Evidence-Informed Health Policy, Second Edition

What happens in health policy at local, state, and federal levels directly affects patients, nurses, and nursing practice. Some healthcare professionals, though, are intimidated by the complex and often nonlinear policy process or simply don’t know how to take the first step toward implementing policy change. In the second edition of Evidence-Informed Health Policy, authors Jacqueline M. Loversidge and Joyce Zurmehly demystify health policymaking and equip nurses and other healthcare professionals with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to navigate the first of many steps into health policy. This book translates the EBP language of clinical decision-making into an evidence-informed health policy (EIHP) model-a foundation for integrating evidence into health policymaking and leveraging dialogue with stakeholders. 

The goals of this book are threefold:

1. To persuade the reader that evidence-informed policymaking is not, after all, an oxymoron, and that the landscape and perspectives on the use of evidence in policy are changing. To our knowledge, this is the first health policy text in nursing and healthcare in which evidence- based policymaking is the primary focus.
2. To ground readers in policy and policymaking to a sufficient extent that it serves as a foundation for using the rest of the book.
3. To present the evidence-informed health policy (EIHP) model for nursing and healthcare. This model can be used by nurses and other healthcare professionals serving in active policymaking roles, teaching health policy, or simply interested in the process.

 

Audiences who can best benefit from this book include:

 

•    Nurse leaders who are engaged in public policymaking

•    Nurses who are members and staff of professional associations and organizations

•    Nurse educators who are teaching public health policy to students at the graduate or undergraduate levels

•    Healthcare regulatory agency members or staff

•    Other healthcare professionals who are engaged in public policymaking

Jacqueline M. Loversidge, PhD, RNC-AWHC, ANEF, is an Associate Professor Emeritus, Clinical Nursing, at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. Loversidge earned a diploma from Muhlenberg Hospital School of Nursing;a BSN from Ohio University; a master's degree with a major in nursing from Wright State University; and a PhD in Higher Education Policy and Leadership from The Ohio State University. She holds national certification as an Ambulatory Women's Health Care Nurse through the National Certification Corporation.Loversidge educated undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of health policy and regulation, evidence-based practice, and leadership in nurs- ing and healthcare for almost 20 years. She has extensive experience in the regulatory setting, having held two positions at the Ohio Board of Nursing (OBN). The first was as the Associate Executive Director and included the role of government liaison. In that position, she had a significant role in drafting and passing a major revision to the Ohio Nurse Practice Act; once that law passed, she also had a role in drafting the regulations needed to enforce that law. After a decade in practice and administrative settings, she served the OBN again as its Education Consultant, with responsibility for oversight of all Ohio prelicensure nursing education programs. While at OBN, she served on National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) committees, includ- ing the Committee on Special Projects, responsible for transformation of thepaper-and-pencil NCLEX licensure examination to a computer adaptive mode. She was awarded Fellowship in the National League for Nursing (NLN) Acad- emy of Nursing Education based on her contributions to public health policy in nursing regulation and nursing education, and she currently serves on the National League for Nursing Public Policy Committee.Loversidge has authored numerous textbook chapters on regulation, health policy, and advocacy. She is the author of the evidence-informed health policy model that forms the basis of the model used in this book. Her scholarship interests focus on health policy; advances in health professions education; and practice models that focus on improvements in quality, safety, and top-of- license practice.

Joyce Zurmehly, PhD, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, is a Clinical Profes- sor of Nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. Zurmehly be- gan a nursing career in 1976 as an OR nurse after completing licensed practical nurse training. Her registered nurse career began in 1981, working as a medical- surgical nurse. She has earned a BSN and MSN and is continually engaged in lifelong learning, as evidenced by two doctoral degrees, involvement in regula- tory activities, presentation of scholarship at numerous venues, and publications in refereed journals. Zurmehly has earned the rank of full Professor of Clinical Nursing at The Ohio State University and was inducted into Fellowship in the NLN Academy of Nursing Education (ANEF) and American Academy of Nurs- ing (FAAN).Zurmehly has experience in policy and regulation through her work for the Ohio Board of Nursing (OBN) and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). She is recognized for academic leadership in advancing nursing education through her work as a faculty scholar and nurse regulator. Zurmehly has been educating undergraduate and graduate students for almost 30 years. She has been influential in shaping undergraduate and graduate nurs- ing education. Zurmehly's primary contribution to nursing education has been collaborating with state and national experts to set enduring nursing education policy by promulgating administrative rules.Because of her expertise in the regulation of nursing programs, Zurmehly has been appointed to national committees, where she actively participated in developing policy in the regulation of nursing programs. She collaborated with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and broke new ground in nursing regulation by developing recommendations that promote collabo- ration with educators on fostering nursing education innovations. As partof this work, a model of the regulatory influences on nursing education was developed, and many have adopted these model education rules, thus posi- tively impacting nursing education nationally and internationally. She was also involved in the Transition to Practice program development at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), in which multiple perspectives were addressed to provide a comprehensive Transition to Practice program