topic 4 dq 2 24

Please respond with a paragraph to the following question, add citations and references:

Sheri Schouten represents Oregon House District 27 and is in her second term as State Representative. She has more than thirty years of experience as a public health nurse. She has been helping families in Oregon raise healthy children for many years. Her knowledge has led her to be selected by the Governor to the Oregon Commission on Women, where she can facilitate family-friendly policies (Oregon State Legislature, n.d.).

She has supported a number of public health policies designed to protect children and families that included House Bill (HB) 2644 which requires newborns to receive lifesaving vitamin k supplements by the most effective means available and HB 3404, which requires children under the age of two to be seated in rear-facing car seats, aligning Oregon statute with recommendations made by the National Academy of Pediatrics (Oregon State Legislature, n.d.). For the 2019 Legislative Session she has many focused priorities such as The Drug Take Back Program which would establish a state-wide program to take back and help dispose of unwanted, unused, and expired prescription drugs as easy as getting them from your pharmacy by creating kiosks around the state and offering mail-back envelopes on request (Oregon Health Authority [OHA], n.d.). She is also involved with and supporting a concept that would guarantee consumers will have an easier way to calculate their out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs by demanding that insurance carriers provide a minimum of twenty-five percent of their plans with a flat, pre-deductible copay cost called “Copay Transparency” (National Academy for State Health Policy [NASHP], 2018). Many families are struggling to meet costly deductibles for specialty drugs that treat cancer, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and other health challenges, and copay transparency will help them budget for their health care expenses.

The nurse role gives legislators the ability to understand and recognize nursing and healthcare issues. As a result, the legislators who are also nurses can combine their medical knowledge with their political position to adjust and influence the direction of healthcare delivery in an ideal way. Health policies at the state level affect the health and safety of the state’s residents, as well as lead the nursing and other healthcare professional’s scope of practice, and performance through the state’s professional practice acts (Cherry & Jacob, 2017). “The federal government’s role in health care includes significant funding for health and disease prevention and research; supplemental funding for education for health professionals, including nurses and physicians; and paying for individual health care services “(Cherry & Jacob, 2017, pg. 401). So, the legislators at the federal level will focus on these categories to shape healthcare delivery.

References

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2017). Contemporary nursing issues, trends, & management (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

National Academy for State Health Policy. (2018). Twenty-eight states passed 45 bills to curb rising Rx drug costs in the short 2018 legislative session. Retrieved from https://nashp.org/twenty-states-passed-37-bills-to…

Oregon Health Authority. (n.d.). Drug take-back and disposal. Retrieved from https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/healthyenvironments/…

Oregon State Legislature. (n.d.). Representative Sheri Schouten. Retrieved from https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/schouten/Pages/b…