Policy Brief Analysis Project - NUR 459 - Introduction to Healthcare Policy and Advocacy

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Policy Brief Analysis Topics

Improved Administration of Prescription Drugs in Domiciliary Care Facilities
Medication-Assisted Treatment: Buprenorphine in the HCH Community
Medication-Assisted Treatment: Changes in Federal Law and Regulation
Overview of current Federal policy for substance use disorders.
Overview of current Federal policy for substance use disorders. Substance use disorders (substance abuse and addiction) impose enormous costs on society and are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. Nurses play an increasingly valuable role in the addictions prevention and treatment workforce; they can increase both access to care and the quality of services. Traditionally, drug control efforts in the United States have directed more resources toward 'supply reduction' (law enforcement and interdiction) than on 'demand reduction' (substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts), forcing the latter to work overtime to make an impact on rates of these disorders. Particularly as the field moves toward health care reform and improved integration of somatic and behavioral health, nurses are strongly encouraged to learn more about available national substance abuse prevention and treatment policies, strategies and evidence-based interventions (EBPs). This column provides a brief overview of current federal priorities, policy and EBPs for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Supporting Regulation of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems
Vulnerability to alcohol-related problems: a policy brief with implications for the regulation of alcohol marketing.

Opioids

Prevention and Intervention Strategies to Decrease Misuse of Prescription Pain Medication

ANA Position Statement: Nursing Advocacy for LGBTQ+ Populations

Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents

Policy brief: Protecting vulnerable LGBTQ youth and advocating for ethical health care

Building Collaboration for Mental Health Services in California Schools: What Will Be Built? A Center Policy Brief
Overview of current Federal policy for substance use disorders. Substance use disorders (substance abuse and addiction) impose enormous costs on society and are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. Nurses play an increasingly valuable role in the addictions prevention and treatment workforce; they can increase both access to care and the quality of services. Traditionally, drug control efforts in the United States have directed more resources toward 'supply reduction' (law enforcement and interdiction) than on 'demand reduction' (substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts), forcing the latter to work overtime to make an impact on rates of these disorders. Particularly as the field moves toward health care reform and improved integration of somatic and behavioral health, nurses are strongly encouraged to learn more about available national substance abuse prevention and treatment policies, strategies and evidence-based interventions (EBPs). This column provides a brief overview of current federal priorities, policy and EBPs for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Removing Barriers to Mental Health Services for Veterans

Child Obesity in Indiana: A Growing Public Policy Concern. Childhood and adolescent obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions in the United States and are growing. The sedentary routines found in schools and in the home as well as the overexposure to unhealthy snacks and nonnutritional foods contribute to the pervasiveness of this disease that afflicts America's children. Obese children face significant health risks such as Type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, and depression. This epidemic has significant implications for the public education and health sectors of the nation. In response, many federal and state policies have been implemented or are being initiated to address these concerns. This policy brief examines the scope of the childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S. and in the state of Indiana, considers the relationship between the school environment and student health, reviews policy initiatives underway to address this problem, and offer policy recommendations to more effectively address obesity in Indiana. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 47 endnotes.) [This report was published by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy.]

Education Policy Brief: Childhood Obesity and Nutrition Issues in the United States: An Update on School-based Policies and Practices

International Food Security and Public Health: Supporting Initiatives and Actions

Advancing Effective Obesity Communications: Proceedings of aWorkshop (2020)

Supporting Public Health's Role in Addressing Unmet Needs in Serious Illness and at the End of Life

Policy brief: Nurse fatigue, sleep, and health, and ensuring patient and public safety

Gun Safety & Violence

Librarian Resources

CINAHL Complete
Content: EBSCO’s nursing database covering biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and allied health disciplines.
Purpose: Database for research in nursing, medicine, and consumer health.
Special Features: Strong qualitative studies. Filter studies by nurse as author, evidence-based practice, and type of study. Includes MESH indexing, PICO search functionality, text-to-speech feature for some articles, and a tool for discovering citing articles.
PubMed Central
Content: Includes citations to millions of biomedical journal articles, as well as some books, book chapters, and reports.
Purpose: An essential database for biomedical and health topics
Special Features: Includes MeSH search functionality
MEDLINE with Full Text
The premier full-text medical database. Contains scholarly articles on all health sciences topics.
Academic Search Premier
This multi-disciplinary, full-text database is designed specifically for academic institutions. This collection of 3,865 full-text, scholarly publications provides journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Keyword Searching:
Basic keyword searches are a fine place to start.

Single words expressing your concept
Make sure you express all concepts related to your interest within each search
Identify synonyms for each concept
Search terms with more than one word in quotes (ex. “therapeutic recreation”)
Truncation symbols (usually * or $) help search words with multiple endings (singular, plural, etc… Such as exercise* = exercise, exercising, exercised.)
Also, keep a list of useful keywords and search terms to use in successive searches and other databases.

How to Find Specific Kinds of Articles:
No method of searching for specific kinds of articles is fool-proof. These tips, however, will be of great use:

For finding literature reviews: Entering search terms such as literature review, overview, systematic review, or overview of the literature, all help to identify articles that are literature reviews.
For finding empirical articles: Entering keywords such as “study” or “survey” help to retrieve an article that’s empirical, or evidence-based. Words such as “methods” or “methodology” (qualitative or quantitative), participants, and “results” or “findings”, also help to identify an empirical article. Review the article’s abstract as well as the title when seeking these words.
For finding primary research: Using previous studies found in review articles is one way of locating primary research articles for one’s own literature review. NOTE: Also find new primary research on your topic in order to update the scholarly research in the field.

Maximizing returns from your search results:

Check to see if keywords are provided within article title pages that might inform your successive searches.
Identify leading journals and search the recent issues for the latest information in your area of interest; use references from those articles to gather literature reviews, empirical articles, and primary research sources.
When you start seeing a specific author’s name popping up frequently, you’ve found an expert; make sure you include the work of experts in your field to ensure that your literature review is scholarly and timely!

Subject Heading Searches:
Check the subject headings within specific articles to refine successive searches for more focused results

Scholarly / Peer-Reviewed:
Many databases give you the option of checking a box if you wish to retrieve only scholarly / peer-reviewed articles. I suggest that you absolutely do this, AFTER you’ve done an initial search to cull all potential useful keywords and subject headings from all the articles in the system, peer-reviewed or not.

NUR 459 - Introduction to Healthcare Policy and Advocacy

Health Policy Journals

Policy Brief Tools

Policy Brief Analysis Topics

Librarian Resources