Globally, nurses play a pivotal role in galvanizing the operations of inter-professional healthcare teams involved in realizing all-encompassing global health policies. This follows the fact that nurses have direct contact with patients. The profession places them in an intermediate position between patients and doctors, which designates nurses as ideal conveyors of health policy. Therefore, it is imperative that nurses, individually or through unions and bodies, take a proactive role in developing, reinforcing, and implementing or actively contributing to health policy in the global health space. In retrospect, nurses ought to be part of the policy-making teams since the global health policies significantly affect their work directly. In this paper, I explore the roles of the nurse in health policy, indicate why the nurse's involvement is not yet satisfactory, and recommend a handful of means to remedy the phenomenon.
The Need for Involvement
First of all, understanding what nurses bring to the table is essential. Far from their professional skills, nurses are excellent communicators and form the ideal relay mechanism between clients (the public) and legislators. Olson (2016) further adds that nurses' conversance with the ISBAR method enables them to adequately fit in the medical framework, seamlessly applying diagnosis, assessments, implementation, and evaluation to enforce the policy. To command influence, nurses have to act with professional dignity, nobility, and capacity to impact the current and future healthcare systems (Burke, 2016). Their profession rests on the fundamental pillars of health and science of compassion, which implies that they establish a framework that sustains a holistic way of advancing people's lives through health. Through policy work, nurses can influence practice standards and mechanisms, as well as resource allocation. One of the advantages of nurses' involvement in policy is the creation of a useful and robust structure of management, communication, and implementation of change (Burke, 2016). This is to say, involvement in policy enables working together with other professions to bridge disparities between strategy and practice.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Nurses’ Involvement Through Unions
Nurses, through associations, advocate for improvement in health policy and its reform whenever necessary. This is the fundamental role of the nurses' unions in health policy, since they form the largest segment of health workers in the US, and globally (Lewinski and Simmons, 2018). In America, the American Nurses Association (ANA) prioritizes the highest quality of healthcare, which is every citizen's right. Time over time, the ANA has been vocal, pushing policy-makers to appreciate the value of nursing. To a more considerable extent, it has been successful, measuring from the many reforms on the laws affecting nurses' practice. A case in point is the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. Also known as the ACA, the 2010 Act has seen a commendable increase in individuals accessing affordable insurance (American Nurses Association, 2019). Far from that, the ANA has closely monitored robust policy frameworks’ performance, which necessitated numerous legal processes. For instance, in 2016, the ANA penned a letter to President-elect Donald Trump outlining the nurses’ desired revisions on the 2010 ACA Act. In 2017, the body launched defenses to stop legislative attempts that would undermine the healthcare system. Among other numerous instances, these reaffirm the commitment of nurses to be key players in health policy.
Nurses are a crucial component in the regulation and oversight of vital national health policies. When Congress passes laws, they are, at most times abstract, and often lack the adequate specificities to make an impact. Therefore, it is upon the nursing bodies, led by the American Nurses Association, to dress the policies with the specific language and specifics for smooth adoption into the healthcare bloodstream. In this regard, the ANA monitors federal agencies in the implementation and regulation of federal laws. Through the ANA, nurses monitor the Agency for Health Research and Quality to develop policies that concern healthcare decisions. It also monitors the CD in the research and implementation of new drugs and treatment methodologies. Also, the Department of Human Health Services is under ANA's radar when implementing policies that concern public and community health. Other agencies include the Department of Justice, regarding enforcing anti-trust laws and prohibiting activities and products that harm human health, such as counterfeit drugs. The Drug Enforcement Authority, the Food and Drug Administration agency, operates in close watch of nurses. In principle, this signifies the active role nurses play in policy-making.
Individual Involvement
The professional nurse can participate in policy-making directly by conducting quality improvement projects on the job, followed by writing whitepapers to respective bodies to champion improvements in the respective area. Nurses also attend local (and regional) meetings, board meetings, or conventions to share expertise and take up projects. Another common way to contribute to policy shaping is to take leadership roles on boards, institutions, and federal/state commissions, and channel the right policies (Lewinski and Simmons, 2018). Olson (2016) further observes that nurses utilize frameworks such as the Triple Aim Initiative by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement to kick-start successful evidence-based interventions. This is often backed up by professional networking and engaging other stakeholders in the healthcare sector to push for consultative and intuitive improvement in the policy. There are joint interests in the case. Nurses also have a reputation for assisting doctors with research and projects, which places policy-making within an arm's stretch. It is beyond doubt that singly or in unison, nurses have a role in health policy.
