1. Write a letter to the editor (3–5 double-spaced typed pages) of
an academic or professional journal. Your submission should be
succinct yet substantive.
Note
: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you
completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must
complete the assessments in this course in the order in which
they are presented.
Advocating for new policies is an important aspect of the
master’s-prepared nurse. For new policies to be compelling they
need to be supported by evidence. Supporting data can be used
to illustrate why new policies and interventions are needed to
help address a specific health issue. Compelling data can help
sway the stakeholders and gain support for your policy.
SHOW LESS
Another aspect of advocacy is disseminating new policies and
interventions outside of the immediate care environment. This
can be done by reaching out to professional organizations as
well as academic and professional journals. A letter to the
editor is one strategy for disseminating information to a wider
audience, and to potentially enlist support throughout the wider
professional community.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will
demonstrate your proficiency in the following course
competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care

2. for achieving high-quality population outcomes.
Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes
for a specific issue in a target population.
Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the
quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target
population.
Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of
interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population
health outcomes.
Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a
developed policy will support efficient and effective
achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of
their implications for health policy advocacy.
Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and
outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates
health policy development and advocacy.
Advocate for policy development in other care settings with
regard to a specific issue in a target population.

3. Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse
audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with
organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.
Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing
content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references using APA style.
Nurses have the opportunity to use their skills and develop
programs to keep individuals and communities healthy. Health
is complex however, and the nurse needs to possess strong
advocacy skills to successfully support a cause or interest. The
American Nurses Association’s code of ethics (2015) describes
the responsibility of a nurse to include working through and
with appropriate stakeholders to advocate for the health of
people in and out of the work environment. To be an effective
advocate, there are several important abilities a nurse must
possess, including problem solving, communication, and
influencing others. One way a nurse can advocate to a broader
population is through effective letter writing, both to legislators
and through the media, such as with editorials and research
articles.
Reference
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses
with interpretive statements. Retrieved from

4. http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStand
ards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/CodeofEthicsForNurses.html
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to
think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or
broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the
questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work
associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional
community. Note that these questions are for your own
development and exploration and do not need to be completed
or submitted as part of your assessment.
SHOW LESS
Assessment 3 will build upon the work you have done for your
previous two assessments. For this assessment, you will be
writing a letter to the editor of an academic or professional
journal as a means to advocate for adoption or development of
policies that will improve the quality of care and outcomes
around your chosen health care issue and vulnerable population.
Looking at your health care issue from a prevention standpoint,
what are the relevant levels of prevention?
What would be the benefits and challenges of applying a
specific level of prevention to your chosen issue and
population?
How might one or more approaches to prevention improve the
care and outcomes?

5. How could your policy be leveraged, or revised, to support the
relevant levels of prevention?
What are relevant strategies that you could use to help advocate
for the policy you are proposing?
How could these strategies help you advocate for your policy
proposal?
How does evidence from the literature support the benefits of
your proposed policy?
How does citing evidence help lend credibility to your
advocacy?
What academic or professional journal would be the best forum
to advocate for your policy?
Why is your chosen journal an appropriate forum?
Which advocacy strategies would be most effective in this
forum?
How will you craft your message to best appeal to the likely

6. audience of your chosen journal?
Scenario
Throughout this course, you have focused on a specific health
issue occurring within a specific population. You researched
position papers regarding this health concern, and you
developed a health policy proposal to positively impact the
health of the affected individuals. It is now time to reach a
greater audience regarding your policy proposal.
Instructions
Develop a letter to the editor of a peer-reviewed academic or
professional nursing journal based on the policy proposal that
you created for Assessment 2. Choose from one of the journals
on the Ultimate List of Nursing Journals (in the Resources) and
go to that journal’s Web site to find out the requirements for
submitting a letter to the editor, such as format requirements,
topics, and word counts. Make sure you select a nursing journal
that covers the topic about which you are going to write. If you
want to use another journal that is not on this list, please make
sure the journal does address health care, because this is the
purpose of the assessment.
The goal of your letter is to be informative about the policy that
you developed for Assessment 2, while also being persuasive
about the need for and benefit of similar policies in other health
care settings. The bullet points below correspond to the grading
criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your submission
addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Letter to

7. the Editor: Population Health Policy Advocacy Scoring Guide
and Guiding Questions: Letter to the Editor: Population Health
Policy Advocacy document to better understand how each
grading criterion will be assessed.
Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes
for a specific issue in a target population.
Look back to the data or scenario you used in Assessment 1 to
address this criterion.
Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and
outcomes for a specific issue in a target population necessitates
health policy development and advocacy.
Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the
quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target
population.
Advocate for policy development in other care settings with
regard to a specific issue in a target population.
Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a
developed policy will support efficient and effective
achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing
content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references using current APA style (or

8. the journal's preferred style).
Example Assessment:
You may use the assessment example, linked in the Assessment
Example section of the Resources, to give you an idea of what a
Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.
Additional Requirements
The submission requirements for your editorial will depend on
the journal you choose. To find out the requirements, go to the
journal's Web site. There should be a section regarding
submissions that will address how to format letters to the editor,
and whether there is a word count limit (there usually is a
limit).
If the journal does not have submission guidelines for the
number of resources required, use 3–5 sources.
To be sure that your instructor knows the submission and
formatting requirements for your letter, include the journal's
guidelines on a separate page at the end of the document you
submit for this assessment.
Length of submission: 3–5 double-spaced typed pages. Your
submission should be succinct yet substantive.
Grading Rubric:
1-
Evaluate the current state of the quality of care and outcomes

9. for a specific issue in a target population.
Passing Grade: Evaluates the current state of the quality of care
and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population.
Identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns, missing information,
unanswered questions, or areas of uncertainty (where further
information could improve the evaluation).
2-
Analyze how the current state of the quality of care and
outcomes for a specific issue in a target population
necessitates health policy development and advocacy.
Passing Grade: Analyzes how the current state of the quality of
care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target population
necessitates health policy development and advocacy. Identifies
areas of ambiguity or uncertainty where additional information
could help to improve clarity.
3-
Justify why a developed policy will be vital in improving the
quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue in a target
population.
Passing Grade: Justifies why a developed policy will be vital in
improving the quality of care and outcomes for a specific issue
in a target population. Impartially considers other perspectives.
4-
Advocate for policy development in other care settings with
regard to a specific issue in a target population.

10. Passing Grade: Advocates for policy development in other care
settings with regard to a specific issue in a target population.
Acknowledges potential challenges to policy development.
5-
Analyze the ways in which interprofessional aspects of a
developed policy will support efficient and effective
achievement of desired outcomes for the target population.
Passing Grade: Analyzes the ways in which interprofessional
aspects of a developed policy will support efficient and
effective achievement of desired outcomes for the target
population. Identifies areas of ambiguity or uncertainty where
additional information could help to improve clarity.
6-
Communicate in a professional and persuasive manner, writing
content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
Passing Grade: Communicates in a professional and persuasive
manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of
grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Identifies specific
strategies or approaches used to ensure clear communication.
7-
Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly
formatting citations and references.
Passing Grade: Integrates relevant sources to support
assertions, correctly formatting citations and references.
Citations are free from all errors.