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Unit 1 Assignment - Examine Knowledge Framework
Herzing University
HA610 Health Policy & Management
Dr. H
September 11
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My knowledge of state and federal health policies is superficial and resulting from
my nursing classes at Herzing University. I have learned about the importance of federal health
policy called HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) and HITECH (Health
Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health). They were written to protect the
rights of patients’ privacy with the advent of electronic health records, particularly concerning
the dangers of information leaking and breaching (Kruse et al., 2017). Another federal policy I
am familiar with is OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and its continued
efforts of reducing musculoskeletal injuries in healthcare workers (Bell et al., 2008). There are a
few more such as Affordable Care Act, Food and Drugs Act, nursing informatics, Planned
Parenthood, and Patient Safety & Quality Care Act.
Health policies are created in response to important issues and understanding them can
help improve patient outcomes. By understanding the rationale behind policy creations,
healthcare workers can better understand the care they give to patients and patients can be better
informed about the care they receive. Communication between healthcare workers and
administrators will ensure the strategies for policy implementation will be successful and
properly assessed for errors or improvements (QSEN Institute, n.d.). The accumulation of
knowledge from policy creation and implementation should allow effective evaluation of
performance, accountability, responsibility, and more (QSEN Institute, n.d.). The first step to any
patient care is assessment of the care and how it relates to the patient. Without a comprehension
of the healthcare policy and evidence-based practice behind the care, workers are more prone to
errors and giving improper varying degrees of care.
Healthcare policies should be governed by science and research yet most recently religious and
personal beliefs have been the controlling interest behind them. Is it unfortunate that the dream
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of our Founding Fathers is being trampled and bastardized by the few. While religion and
partisanship should have no place in policy making, I understand the difficulty of separating
them because humans are not made to be impartial. I believe in pro-choice for women, universal
healthcare, standardized staff to patient ratios, and more. My beliefs are built from personal
stories of people past, present, and future, the research and science performed by those who have
dedicated their lives to the pursuit of the truth, and from being exposed to all sides of the same
coin. Just as the world will advance and grow so will my biases and opinions change in
accordance with new knowledge and insights. Currently my primary sources of information are
from social media and news media. Specifically, AP (Assistive Personnel) news, CDC (Centers
for Disease Control), curated news feeds, local news on Facebook, and communicating with
those around me.
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References
Bell, J. Collins, J., Galinsky, T.L., & Waters, T.R. (2008, September 22). Preventing Back
Injuries in Health Care Settings. CDC: NIOSH Science Blog. Retrieved July 28, 2021
from https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2008/09/22/lifting/
Kruse, C. S., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security Techniques for the
Electronic Health Records. Journal of medical systems, 41(8), 127.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-017-0778-4
QSEN Institute. (n.d.). QSEN Competencies. Retrieved on August 24, 2021 from
https://qsen.org/competencies/pre-licensure-ksas/#informatics
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