1. Briefly describe and define the topic in relation to your field of nursing (adult, child or mental health) and provide some contextual background.

Policy and Politics for Clinical Leadership (7KNIE703)

Assessment guidelines 

The assessment for this module is comprised of one piece of academic writing up to 2,000 words in length.

Rationale:

Throughout your careers you will be asked to present complex ideas and data in concise, coherent and compelling formats. This assessment will allow you to further develop your skills in this area and provides you with an opportunity to critically explore in depth an issue of interest and relevance to your field of clinical practice.

Assessment format:

The assessment comprises a brief critical review of the evidence and current policy relating to a key issue in clinical practice; and the development of recommendations to improve care and/or the patient/service user experience.  It also includes a critical discussion of how effective clinical leadership behaviours would impact on the recommendations in practice. The Policy+ and Practice+ reports produced by the former National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) are exemplars of the type and style of content and approach required for this assessment http://www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/research/nnru/policy/policyplus.aspx.

Choosing your focus:

1. We asked Chief Nurses from local NHS trusts what the current top issues were for them and their trusts and these have been included in the list of topic areas below. Choose one of the broad topic areas for your assessment.

• Preventing illness, improving health and promoting well being
• Safe, effective and healthy staffing levels
• Consistent provision of quality care
• New models of care

If you have an idea that does not seem to fit with the topic areas outlined above please discuss with your group leader as you may still be able to develop it for your assessment.

2. Identify a specific focus for your writing, for example an intervention/strategy/approach/model that you have read about or seen in practice that you think could be improved or modified or shared more widely. You could also propose a novel way of improving care and the patient experience.

Writing the assessment:

1. Briefly describe and define the topic in relation to your field of nursing (adult, child or mental health) and provide some contextual background.

2. Critically review the key evidence relevant to your chosen focus and provide a short summary of the findings.

3. Critically review current national policy, which has an impact on your chosen focus in your field of practice, and provide a brief summary.

4. Critically evaluate the current situation. You may want to consider the following points:-

• What is working and what is not?
  • How do we know? Outcomes data – local and national.
  • What is known about the issue and where is there missing evidence/data?

5. Present your recommendations for improving care and/or the patient/service user experience. This should include addressing knowledge gaps as well as policy development and/or implementation.

6. Critically discuss leadership behaviours that would impact on the implementation of your recommendations. Select relevant dimensions of the Healthcare Leadership Model: The Nine Dimensions of Leadership Behaviour Version 1.0 (www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk) and apply to your discussion with reference to the role of newly qualified nurses and more experienced staff in developing, evaluating and implementing your recommendations.