Critique an example of a professional organization’s use of media to promote a health policy agenda. Discuss attributes of success or lack thereof.

Use of Media in Promoting Policy Change

Nurses must participate in healthcare policy advocacy and implementation since it allows them to advocate for patient care at the local, state, and national levels (Hajizadeh et al., 2021). Many laws in the United States affect nursing licensure and education. Some state laws allow advanced nurse Practitioners to practice independently without the supervision of physicians. Media has become an important tool that can positively drive changes that can be implemented in the healthcare delivery industry. Professional nursing associations can use media to get the attention of policymakers to positively impact patient care. The professional nursing organization can use Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to provide information that can address healthcare issues.

An example of how professional nurse associations utilized social media to influence change was during the United States’ 2016 general election. During this period, a study was conducted to see which nursing associations used Twitter and Facebook the most. The associations that were part of this study were the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), and the National Nurses United (NNU). During the 2016 election, the healthcare issue that was a campaign tool was the cost of prescription drugs and regulation of Marijuana (Waddell, 2018).

A total of 2,137 social media units were collected. This study revealed that NNU shared more healthcare policy-related issues on their Facebook and Twitter handles than ANA and AAN. They posted two policy issues that were discussed during the 2016 election, which were the cost of prescription drugs and regulation of marijuana use (Waddell, 2018). These two issues caught the attention of the social media of nursing organizations. This sparked a lot of debate during the election period. The use of social media was thus successful in generating a national conversation that impacted federal legislation.

References

Hajizadeh, A., Zamanzadeh, V., Kakemam, E., Bahreini, R., & Khodayari-Zarnaq, R. (2021). Factors influencing nurses participation in the health policy-making process: A systematic review. BMC Nursing, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00648-6

Waddell, A. (2018). Nursing organizations’ health policy content on Facebook and Twitter preceding the 2016 United States presidential election. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(1), 119-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13826