THE ROLE OF THE RN/APRN IN POLICY EVALUATION In the Module 4 Discussion, you considered how professional nurses can become involved in policy-making. A critical component of any policy design is the evaluation of the results. How comfortable are you with the thought of becoming involved with such matters? The Role of the RN-APRN in Policy Evaluation The Role of the RN-APRN in Policy Evaluation Some nurses may be hesitant to get involved with policy evaluation. The preference may be to focus on the care and well-being of their patients; some nurses may feel ill-equipped to enter the realm of policy and political activities. However, as you have examined previously, who better advocates for patients and effective programs and policies than nurses? Already, patient advocates are involved in interactions with doctors and leadership, so why not with government and regulatory agencies?

Policy evaluation is important when assessing the impact and effectiveness of healthcare policies and programs. Clear points of view and more knowledge from professionals like Registered Nurses and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses can positively impact the assessment of these policies. Nurses can participate in policy assessment by advocating for the patients and developing evidence-based policies that address inequality in healthcare (Mergoni et al., 2022). It will bring out better outcomes for the patients. This write-up shows how maternal health concerns are evaluated in the health care program while reflecting on health-social determinants.

The topic of evaluation is maternal health concerns and factors that hinder the accessibility of health services. The maternal health concern program aims to lower maternal death rates and improve care and results in the antenatal department (Limato et al., 2019). This review will examine the indicators, outcome after birth, maternal death rates and causes, prenatal care, and inequalities while accessing health care in the hospital setup.

Health-social determinants that influence maternal health care include the level of education, racism and ethnicity, gender, socio-economic factors, religion, and culture. These factors contribute to inequalities in the health setup when seeking maternal care and deny the affected a chance to get the best prenatal care. Some factors may hinder women from low-income families from accessing quality healthcare services (Dagher et al., 2022). These factors include poor infrastructure, lack of finances, and lack of enough healthcare personnel in the health facilities in some areas. Bias and discrimination may also affect some women from certain races and ethnicities, thus hindering them from accessing health care services.

The effects of these factors on maternal health care should be evaluated, and the nurses should provide insights to help in planning for the future, making new policies, and improving the program. For example, the assessment should include an examination of factors that will deny the affected group accessibility to the program, address the strategies that will lead to the success of the program, and identify problems that these women face based on health and social determinants.

References

Dagher, R. K., & Linares, D. E. (2022). A critical review of the complex interplay between social determinants of health and maternal and infant mortality. Children, 9(3), 394.

Limato, R., Tumbelaka, P., Ahmed, R., Nasir, S., Syafruddin, D., Ormel, H., & Kok, M. (2019). What factors make quality improvement work in primary health care? Experiences of maternal health quality improvement teams in three Puskesmas in Indonesia. PloS one, 14(12), e0226804.

Mergoni, A., & De Witte, K. (2022). Policy evaluation and efficiency: A systematic literature review. International transactions in operational research, 29(3), 1337-1359.