Policy Analysis Assignment Template

Module 8 Policy Analysis Assignment Template

Assignment Description:
Complete a written policy analysis (5-7 pages single spaced including tables/charts) from your position in your Discussion Post. Students will analyze the problem and provide various options for solving it fully cognizant of the risks, benefits, opportunities, and threats. Students should adhere closely to the structure provided in the text in Chapter 14, The Art of Structuring and Writing a Health Policy Analysis. This will satisfy learning objective 3. (20 pts.)

Turnitin:
Students will be expected to correctly cite all source material and to utilize Turnitin for this assignment. Please note Turnitin will be set up so that you can run your policy analysis through it initially, make any necessary revisions to prevent plagiarism, and resubmit. Please submit your assignment at least one day before the deadline to have sufficient time to receive the Turnitin report and make any necessary changes and then re-submit the final assignment in Sakai by the deadline.

General Instructions:
1. Your client is the elected official that you identified in your Discussion Post for whom you are writing the Policy Analysis.
2. Each section of the Policy Analysis has a title.
3. Times New Roman 12 pt. font, single spaced. Seven pages maximum.
4. Do not use the words “this” or “it” without a modifier to increase clarity.
5. Do not use the first person narrative (I, we, our, etc.).
6. Must cite all facts and include as footnote on bottom of each page.
7. Do not copy verbatim, which is plagiarism even if you provide a citation. Do not re-use past work from other classes. You must paraphrase and cite or put quotations around the verbatim text and cite, which should be done infrequently when the exact words are necessary for you to make your point. You must check the Turnitin report and revise as necessary. Ten points will be deducted from your overall score if proper citations are not provided or if plagiarism is detected
8. Please complete and submit this completed template below as a WORD document attachment. If you do not use this template, points will be deducted from your grade. The amount of space allocated to each section in the template is not necessarily indicative of how much space the section should take up in your paper.
9. Remember the purpose of this policy analysis is to persuade your client that your recommendation is likely to yield success. You will be identifying stakeholders that might support and/or oppose what you are recommending and providing their reasons for their support and/or opposition.
10. The assignment will be graded based on the Grading Rubric below. For each day that the assignment is late, you will lose one point from your overall score.
Instructions for the specific sections from Chapter 14, The Art of Structuring and Writing a Health Policy Analysis
Problem Statement
A. One sentence that is a question stating the problem that you are analyzing.
B. Do not include the solution in the Problem Statement.
C. Make sure the three options in the Option section below answer the question in the Problem Statement.

Background
A. Purpose: Describe why the issue is important and needs to be addressed now.
B. Factual, not partisan or argumentative writing.
C. Give a complete picture.

Landscape
A. Purpose: identify all of the key stakeholders and key factors.
B. Neutral and objective writing.
C. The definition of a stakeholder is a person or category of persons who have an interest in the issue in the Problem Statement.
D. Bullet each stakeholder and under each bullet put their position regarding the Problem Statement (support the issue or not support the issue).
E. Select the key factors from the list in Box 14-1 on page 284 (Political Factors, Social Factors, Economic Factors, Practical Factors, Legal Factors, Quality-of-Care Factors) and use these factors to analyze the stakeholder positions. For example, you may select Legal Factors that is important to your issue. Then you would state any legislation relating to your issue and identify which stakeholders are for and against this legislation. You would follow this same process with all the key factors that you select. You must select at least three factors.

Options
A. Purpose: List 3 options in bullet format to answer the Problem Statement.
B. Select the key criteria from the sample criteria in Box 14-2 on page 286 (Cost, Cost-benefit, Political feasibility, Legality, Administrative ease, Fairness, Timeliness, Targeted impact, Effectiveness, Health-specific criteria). You must select at least three criteria.
C. Describe the pros and cons of each option organized by your selected criteria.

Recommendation
A. Purpose: Pick one of the three options based on your analysis.
B. Identify flaws of this option and describe why it still is the best option.
GRADING RUBRIC (20 points)

_/8 Demonstration of Critical Thinking:
o Assignment demonstrates excellent use of various critical thinking standards and concepts.
o Ideas are original and thoughtful.
o Proper use of logic and reasoning with appropriate citation.

