Health Advocacy Nurs 6050

Health Advocacy Campaign

Policy & Advocacy for Population Health

NURS 6050D-1

February 8, 2014

Health Advocacy Campaign

Advocacy is the active promotion of a cause or principle; advocacy also involves actions that lead to a selected goal. Nurses have some obligation to participate in politics, having some political savvy as a nurse is just as important to a nurse’s practice as having knowledge in other areas of the nursing field. (Milstead, 2013). A very important policy needs to be put in place to restrict adults who smoke in vehicles with children that are under the age of 18; the aim is to reduce exposure of second hand smoke (SHS). As per Hick (2009), “children who are exposed to tobacco smoke, both before and after birth, have been known to suffer from a number of effects on their health, which includes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory problems, cancer and impaired mental and social environment.” The purpose of this paper is to determine the population that is at risk, develop an advocacy campaign to protect the population and to determine the legal considerations.

Population

The selected population consists of children under the age of 18. The issue at hand is that of their exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) by adults. “Exposure to SHS is defined as the involuntary or passive breathing of air contaminated with tobacco smoke by someone who is not smoking” (Hick, 2009).

Proposed Policy

The proposed policy of adults smoking in private vehicles with children who are under the age of 18 would be enacted through the modification of an existing law. Penal Code, Chapter 48, Sections 48.01-48.015: Smoking in Public Places. The penal code states “Sec. 48.01. SMOKING TOBACCO. (a) A person commits an offense if he is in possession of a burning tobacco product or smokes tobacco in a facility of a public primary or