• Identify a specific nursing or health policy issue of interest; this can be at the organizational, community/local, state, or national* level. If you need help getting started, try flipping through the table of contents for the Mason text and/or the content found on the Overview and Content pages for Modules 4 and 5. Give this some thought as ideally this topic will relate to the foci of your work in this course throughout the remainder of the semester (though this is not a requirement).

• Conduct a rapid and preliminary exploration of information on the topic selected using the internet, course, and other resources. • In an initial discussion forum posting, address or discuss the following items based on the results of your initial exploration: • (a) a clear statement of the issue or problem and why it is important (e.g., scope and impact of the problem) • (b) a summary of any key political, legal, cultural, economic, and/or other factors that have shaped the history, evolution, and/or formation of the issue over time including related health or nursing policy

The content of your posting should be concise and brief. Include references as indicated using APA format to the extent the features in Canvas allow.

Keep in mind that this exercise is intended to be preliminary and exploratory in nature and to help students gain the knowledge they will need to develop content in this category for the health policy issue paper assignment that will be due later in the semester.

It may be helpful to review the health policy brief found on page 73 in the Mason text, other issue briefs widely available on the Internet, and the example policy issue analysis paper accessible in the Module 6 content page; focus on content beginning on page 8.

The posts/replies of other students will not be visible until your initial posting is on the board.

Be sure to review the evaluation rubric for this assignment (posted below) before you begin. Your discussion forum postings should reflect your understanding and ability to apply relevant course content.

Click here to access the evaluation rubric for this Discussion Forum assignment. Preview the documentView in a new window

Be thoughtful in your selection keeping in mind that health policy at the federal/national level is extremely complex. I recommend students focus on State or organization level policy issues in most instances.