Undoubtedly, a public health problem that should be highlighted today in health policy is Covid 19, this lethal virus has weakened the health of our population. Not only because of what the virus itself is, in terms of symptoms or treatment, this virus has affected many families, both physically, psychologically and socially. A virus of such magnitude stopped the world and as for the health of our population its in our hands to mitigate its effects, since it has become a pandemic, an endemic virus and we have to learn to live with this.
Social media is a valuable tool influencing health policy makers. Social networks promote communication between people and help promote topics of interest, exchange knowledge and transmit ideas (Mason, Gardner, Hopkins & OGrady, 2016). In the case of mass immunization, for example, it helps to convey messages regarding its safety, efficacy, and the need for vaccination.
The usefulness of social media is given, for example, once the analysis of a health policy is completed, which helps to solve or mitigate a health problem, it’s essential to develop a plan that serves to identify appropriate tasks and strategies to achieve the purposes of policy. Develop and implement a political strategy to solve a precise problem with a strict message, a common objective that aligns and an impartial audience that is well defined. Messaging is crucial to developing a political strategy. Nurses must be able to communicate with policy makers, other healthcare leaders, and the public, and can often use social media to send messages, to advise on institutional and public policies (Mason et al., 2016).
One of the most important functions of the media is to convey problems to the public and to policy makers. The way in which the media covers debates on various topics helps to identify issues of great importance. An example of this is the media coverage of patients who lost their lives because they did not have health insurance to pay for treatments such as cancer and other serious conditions, this inclusion of the media facilitated support to carry out a health care reform and the approval of Affordable Care Act (Mason et al., 2016).
References
Mason, D.J., Gardner, D. B., Hopkins Outlaw, F., & OGrady, E.T. (Eds.). (2016). Policy and Politics: In Nursing and Health Care. (7th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.
