Healthcare is one of the pillars of any nation as economic demonstrate due to the essence of workers health and productivity. Therefore, nursing practitioners (NP), physicians, and other health practitioners include some of the highest numbers in a given country. However, studies demonstrate that health professional’s exclusion in policy-making processes even on issues of healthcare improvement. For instance, Bauer, 2010), states that unlike other important workers of any economy, NPs have failed to consistently influence the legislative changes of most health policies and policies that would secure them from issues such as sexual assaults and work overload.
Multiple scholars echo these words with the argument that it has reached a time for NPs and other health professionals to engage in the political game for their survival and success (Sommers et al., 2014, Bauer, 2010, and Lanier, 2017). The continuous failure of NPs to engage in politics has resulted in the deficiency of policies aimed to enhance patient-oriented and community-based healthcare provider (Sommers et al., 2014). The general assumption is that since NPs play the greatest roles in the healthcare provision, they should be among the first to be included in the policy-making processes but due to different factors as discussed later in the paper, NPs are still underrepresented in policy-making processes.
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Therefore, using Lanier’s, “Government Response: Legislation, Politics: playing the Game,” (Lanier, 2017) as the primary guideline, this essay analyzes the NPs engagement or failures in policy-making and proposes the needed changes. The study is based on the assumption that NPs inclusion and ability to win in legislation affecting them and the healthcare provision will improve service delivery and help solve the problem of childhood obesity.
Lanier begins by claiming that most NPs regard politics as a dirty word but she is adamant that since policymaking is not optional because the once passed the policies will affect these health practitioners, they must engage in political issues. The article demonstrated even in the negative depiction of politics, NPs must learn the rules of playing the politics game because their ignorance on these issues makes them avoid politics without understanding that their participation would change solve most of their problems (Lanier, 2017). The ignorance and historical misconceptions of the nursing profession as inferior causes most of the social stereotyping of nurses who engage in politics or who are willing to fight for their rights.
Shariff (2014), echoes these claims by demonstrating that since the Florence Nightingale’s vision that transformed the nursing and health policies, the health practitioners have failed to maintain their role in policymaking in the health sector (Shariff, 2014). However, Lanier is sympathetic to the NPs arguing that the inadequate knowledge on politics and willingness to engage in politics by learning the rules of the game and using their high numbers is the main cause of the inadequate NPs involvement in politics. Therefore, the article describes the different steps of presenting a bill, supporting it, and passing it through the committee stages and modifying it until it is signed.
The article is a descriptive political paper that provides the importance of learning to engage in politics and winning. For instance, she describes the role of lobbyists in influencing the decision-making in the Senate and Congress in the different stages of the bill proposed by the NPs (Lanier, 2017). However, she notes that the failure to know the leaders representing them in the different houses makes it difficult for NPs to engage in conventional negotiating tactics. Therefore, NPs must learn on the need to know the people representing them and identify the stakeholders of the bills they propose. However, it is clear that the general assumption that those who engage in politics are self-centered and only engage in politics to satisfy selfish desires may apply to the leaders who venture in policies that affect NPs as individuals and their work. Therefore, the author encourages NPs to venture into leadership and politics since they understand the challenges they face in their profession more than anybody else can understand.
Venturing in politics is challenging but with the encouragement for nursing students to engage in leadership courses and supporting, those who venture in politics will ensure that the nursing problems are addressed. In the example provided on the continued sexual assaults of NPs and their silence, demonstrate that such inhumane treatment is proliferated by failure to speak out and inability to sway policy-makers to ensure that they are protected (Lanier, 2017). The article demonstrated that joining nursing organizations would enhance their bargaining power in the call for stricter rules due to their power and financial muscle of the nursing organization when they engage in politics as lobbyists.
The encouragement to engage in politics as described in the article may be enticing but in a past study by Vandenhouten, Malakar, Kubsch, Block & Gallagher-Lepak, (2011), discovered that 81% of the nurses cited workload as their barrier to participating in politics. The study also demonstrated that 64% cited their insouciance towards politics whereas almost half of the nurses cited inadequate knowledge and understanding of the legislative process as the major factor of their failure to engage in political policymaking. Kung and Lugo (2014) demonstrated that experience and organizational factors were the core factors influencing the participation of advanced practice nurses (APNs) in politics with the experience and freedom gained while practicing as a nurse resulting to the increased number of political participation (Kung & Lugo, 2015). Lastly, Moran (2014), demonstrated that leadership skills and organizational structure that encourage practitioners to engage in policymaking processes were the main determinants of the political engagement among APNs in Louisiana.
Lanier (2017) has demonstrated the relevance of NPs engaging in the politics and learning the rules to ensure they win. Different scholars such as Shariff (2014) support the vital of enhanced leadership and political engagement. Bauer, (2010), who demonstrated that when nursing engages in the primary health policies, they are bound to improve the service delivery and enable improvement of the public health. Lanier’s article has detailed the essential policymaking procedures and ways to navigate and engage in winning lobbyist political negotiations that will help NPs inclusivity in the policymaking and change the negative attitude towards politics. The survival and success of NPs as earlier stated is dependent on their involvement in major policymaking. Therefore, it is crucial for NPs to learn the rules and engage in politics to survive and succeed which will improve the healthcare provision and establish policies and programs to solve the problem of childhood obesity.
References
Bauer, J. C. (2010). Nurse practitioners as an underutilized resource for health reform: Evidence based demonstrations of cost effectiveness. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 22(4), 228-231.
Kung, Y., & Lugo, N. (2015). Political advocacy and practice barriers: A survey of Florida APRNs. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners , 27 (3), 145-151.
Lanier, J. K., (2017). CHAPTER. 3. Government. Response: Legislation. Politics: Playing. The. Game. Health Policy and Politics: a Nurse's Guide , by Milstead, & Short (6th ed., pp. 69-94). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Moran, V. J. (2014). Political participation among Louisiana advanced practice nurses. Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix . Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1552485329
Shariff, N. (2014). Factors that act as facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. BMC Nursing , 13 (1).
Sommers, B., Musco, T., Finegold, K., Gunja, M., Burke, A., & McDowell, A. (2014). Health Reform and Changes in Health Insurance Coverage in 2014. New England Journal of Medicine , 371 (9), 867-874.
Vandenhouten, C., Malakar, C., Kubsch, S., Block, D., & Gallagher-Lepak, S. (2011). Political Participation of Registered Nurses. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice , 12 (3), 159-167.
