Response

Please respond to the discussion below with an APA 7th edition format with citations and at least 2 references, one page is okay.

It is important for a nurse to know how to interpret laws to fit their practice and for general patient care. Naturally, a nurse should be an advocate for the health of the population, being ready to represent a patient in need. In order to do this, nursing professionals must have a working knowledge of government, health care law, the policy process, and the political forces that are shaping the future of health care. As seen in the article reference below "It argues that if nurses are to influence the quality of healthcare effectively, they must be engaged with policymakers to get nursing care issues on the policy agenda. There is an ethical imperative to do so, driven by the advocacy role of the nurse and rooted in the values base of nursing (Scott, 2021)". There is no better profession to advocate for the different policies to enhance health care than the heroes who are directly involved in patient care.

Two ways a RNs and APRNs can actively participate in policy-making is by being an advocate for the right social policies to promote justice, fairness, and health equity. They can also present evidence-based practices to promote the changing of policies to ensure healthier communities. With nurses helping to gather data, they can also participate in policy review by gathering information and knowledge to better a policy and evaluating the outcomes.

Some of the challenges that these opportunities may present are time management, starting out a nurse may need to balance their full time job while getting introduced to policy making. Having to balance work and time may be a great challenge especially if the nurse has a family to care for. Another challenge may presenting the right information to the right persons to support the passing of the policy. Getting the support from others may pose as a barrier.

Two strategies I recommend that might make it better to advocate for or communicate the existence of these opportunities to participate in policy-making is to get involve in a organization where support is already established and be active on social media. Organizations like ANA and other nursing specific has unique ways of sharing and promoting nurses with great ideas. Being active on social media also allow for the sharing and meeting of others who may have the same interest to promote their policy.

Reference

Klein, K. J., & Sorra, J. S. (1996). The challenge of innovation implementation. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 1055–1080.

Scott SM, Scott PA. Nursing, advocacy and public policy. Nursing Ethics. 2021;28(5):723-733. doi:10.1177/0969733020961823

Tummers, L., & Bekkers, V. (2014). Policy implementation, street level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretionLinks to an external site.. Public Management Review, 16(4), 527–547.