Facilitating Political and Policy Awareness for Advanced Practice Nurses

An on-line graduate course taught at a large Midwestern University School of Nursing on policy and politics is required for all master degree students. Students begin by completing a pre-political astuteness quiz. This enables them to determine their initial knowledge and activities related to policy and politics. Scores ranged from 4-28 in a recent class on this 40 item measure. The mean was 28.8%. There is no incentive for the student to exaggerate their pre- or post- scores as the activity is graded by participation and not by the actual score or change in score. However, a change in score does indicate students have gained in their political awareness. Frequently the only initial political experience is voting, although one in every class will share that they have never registered to vote. The students research legislation that has impacted a population or issue. In addition through readings, attending a policy meeting, interviewing someone involved in politics, writing a letter to a legislator and a policy proposal project students grow in their political awareness. On the post-political astuteness quiz the scores ranged from 14-34, with a mean of 62.4%. However, the scores all increased from the pre-test to the post-test and the percent change ranged from 10-57.5%. This course would lend itself to being used by public health nurses. As more public health professionals are required to focus on outcomes of their care, this type of policy course can assist with using the outcome data for public policy development.