Response to Erica
Felisha Jones
Institutional Affiliation(s)
Author Note
Response to Erica
Response to Erica’s Post
The discussion highlights an important topic that the role of nurses is unique and critical for the healthcare sector. The reflection is correct that nurses who advocate for the better health condition of their patients can potentially also advocate for bringing positive changes in the existing policies. The discussion revealed the reason a nurse should choose to be a lobbyist or an advocate as priority. The nurses spend a lot of time with patients and they understand the required changes better. The nurses closely observe the facilities provided to patients, issues of health care systems and the urgently needed changes. This is the reason the decision and policy makers should concentrate on the reviews, suggestions, and complaints of the nurses. As they experience the issues on a daily basis. It is important to understand that if the nurses don’t raise voices about the issues that they or patient face every day, they will not be able to convey them to authorities or make changes. Only those who have competing interest will be sharing their views ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"i5B8y4tf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Oestberg, 2013)","plainCitation":"(Oestberg, 2013)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/OoBOYiKR","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/YZUQD7FP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/YZUQD7FP"],"itemData":{"id":956,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"An abstract is unavailable.","container-title":"Nursing2020 Critical Care","DOI":"10.1097/01.CCN.0000429392.92546.6f","ISSN":"1558-447X","issue":"3","language":"en-US","page":"48","source":"journals.lww.com","title":"Getting involved in policy and politics","volume":"8","author":[{"family":"Oestberg","given":"Fredrik"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013",5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Oestberg, 2013). Nurse can understand the influencing of policing on the health sector quickly and evaluate the outcome of the policing ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"rg8rm2Kg","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Arabi et al., 2014)","plainCitation":"(Arabi et al., 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/vATVU1rB","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/YJJX6BRB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/YJJX6BRB"],"itemData":{"id":953,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Nurses’ influence on health policy protects the quality of care by access to required recourses and opportunities. This is a new and important concept for nursing; however, research studies on policy influence of nurses in health care sector are ...","container-title":"Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research","issue":"3","language":"en","note":"PMID: 24949073","page":"315","source":"www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov","title":"Nurses’ policy influence: A concept analysis","title-short":"Nurses’ policy influence","volume":"19","author":[{"family":"Arabi","given":"Akram"},{"family":"Rafii","given":"Forough"},{"family":"Cheraghi","given":"Mohammad Ali"},{"family":"Ghiyasvandian","given":"Shahrzad"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014",6]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Arabi et al., 2014). Thus, they should come forward as the advocate or lobbyist to raise the concerns. Clearly, the nurses are the most important personnel when it comes to advocating or lobbying for betterment of healthcare sector. Nowadays, there are several nursing organizations that have legislative department. The role of the legislature department is to provide problem analysis as well as guide the nurse about communication for nursing advocacy ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"Ep5lpJMG","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Abood, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Abood, 2007)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/5l9abgNS","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/6M6A9CG8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/6M6A9CG8"],"itemData":{"id":958,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Nurses are well aware that today’s health care system is in trouble and in need of change. The experiences of many nurses practicing in the real world of health care are motivating them to take on some form of an advocacy role in order to influence a change in policies, laws, or regulations that govern the larger health care system. This type of advocacy necessitates stepping beyond their own practice setting and into the less familiar world of policy and politics, a world in which many nurses do not feel prepared to operate effectively. Successful policy advocacy depends on having the power, the will, the time, and the energy, along with the political skills needed to ‘play the game’ in the legislative arena. This article describes the role of the nurse as health care policy advocate, identifies the power bases available to nurses as they assume that role, discusses the policy process in the legislative arena, and presents strategies for effective action. A list of selected online resources is included to help readers learn more about shaping and influencing future health policy.","container-title":"The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing","issue":"1","title":"Influencing Health Care in the Legislative Arena","URL":"http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume122007/No1Jan07/tpc32_216091.aspx","volume":"12","author":[{"family":"Abood","given":"Sheila"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,31]]},"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Abood, 2007). The observation is valid if the nurses do not convey their issue sot authorities and policymakers, it is not possible to bring a change by merely realizing the issues. The nurses are being provided with opportunity to advocate and they should avail it.
