in which applying your
policy to interprofessional teams could lead to efficiency or
effectiveness gains.

6. Instructions
For this assessment you will develop a policy proposal that
seeks to improve the outcomes for the health care issue and
target population you addressed in Assessment 1. If for some
reason you wish to change your specific issue and/or target
population, contact your FlexPath faculty.
The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the
scoring guide. Be sure that your submission addresses all of
them. You may also want to read the Biopsychosocial
Population Health Policy Proposal Scoring Guide and Guiding
Questions: Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal
to better understand how each grading criterion will be
assessed.
Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved
outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target
population.
Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of
current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a
target population.
Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to
implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or
effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality
outcomes.
Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner,
writing content clearly and logically with correct use of
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references using APA style.

7. Example Assessment:
You may use the assessment example, linked in the Assessment
Example section of the Resources, to give you an idea of what a
Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.
Additional Requirements
Length of proposal
: 2–4 double-spaced, typed pages, not including title page or
reference list. Your proposal should be succinct yet substantive.
Number of references
: Cite a minimum of 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional
evidence that supports the relevance of or need for your policy,
as well as interprofessional considerations. Resources should be
no more than five years old.
APA formatting
: Use the APA Style Paper Template linked in the Resources.
An APA Style Paper Tutorial is also provided to help you in
writing and formatting your analysis.
Grading Rubric:
1-
Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved
outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target
population.
Passing Grade: Proposes a policy and guidelines that will lead
to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in

8. a target population. Acknowledges potential difficulties and
discusses how those challenges will be met.
2-
Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of
current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a
target population.
Passing Grade: Advocates the need for a proposed policy in the
context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific
issue in a target population. Impartially considers contrary data
and opposing viewpoints.
3-
Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to
implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or
effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality
outcomes.
Passing Grade: Analyzes the potential for an interprofessional
approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the
efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-
quality outcomes. Identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns,
missing information, unanswered questions, or areas of
uncertainty (where further information could improve the
analysis).
4-
Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner,
writing content clearly and logically with correct use of
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Passing Grade: Communicates proposal in a professional and

9. persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with
correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Identifies
specific strategies or approaches used to ensure clear
communication.
5-
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references using current APA style
Passing Grade: Integrates relevant sources to support
assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using
current APA style. Citations are free from all errors.