Nurses can play an important role in shaping the lawmaking process in various ways. The first step involves the introduction of a bill. Nurses can take part by asking the member of Congress to sponsor the bill. The legislator will seek support and advice when it comes to drafting the bill and nurses can provide this support. During the hearings phase, legislators and the public are educated on the subject as well as the issues found in the bill ( Woodward, Smart, & Benavides-Vaello, 2016) . Nurses can provide written and verbal testimony at a hearing where they air their views on the content of the bill. They can submit a written statement to express one’s views and provide background on the subject and issues that impact them or the patients.
Floor action also provides another opportunity to educate some of the legislators who are not committed on some of the issues that are found in the bill. Nurses can also participate in the conference action just before the bill is signed into law ( Woodward, Smart, & Benavides-Vaello, 2016) . The influence at this stage can be in the form of calls, letters, and visits when the two houses are trying to seek a compromise.
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The influence of the nurses to the process of bill enactment and passage into law can occur in various ways. The first one involves asking the legislators to sponsor a bill that would make the working conditions of nurses better and improve on the wellbeing of the patients. Each nurse can ask a member of Congress from his or her area to sponsor a bill that solves some of the weaknesses found in the bill.
Secondly, the influence can take place is through educating the legislators on how the bill will affect nurses, patients, and the healthcare sector in the country. The practitioner on the ground can make submissions on the merits and the demerits of the bill and the reasons why the legislators should either support or oppose the bill. This can happen during the hearing phase where the nurse provides information such as the background of the bill and explanations of the concepts that play out in the bill. I prefer this method of enlightening and submitting on the bill to members of Congress. The strategy will provide me with a chance to read the bill and deliberate on how it would affect my working environment and me.
One of the social determinants of health is access to healthcare services in society. Nurses are instrumental in improving access to healthcare services despite the various barriers that they encounter. These obstacles could be geographic, structural, gender-based, cultural, or socio-economical. Nurses play an important role when it comes to the eradication of inequalities of access that exist in all aspects of healthcare that include prevention, education, and the delivery aspects ( Shariff, 2015) . They are also obliged to advocate for the development of policies that help to improve the health outcomes of community members. For example, nurses have to make sure one of the key components of any reforms is the strategic strengthening of the primary healthcare systems to increase access to healthcare services. Lastly, they have to take responsibility in advocating, enabling, and mediating activities aimed at reducing poor health outcomes besides educating the members of the public on ways to promote access to healthcare services.
References
Shariff, N. J. (2015). Empowerment model for nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development: an East African perspective. BMC Nursing , 14 (1): 31.
Woodward, B., Smart, D., & Benavides-Vaello, S. (2016). Modifiable factors that support political participation by nurses. Journal of Professional Nursing , 32 (1), 54-61.
