1. Write a letter to the editor of an academic or professional journal. The
length and format of the letter is dictated by your choice of journal. Note:
Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the
previous assessment. Therefore, y
Write a letter to the editor of an academic or professional journal. The length and format
of the letter is dictated by your choice of journal. 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.
Advocating for new policies is an important aspect of the master’s-prepared nurse. For new
policies to be compelling they need to be supported by evidence. Supporting data can be
used to illustrate why new policies and interventions are needed to help address a specific
health issue. Compelling data can help sway the stakeholders and gain support for your
policy. SHOW LESSAnother aspect of advocacy is disseminating new policies and
interventions outside of the immediate care environment. This can be done by reaching out
to professional organizations as well as academic and professional journals. A letter to the
editor is one strategy for disseminating information to a wider audience, and to potentially
enlist support throughout the wider professional community. 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. Evaluate
the current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target
population. Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the quality of care
and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Competency 2: Evaluate
the efficiency and effectiveness of interprofessional interventions in achieving desired
population health outcomes. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects
of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes
for the target population. Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in
terms of their implications for health policy advocacy. Analyze how the current
state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population
necessitates health policy development and advocacy. Advocate for policy
development in other care settings with regard to 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.

2. Communicate 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.
Competency Map CHECK YOUR PROGRESSUse this online tool to track your performance
and progress through your course. Toggle DrawerContextNurses have the opportunity
to use their skills and develop programs to keep individuals and communities healthy.
Health is complex however, and the nurse needs to possess strong advocacy skills to
successfully support a cause or interest. The American Nurses Association’s code of ethics
(2015) describes the responsibility of a nurse to include working through and with
appropriate stakeholders to advocate for the health of people in and out of the work
environment. To be an effective advocate, there are several important abilities a nurse must
possess, including problem solving, communication, and influencing others. One way a
nurse can advocate to a broader population is through effective letter writing, both to
legislators and through the media, such as with editorials and research articles. Reference
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive
statements. Retrieved from
http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNur
ses/CodeofEthicsForNurses.html Toggle DrawerQuestions to ConsiderAs 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 LESSAssessment 3 will build upon the work you have done for your
previous two assessments. For this assessment, you will be writing a letter to the editor of
an academic or professional journal as a means to advocate for adoption or development of
policies that will improve the quality of care and outcomes around your chosen health care
issue and vulnerable population. Looking at your health care issue from a prevention
standpoint, what are the relevant levels of prevention? What would be the
benefits and challenges of applying a specific level of prevention to your chosen issue and
population? How might one or more approaches to prevention improve the care and
outcomes? How could your policy be leveraged, or revised, to support the
relevant levels of prevention? What are relevant strategies that you
could use to help advocate for the policy you are proposing? How could these
strategies help you advocate for your policy proposal? How does evidence from the
literature support the benefits of your proposed policy? How does citing
evidence help lend credibility to your advocacy? What academic or
professional journal would be the best forum to advocate for your policy? Why is
your chosen journal an appropriate forum? Which advocacy strategies would be most
effective in this forum? How will you craft your message to best appeal to the likely
audience of your chosen journal? Toggle DrawerResourcesMSN Program
Journey Please review this guide for your degree program. It can help you stay on track for
your practicum experience, so you may wish to bookmark it for later reference. MSN

3. Program Journey | Transcript. Suggested Resources The resources provided here are
optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment;
however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The MSN-
FP6026 – Biopsychosocial Concepts for Advanced Nursing Practice II Library Guide can help
direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked
from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help
support you. Advocacy Allen, D. D., Lauffenburger, J., Law, A. V., Vanderveen, R. P., &
Lang, W. G. (2012). Report of the 2011–2012 standing committee on advocacy: The
relevance of excellent research: Strategies for impacting public policy. American Journal of
Pharmaceutical Education, 76(6), 13–25. Jansson, B. S., Nyamathi, A., Heidemann, G.,
Bird, M., Rogers Ward, C., Brown-Saltzman, K., . . . Kaplan, C. (2016). Predicting levels of
policy advocacy engagement among acute-care health professionals. Policy, Politics, &
Nursing Practice, 17(1), 43–55. Kung, Y. M., & Rudner Lugo, N. (2015). Political advocacy
and practice barriers: A survey of Florida APRNs. Journal of the American Association of
Nurse Practitioners, 27(3), 145–151. Standing up for somebody: What is advocacy and
why do we do it? (2014). The Queensland Nurse, 33(3), 28–29. SHOW MORE
Assessment InstructionsScenario Throughout this course, you have focused on a specific
health issue occurring within a specific population. You researched position papers
regarding this health concern, and you developed a health policy proposal to positively
impact the health of the affected individuals. It is now time to reach a greater audience
regarding your policy proposal. Instructions Develop a letter to the editor of a peer-
reviewed academic or professional nursing journal based on the policy proposal that you
created for Assessment 2. Choose from one of the journals on the Ultimate List of Nursing
Journals (in the Resources) and go to that journal’s Web site to find out the requirements
for submitting a letter to the editor, such as format requirements, topics, and word counts.
Make sure you select a nursing journal that covers the topic about which you are going to
write. If you want to use another journal that is not on this list, please make sure the journal
does address health care, because this is the purpose of the assessment. The goal of your
letter is to be informative about the policy that you developed for Assessment 2, while also
being persuasive about the need for and benefit of similar policies in other health care
settings. 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 Letter to the
Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Letter to
the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy document to better understand how each
grading criterion will be assessed. Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and
outcomes for a specific issue in a target population. Look back to the data or
scenario you used in Assessment 1 to address this criterion. Analyze how the
current state of the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population
necessitates health policy development and advocacy. Justify why a developed policy will
be vital in improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target
population. Advocate for policy development in other care settings with regard to a
specific issue in a target population. Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects
of a developed policy will support efficient and effective achievement of desired outcomes

4. for the target population. Communicate 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 current APA style (or the journal’s preferred style). Additional
Requirements The submission requirements for your editorial will depend on the journal
you choose. To find out the requirements, go to the journal’s Web site. There should be a
section regarding submissions that will address how to format letters to the editor, and
whether there is a word count limit (there usually is a limit). If the journal does not have
submission guidelines for the number of resources required, use 3–5 sources. To be sure
that your instructor knows the submission and formatting requirements for your letter,
include the journal’s guidelines on a separate page at the end of the document you submit
for this assessment.