_/6 Content, Development, and Support of Ideas:
__/1.2 Problem Statement
A. Is my problem statement one sentence in the form of a question?
B. Can I identify the focus of my problem statement?
C. Can I identify several options for solving the problem?
__/1.2 Background
D. Does the background include all necessary factual information?
E. Have I eliminated information that is not directly relevant to the analysis?
F. Is the tone of my background appropriate?
___/1.2 Landscape
G. Does the landscape identify all of the key stakeholders?
H. Are the stakeholders’ views described clearly and accurately (using the appropriate factors in Box 14-1 on page 284)?
I. Is the structure of the landscape consistent and easy to follow?
J. Is the tone of the landscape appropriate?
K. Does the reader have all the information necessary to assess the options?
__/1.2 Options:
L. Do my options directly address the issue identified in the problem statement?
M. Do I assess the pros and cons of each option?
N. Did I apply all of the criteria to each option’s assessment?
O. Are the options sufficiently different from each other to give the client a real choice?
P. Are all of the options within the power of my client?
___/1.2 Recommendation
Q. Is my recommendation one of the options assessed?
R. Did I recommend only one of my options?
S. Did I explain why this recommendation is the best option, despite its flaws?

_/3 Organization and Formatting:
o Policy Analysis Assignment template below is used by the student to submit the assignment.
o The instructions above are followed.
o Footnotes with sufficient information to find source at the bottom of each page
o Appropriate tool is used (e.g., submitted as a Word document).
o The organization is very clear and easy to follow.
o The assignment contains all of the key elements (e.g., student’s name and date, appropriate sub-headings).

_/3 Sentence Structure, Grammar, and Spelling:
o Sentences are structured correctly.
o No grammatical or spelling errors.

Policy Analysis Assignment

Please complete and submit this completed template below as a WORD document attachment.

Student Name: _____________________________
Date: _____________________________________

Your client is the elected official that you identified in your Discussion Post for whom you are writing the Policy Analysis.

Client: _______________________________________________
Title: ______________________________________________________________

PROBLEM STATEMENT

One sentence that is a question that cannot be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

BACKGROUND

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

LANDSCAPE

List the key factors from the list in Box 14-1 on page 284 (Political Factors, Social Factors, Economic Factors, Practical Factors, Legal Factors, Quality-of-Care Factors) that you will use to analyze the stakeholder positions:
1. _____________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________

· Stakeholder #1: Name or organization:________________________________
Describe their position on the issue in the Problem Statement:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Describe their concerns categorized by the appropriate factors listed above:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
· Stakeholder #2: Name or organization:________________________________
Describe their position on the issue in the Problem Statement:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Describe their concerns categorized by the appropriate factors listed above:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
· Stakeholder #3: Name or organization:________________________________
Describe their position on the issue in the Problem Statement:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Describe their concerns categorized by the appropriate factors listed above:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
· Bullet as many stakeholders as you have using the same format

OPTIONS

List 3-5 criteria from the list in Box 14-2 on page 286 (Cost, Cost-benefit, Political Feasibility, Legality, Administrative Ease, Fairness, Timeliness, Targeted impact, Effectiveness, Health care-specific criteria) that you will use for your analysis of the pros and cons of each option:
1. _____________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________

Option 1: 3-5 word description of option: ______________________________________________
Write each option as an action for your client to undertake:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss the pros of this option (what is useful):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Discuss the cons of this option (what is problematic):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Option 2: 3-5 word description of option: ______________________________________________
Write each option as an action for your client to undertake:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss the pros of this option (what is useful):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Discuss the cons of this option (what is problematic):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Option 3: 3-5 word description of option: ______________________________________________
Write each option as an action for your client to undertake:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss the pros of this option (what is useful):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Discuss the cons of this option (what is problematic):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Very good idea to include a table as illustrated in Table 14-1 Descriptive Side-by-Side Table on page 287 (Please see example below) or Table 14-2 An Analytic Side-by-Side Table on page 288.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A table does not replace a discussion of the 3 options describing the pros and cons. Do not just include a table in the Options section, or you will have points taken off.

Table 1: An Analytic Side-by-Side Table Example

Options Criteria
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Cost

Political Feasibility

Timeliness

Effectiveness

Health care-specific criteria

RECOMMENDATION

Option 1, 2, or 3: (3-5 word description of option that must be one of the 3 above options): __________________________________
Summarize why this option is the best:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss flaws of option selected but why still the best choice based on your client’s values and power:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Identify what, if any, actions may be taken to mitigate or overcome the negative aspects of this option:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________