Policies and Politics - Patient Representing a Diagnosis Essay

Policies and Politics - Patient Representing a Diagnosis - Essay Example Having such a high annual number of new cases with young citizens is an indication that the role of educators is not achieving effective results. This paper will address the lack of effectiveness of the educators as a policy issue, identify stakeholders, highlight nursing’s political involvement and state the writer’s position on the issue. The writer chose the case of a patient representing a diagnosis because she cared for a newly diagnosed young citizen who claimed not to have been properly informed on lifestyle choices. The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) provides persons with diabetes and their educators a representation at the state and federal governments, supporting activities relevant to the stakeholders and public policy relating to diabetes. However, according to the policy and advocacy goals they set up years ago, their impact is not as effective as may be desired: 1.9 million new cases in one year do not reflect success. Their goals included supporting initiatives that avoid more people developing diabetes; promoting education in diabetes and the educators’ role in healthcare; campaigning for policies that promote access to self-management training; and attaining reasonable reimbursement for educators. If the goals and the facilitating policies were well thought out, then the nation should have realized a significant drop in the number of new cases. The policies need to be updated. The process of moving a healthcare issue through policy-making, from a bill to an enactment, links health care to politics. This brings together several stakeholders who impact the decision making. They include elected officials, nurses, patients and special interest groups, all with varying perspectives of the situation, which are further diversified by the interests of the political parties.