Nurses as Policy Makers and Their Importance in Promoting Health Advocacy
Word cloud generators have become popular tools for meetings and team-building events. Groups or teams are asked to use these applications to input words they feel best describe their team or their role. A “word cloud” is generated by the application that makes prominent the most-used terms, offering an image of the common thinking among participants of that role.
What types of words would you use to build a nursing word cloud? Empathetic, organized, hard-working, or advocate would all certainly apply. Would you add policy-maker to your list? Do you think it would be a very prominent component of the word cloud?
Nursing has become one of the largest professions in the world, and as such, nurses have the potential to influence policy and politics on a global scale. When nurses influence the politics that improve the delivery of healthcare, they are ultimately advocating for their patients. Hence, policy-making has become an increasingly popular term among nurses as they recognize a moral and professional obligation to be engaged in healthcare legislation.
To Prepare:
Revisit the Congress.gov website provided in the Resources and consider the role of RNs and APRNs in policy-making.
Reflect on potential opportunities that may exist for RNs and APRNs to participate in the policy-making process.
Post an explanation of at least two opportunities that exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policy-making. Explain some of the challenges that these opportunities may present and describe how you might overcome these challenges. Finally, recommend two strategies you might make to better advocate for or communicate the existence of these opportunities to participate in policy-making. Be specific and provide examples.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* posts by suggesting additional opportunities or recommendations for overcoming the challenges described by your colleagues.
Policy Maker
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Even as nurses have clinical expertise, knowledge, and skills, they may not actively influence health policies. Yet, the nurses’ engagement and analysis of health policy are crucial to promoting health advocacy. Nurses require knowledge of the health policy processes and political competence to support policy development (Benton, Al Maaitah & Gharaibeh, 2016). The nurse also ought to be involved in policy development to influence policy changes and support patient advocacy. Besides influencing health policies, nurses can influence resource allocation to improve the provision of healthcare services. Nurses are more likely to participate in policy development when the structures and workplace environments are conducive. Nurses’ active participation in policy and decision-making strengthens the nurses’ position to be advocates and influence the health policy, but nursing leaders also need to be supportive.
Nurses’ should not merely be involved in the policy process after policy formulation and ought to be informed about the need for the policies. It is also better to make financial policy decisions when nurses and their representatives are present, encouraging nurses’ active participation. While there is recognition of the need for nurses to be invoked in policy development, nurses tend to be involved during the latter implementation phase and not the formulation stage.
Opportunities and strategies to participate in policy-making
Nurses should be trained on policy development and patient advocacy and placed in leadership roles to promote patient advocacy and policy-making. Nurses’ involvement in health policy is necessary,...