Essay 2: Emerging trends in health care.

The second half is the graded half and it is easy to drift out of. The question is what a marketer can do about the trend, not what the health system should do about it.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 22, 2026

Written by

Maren Caldwell

MSN, RN, CNE

Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation

Reviewed by

Dr. Tessa Redmond

DNP, RN, CNE

Evidence-based practice and clinical education

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Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

The marketer's response, not the health system's

Choose trends you can evidence from the last five years, since the brief limits the sources and an unevidenced trend leaves the essay with nothing to stand on. Strong candidates include the normalisation of telehealth and the uneven access that came with it, consumers arriving with information from search engines and increasingly from generative tools, price transparency requirements changing what patients can compare, the shift of volume to retail and urgent care settings, workforce shortage constraining capacity, and value-based payment changing what a service is rewarded for. Two are enough, and picking two that interact produces a better essay than two unrelated ones. Telehealth and access inequality, or price transparency and consumer search behaviour, are pairs that give the second half something to argue rather than two separate reports to write. Whichever pair you take, name the interaction explicitly in the first paragraph so the reader knows the essay has an argument.

The second half is where essays drift, because the natural instinct is to answer what the health system should do rather than what the marketer can do. Keep the answer inside the marketing function and it becomes specific: segmentation and targeting when a new channel reaches a different population, positioning and message testing when the audience arrives already informed, service line and pricing communication under transparency rules, digital presence and reputation management when a search result is the first encounter, patient experience data used as market research rather than as a quality metric, and the compliance constraints that make health care marketing unlike other sectors, including privacy rules and restrictions on inducements. That last constraint is worth a sentence, because it is the thing that distinguishes this discipline, and a marketer who ignores it creates a regulatory problem rather than a campaign. Say which tactic it rules out.

Likely learning objectives

Select trends supported by recent evidence.
Keep the response inside the marketing function.
Name specific marketing levers rather than strategic intentions.
Recognise the regulatory constraints particular to health care marketing.

Assignment instructions

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Health care is changing rapidly, and health care marketers must be prepared to face the challenges the future will bring. Discuss the following: Examine and discuss 2 emerging trends in health care. Analyze what the health care marketer can do to address the challenges that are associated with those trends. The use of APA Style and scholarly references published within the last 5 years is required. You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Essay 2: Emerging trends in health care. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. Essay 2: Emerging trends in health care.

Turn the brief into deliverables

01Two emerging trends, each evidenced from the last five years.
02The challenge each trend creates for the organisation.
03Marketing responses stated as marketing actions.
04At least one response involving segmentation, positioning or channel.
05A note on privacy and inducement constraints.
06APA style with sources published within five years.