Policy and Nursing Role in Preventing Obesity: NSW Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy

Running head: POLICY AND NURSING ROLE
POLICY AND NURSING ROLE
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POLICY AND NURSING ROLE
Obesity is one of the most serious chronic disorders that is seen to have numerous
negative impact on the health of the individuals. This is the condition when humans tend to put
on weight becoming overweight or obese. They get exposed to chances of occurrence of
different types of serious conditions like heart disorders, type 2 diabetes as well as different bone
and joint disorders (Correira, Dussault & Pontes, 2015). As the weight keeps on increasing in the
individuals, the chances of occurrence of such co-morbid disorders also tend to increase. In the
statistical data found in the year 2014 and 2015, it has been seen almost 2 in 3 adults were found
to be overweight as well as obese. About 55 of the disease burden were found to be attributable
for overweight and obesity in the year 2011. About 1 in every of the 4 children of the age 2 to 17
were found to be obese or overweight in the year 2014 to 2015. Present day condition shows that
about two third of the people in the nation are overweight or obese and the proportion of obese
adults are continuing to rise. Along wise likelihood of chronic conditions and death is also likely
to increase which will have high cost to economy as well as provide a heavy burden on
healthcare (Xue, Brewer & Spetz, 2016). Therefore, the assignment will show the role of the
nurses about how they can control the growing number of obesity cases. In this aspect, they will
be taking the guidance of the policy that will help in developing interventions by which nurses
can provide care to patients to help them overcome such issues or prevent the occurrence of such
disorders.
Health policies can be defined as the decisions or the plans and actions that are developed
for achieving different types of specific healthcare goals within the society. Researchers are of
the opinion that explicit healthcare policies can achieve a number of things. It mainly helps in
defining the vision for the future that in turn helps in establishing targets as well as points of
reference for both the medium as well as the short term. Such health policies help in outlining the

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POLICY AND NURSING ROLE
different priorities and thereby the different expected roles of the different groups. It also helps in
building the consensus and accordingly informs people (Zboril-Benson, 2016). Researchers are
of the opinion that in order to be influential, nurses must see themselves as the professionals who
have the capacity as well as the responsibility for influencing the current and future healthcare
delivery systems. The nursing professional mainly operates from the framework that helps in
valuing all people in a holistic approach which in turn helps in fostering and advancing health of
the people throughout their lifespan and across all levels of the society (Green &
Thoroughgoood, 2016). In order for achieving this objectives, it is important that policies exist
which help in defining current disorders, its prevalence rates, as well as integration of
appropriate standards required for delivering of care and addressing conditions necessary for the
for the care to occur. With the help of the policy work, nurses get the scope of influencing their
practice standards and different procedures for assuring quality of care. Researchers are of the
opinion that nurses who are seen to influence the policy is mainly seen to be helping in shaping
the care that will be provided by the different professionals today and tomorrow. Researchers are
also of the opinion that policies also help in affecting resource allocation for supporting delivery
of healthcare.
The name of the policy is NSW Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy: Preventing
overweight and obesity in New South Wales 2013-2018. It has been published by the NSW
MINISTRY OF HEALTH and had been found to be one of the most useful policy papers. This is
because it had helped in providing a detailed analysis of the present condition where the policy
had shown the detailed statistical data about the prevalence of the obesity cases in the nation
(NSW Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy: Preventing overweight and obesity in New
South Wales 2013-2018, 2013). The policy had discussed in details about how two aspects that