Constrained Involvement
Although nurses make up the largest designation of health workers in the US, their engagement in policy-making is frustratingly limited. Historically, nurses have mostly been left out in policy formulation and engaged in implementation (Lewinski & Simmons, 2018). A critical analysis indicates that structural factors, sexism, nursing professional issues, and traditional hierarchies are responsible for the limited spaces available for nurses of policy formulation roundtables. Other reasons include systemic neglect of the profession, as observed when the UK’s Department of Health dissolved the Nursing, Midwifery, and Allied Health Professions Policy Unit (Roxane, 2016). This is neither sudden nor surprising since not so long ago, the Louisiana Department of Health eliminated the state Public Health Nursing wing.
Lewinski & Simmons's pilot study revealed that frontline nurses and nurse managers at the provincial level in Canada had their roles designated as implementers of policy, thus implicitly excluding them from policy formulation. What further solidifies the limited participation of nurses from policy-making is the view held by many that they are not entitled to it. This is affirmed by Gimbel et al. (2017), who reveals that the notion is developed in early career years when junior nurses are considered mere assistants to doctors and senior staff. This creates a scenario in which nurses feel that policies are being forced on them, and when the plans fail, the nurses stand back and watch things collapse. This badly hurts the healthcare system. This could be partly attributed to the fact that the policy-makers are non-nurses, and would, by nature, not have the intuitive feel of what practicing nurses feel. Roxane (2016) further cites that most senior policy-making boards have a preference for doctors over nurses as a reason for the little participation of nurses in health policy. This could be augmented by the fact that nurses have comparatively inadequate skills to bring forth research evidence to contribute to policy formulation. Given that this, by design, is not their fault, the nurses are bound to feel out of place when it comes to health policy.
Action Plan
Gimbel et al. (2017) propose the institution of academic structures to enhance the nurse's position in health policy. If meticulously implemented, this will solve the problem of inadequate research skills, constraining them from competitively winning seats on health policy roundtables. As well, upbringing nurses who are conscious of their need to participate in health policy, contrasted from the present case of raising them as doctor's assistants, would undoubtedly improve participation. Secondly, Lewinski & Simmons (2018) suggest that restructuring the policy system from a legislative higher level could fix some of the systemic bugs that designate nurses as mere implementers, and not formulators as policy. Meanwhile, nursing unions should advocate for fair representation in health policy commissions and delegations, irrespective of the number of research papers presented, to lessen rivalry from medical doctors. Lastly, skill-building should be kick-started on a massive scale, to empower the current nurses to overcome the present obstacles and show up for health policy positions.
Conclusion
To sum up, the discussion ascertains that the nurse is an essential element in healthcare service delivery. The professional nurse is the glue that holds together policy, government, and the general public, who are the recipients of heal services. Furthermore, the participation of nurses in health policy via unions is relatively successful, as seen from the myriad achievements ANA has undertaken. However, the scheme breaks at individual participation provide an endless list of low participation incidences and the reasons behind it. Not surprisingly, structural constraints appear at the top of the list.
References
American Nurses Association. (October 2019). “Health Policy: Practise and Advocacy.” Retrieved https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/health-policy/
Burke, S. (February 06, 2016). “Influence Through Policy: Nurses Have a Unique Role.” Reflections on Nursing Leadership . Retrieved https://www.reflectionsonnursingleadership.org/commentary/more-commentary/Vol42_2_nurses-have-a-unique-role#:~:text=Through%20policy%20work%2C%20nurses%20can,to%20assure%20quality%20of%20care.&text=Policies%20also%20impact%20resource%20allocation,unique%20role%20in%20formulating%20policy
Gimbel, S., Kohler, P., Mitchell, P., & Emami, A. (2017). Creating Academic Structures to Promote Nursing's Role in Global Health Policy. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 117-125.
Lewinski, A. A., & Simmons, L. A. (2018). Nurse Knowledge and Engagement in Health Policy-Making: Findings from a Pilot Study. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing , 49(9), 407-415.
Olson, K. (October 06, 2016). “Influence Through Policy: Four Steps YOU Can take.” Reflections on Nursing Leadership . Retrieved https://www.reflectionsonnursingleadership.org/commentary/more-commentary/Vol42_2_influence-through-policy-four-steps-you-can-take
Roxane, N. (2016). Are Nurses Being Nudged Out of Policy-Making? AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 116(9), 14.
