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Nurse Participation in Policymaking

RNs and APRNs are uniquely positioned to participate in healthcare policy review
because of their education and professional experience which give them an in-depth
understanding of local, regional, and national healthcare problems and what needs to be done
to solve them (Milstead & Short, 2019). There are multiple opportunities available to them to
influence healthcare policy. These opportunities include professional organizational
involvement and direct action.
Nurses have numerous organizations that they can join and help shape public policy.
Some of these organizations, such as National League for Nurses and American Nurses
Association are open to all nurses in the US. Others such as Emergency Nurses Association
and The Oncology Nurses Society are open to members of specific nurse specialties (Milstead
& Short, 2019). Joining these professional organizations allows nurses to participate in
healthcare policy review through presenting professional testimonies to various legislative
bodies on behalf of their organizations, lobbying for important policies, and writing articles
about various policies to be published on outlets of their professional organizations.
As for direct action, nurses can share their knowledge, experience, and unique
perspectives on various healthcare policies with legislators, agency staff, and government
bureaucrats (Milstead & Short, 2019). Among the issues they can discuss include what nurses
need to effectively perform their roles and what is needed for patients to have the best
outcomes possible (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). Additionally, they can serve as sources of
information that these appointed and elected officials need in order to prepare healthcare
policies.

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Even though these opportunities give nurses a room to influence public policies, few
take them up because of various challenges. One of these challenges is lack of time. Nurses
often have to contend with working for long hours and having huge workloads which limit the
time available to them to participate in policymaking initiatives (Sundean et al., 2019). This
challenge can be overcome through allowing nurses to have more flexibility at work so that
they can create time for policy engagements. Another challenge is lack of skills critical in
policymaking, such as negotiation and communication. Nurses can overcome this challenge
through training.
Apart from overcoming challenges that limit participation of nurses in policymaking,
increased nurse participation in policymaking can also be achieved through communicating to
them about availability of these opportunities. One strategy communicating availability of
these opportunities is through including them in nurse curriculums (Sundean et al., 2019).
Another one is using various nurse workshops that are organized by professional organizations
of nurses.

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References

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Informing Public Policy: An Important Role for
Registered Nurses. Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide, 1-16.
Sundean, L. J., White, K. R., Thompson, L. S., & Prybil, L. D. (2019). Governance education for
nurses: Preparing nurses for the future. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35(5), 346-352.
Turale, S., & Kunaviktikul, W. (2019). The contribution of nurses to health policy and advocacy
requires leaders to provide training and mentorship. International nursing review, 66(3),
302-304.