Analysis of Position Papers for School-Based Treatment of Childhood Obesity

Description

Professional Context: Position papers are a way for individuals, groups, and organizations to express their views and intentions toward a specific issue. In health care, many position papers address specific policies, regulations, or other approaches to care. As a master’s-prepared nurse, you should feel empowered to express and advocate for your own views on policy and care matters. This is especially important when it comes to populations you or your organization cares for that are not receiving the quality, type, or amount of care that they require. An important skill in creating a position paper or policy proposal is the ability to analyze and synthesize others’ views about the population or issue of interest to you. By synthesizing the positive and negative views of an issue, you can become better equipped to strengthen your own arguments and to respond to opposing views in an informed and convincing way. Scenario: For this assignment, pretend you are a member of an interprofessional team that is attempting to improve the quality of health care and the outcomes for obese children. For the first step in your team’s work, you have decided to conduct an analysis of current position papers that address school-based childhood obesity treatment and prevention programs. In your analysis you will note the team’s initial views on the issue in the population as well as the views across a variety of relevant position papers. You have been tasked with finding the most current standard of care or evidenced-based practice and evaluating both the pros and cons of the issue. For the opposing viewpoints, it is important to discuss how the team could respond to encourage support. This paper will be presented to a committee of relevant stakeholders from your care setting and the community. If it receives enough support, you will be asked to create a new policy that could be enacted to improve the outcomes related to your chosen issue and target population Instructions: Explain your position with regard to health outcomes for childhood obesity (see position statement) Explain the role of the interprofessional team in facilitating improvements for treating and preventing childhood obesity. Evaluate the evidence and positions of others that could support a team’s approach to improving the quality and outcomes of care. Evaluate the evidence and positions of others that are contrary to a team’s approach to improving the quality and outcomes of care. Communicate an initial viewpoint regarding the issue and a synthesis of existing positions in a logically structured and concise manner. Integrate relevant sources (within 5 years) to support assertions, correctly formatting citations, and references using APA style.

Position Statement: Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions resulting in a lower quality of life among children with obesity as compared to children of normal weight. School based obesity prevention and treatment interventions are effective and can enable children to avoid co-morbidities of obesity, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression thereby improving their quality of life.