Answer discussion

ANSWER DISCUSSION…AT LEAST 2 REFERENTS AND NOT 5 YEARS PASS ..THANK YOU

Policy review is something that should be educated about at an associate level in nursing. Policies help shape the healthcare system and can dictate nursing practice. There are many opportunities for nurses to actively participate. One way is getting involved with an organization like the American Nurses Association (ANA) or the American Academy of Nursing (AAON) (Williams et al., 2018). The AAON focuses on taking the initiative to create evidence-based policies to be carried out. The Academy is represented by over 2,800 whom they refer to as fellows. The fellows are then accompanied by ten board members which the fellows have elected. These members are very accomplished healthcare associates, ranging from master's degrees and doctoral degrees. l of these members has very lucrative careers in healthcare.  

AAON has created a bi-monthly journal called Nursing Outlook. This is a journal of up-to-date evidence-based journals related to current issues in the nursing world (Policy & Advocacy News - American Academy of Nursing Main Site, 2021). Being a new nurse, I was not aware that this organization existed. Another opportunity would be to get involved in your hospital's policy review board. The burn center I work at currently has a policy board in which it is open to the current staff to bring policies to them for review and execution. Most facilities have a policy review board. These boards are normally reserved for more experienced nurses and healthcare staff, but it is open to any staff member willing to prove their credibility for the research presented. Some challenges that can present themselves can vary. When getting involved with organizations can have time challenges and make it difficult to have your policy reviewed at an appropriate time (Hajizadeh et al., 2021).  

Nursing boards have certain requirements. These could take time to acquire or have members that have been on the board for decades. Which may only have an opening when someone either resigns or expires. Overcoming these challenges will be contacting your state or federal representatives. The appropriate people can be of help and make things a little faster.  

Nursing boards may require some patience or some higher-up recommendations to get attention faster. I would recommend getting involved in organizations like ANA or AAON early on in your nursing career to be able to prepare for policy issues. As for recommendations for the nursing board involvement, I would recommend speaking with your current research leaders on your floor and getting them involved. For example, when I found some research on the diverse types of debriders for burns and heal time differences; I brought that to my leaders, and they helped do some research and introduced it to my attending physician and got a study started. Speaking up as a new nurse is something that makes a huge difference. You cannot be an advocate for nursing and make changes without speaking up. Being a voice in healthcare is difficult but without one we can never grow. Nursing is constantly changing and adapting to give better patient care. Voices are what make change happen.  

Resources 

Hajizadeh, A., Zamanzadeh, V., Kakemam, E., Bahreini, R., & Khodayari-Zarnaq, R. (2021). Factors influencing nurses participation in the health policy-making process: a systematic review. BMC Nursing, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00648-6 

Policy & Advocacy News - American Academy of Nursing Main Site. (2021). Higher Logic, LLC.  https://www.aannet.org/news/policy-news  

Williams, S.D., Phillips, J.M., Koyama, K., (September 30, 2018) "Nurse Advocacy: Adopting a Health in All Policies Approach" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 23, No. 3, Manuscript  https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No03Man01