Response to Megan’s post
This discussion is based on the role of nurses and NLN as advocates of healthcare system. The nurses have been advocating since the early ages. In the past, there were exceptional examples of nurses who empowered themselves to better the healthcare system. They archived this milestone through forming policy suggestions, varying or vetoing proposals presented by others, and considerably influencing the execution of healthcare policy. From those great examples, today’s nurses are motivated to step up and advocate for the necessary and positive modifications in exiting policies, legislation and regulations which directly or indirectly impact the healthcare system. The advocacy or lobby role requires background knowledge, preparation, and experience; however, it does not require anything apart from anything that nurse gains from daily routine. It is important that nurse and patient care centered policies are formed which help integrate higher standards for healthcare systems. There are many leading nursing organizations which encourage the active participation of nurses when a policy is formed ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"aVlX64UE","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Institute of Medicine & Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Institute of Medicine & Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, 2011)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/4eagwuXR","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/A34LHVD5"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/A34LHVD5"],"itemData":{"id":962,"type":"book","abstract":"The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles -- including limits on nurses' scope of practice -- should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.","ISBN":"978-0-309-15823-7","language":"en","note":"Google-Books-ID: LbN9wvTx7CwC","number-of-pages":"700","publisher":"National Academies Press","source":"Google Books","title":"The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health","title-short":"The Future of Nursing","author":[{"family":"Institute of Medicine","given":""},{"family":"Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine","given":""}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011",3,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Institute of Medicine & Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine, 2011). Several specialty nursing and state nursing administrations offer policy fellowships and internships ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"fpweH5Ft","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hofler, 2006)","plainCitation":"(Hofler, 2006)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/tkCeK5VA","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/I99VXHI8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/I99VXHI8"],"itemData":{"id":960,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"This article describes the experience of a nurse leader engaged in a state Health Policy Fellowship instituted in North Carolina by the North Carolina Center for Nursing (NCCN). This Health Policy Fellowship is designed to provide a focused practicum in major aspects of state-level health policy with emphasis on the role of the nurse leader. The program design includes exposure to experienced mentors with diverse areas of focus to learn from observation and interaction. This article describes the experience of a state Health Policy Fellow and includes discussion of understandings derived from interacting with key state stakeholders in the health policy arena and pearls of wisdom from the policy fellowship experience.","container-title":"Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice","DOI":"10.1177/1527154406290910","ISSN":"1527-1544","issue":"2","journalAbbreviation":"Policy Polit Nurs Pract","language":"eng","note":"PMID: 16864631","page":"110-113","source":"PubMed","title":"Learning from the best: the benefits of a structured health policy fellowship in developing nursing health policy leaders","title-short":"Learning from the best","volume":"7","author":[{"family":"Hofler","given":"Linda D."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2006",5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hofler, 2006). It is true that National League for Nursing raises awareness and advocates in favor of policies of healthcare sector. NLN has designed a toolkit for nurses, students studying nursing, and educators to them about different levels of authorities and government for policy making.
The healthcare experts and the nurse leaders are of view that the responsibility to point out the healthcare issues lies with the nurses. Any healthcare system is built to facilitate the patients and nurses serve as a pillar for these institutions. They realize and understand the healthcare which is affordable as well as good quality for people from all social classes. Thus, there is a need that all nurses take active leadership roles in policy formation sector of healthcare ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"69jV3BaT","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ferguson, 2001)","plainCitation":"(Ferguson, 2001)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"YNKhpGD0/nzu7qCws","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/35IQSNP8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/35IQSNP8"],"itemData":{"id":964,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Health care delivery systems are evolving and transforming rapidly. Nurses will need new leadership and policy skills to meet the challenge of ensuring patient care safety and quality health care delivery. Nurses bring a unique perspective to health care policy development because of their educational training, professional values and ethics, advocacy skills, and experiential background. Significant progress has occurred over the years toward advancing nursing's presence, role, and influence in the development of health care policy. However, more nurses need to learn how to identify issues strategically; work with decision makers; understand who holds the power in the workplace, communities, state and federal level organizations; and understand who controls the resources for health care services. In health care policy development, nurses are essential in ensuring quality health care that is accessible and affordable for all women and their infants. More nurses need to actively work as leaders in the health policy arena.","container-title":"Journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing: JOGNN","DOI":"10.1111/j.1552-6909.2001.tb01575.x","ISSN":"0884-2175","issue":"5","journalAbbreviation":"J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs","language":"eng","note":"PMID: 11572536","page":"546-551","source":"PubMed","title":"An activist looks at nursing's role in health policy development","volume":"30","author":[{"family":"Ferguson","given":"S. L."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2001",10]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ferguson, 2001).
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Abood, S. (2007). Influencing Health Care in the Legislative Arena. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(1). http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume122007/No1Jan07/tpc32_216091.aspx
Arabi, A., Rafii, F., Cheraghi, M. A., & Ghiyasvandian, S. (2014). Nurses’ policy influence: A concept analysis. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 19(3), 315.
Ferguson, S. L. (2001). An activist looks at nursing’s role in health policy development. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing: JOGNN, 30(5), 546–551. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2001.tb01575.x
Hofler, L. D. (2006). Learning from the best: The benefits of a structured health policy fellowship in developing nursing health policy leaders. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 7(2), 110–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527154406290910
Institute of Medicine, & Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine. (2011). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National Academies Press.
Oestberg, F. (2013). Getting involved in policy and politics. Nursing2020 Critical Care, 8(3), 48. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CCN.0000429392.92546.6f
