“Nurses know how to keep people healthy, and we want them to have a deep appreciation of their own value and importance in all health care settings.”. The EFNNMA claims that each year they focus on one theme then formulates a statement on it and works with nursing and midwifery associations to take forward their recommendations to affect the national policy and practice. This site uses cookies. (, Canadian Institute for Health Information . The EFNNMA was created in November 1996 and includes 26 national nursing and midwifery associations and World Health Organization (WHO; 2012) with a signed declaration to join in action of promoting health and health care in Europe. Among the excluded organizations, one from New Zealand did not possess more than a webpage and no other information about the organization to support inclusion. Nurses are well-placed to identify problems that need to be addressed on a wide scale and connect patients with specific services that are provided in communities. The SUPPORT Tools material could be helpful to include as part of nursing education and skill development to better equip student and practicing nurses to articulate and respond to nursing and policy-related issues. From the political activist tool kit website, RNs can seek to sign up for the ANA’s Nurses Strategic Action Team to help nurses engage across the United States. According to MacDonald, Edwards, Davies, Marck, and Guernsey (2012), low levels of member participation in nursing organizations limit the overall impact that nursing organizations can make on health and nursing policy issues. While nurses make up the largest group of health care providers in most developed countries, they often do not engage in health policy, political participation, or political activism (Spenceley, Reutter, & Allen, 2006). The Role of Nurses in Shaping Health Care Policy Nursing influences health care policy through a nurse’s daily role in health care delivery. The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again. According to Vandenhouten et al. Nursing professional development (NPD) specialists play a pivotal role in meeting these recommendations. The SUPPORT Tools can be found in the Health Research Policy and Systems Journal Volume 7 Supplement 1: http://www.health-policy-systems.com/supplements/7/s1. Aim: This paper seeks to consider how nursing as a profession in the United Kingdom is developing its role in shaping and influencing policy using lessons learnt from a policy study tour undertaken in the United States of America and extensive experience as a senior nurse within the government, the health service and more recently within a Professional Organization. Qualitative information contained in the data extraction templates was analyzed using a constant comparison method to identify the main areas addressed by professional nursing organization and the presentation of gaps when seeking to engage nurses in nursing and health-policy-related issues. In the program, you will have the opportunity to develop skills that can help you shape the future of the nursing field and improving patient care. View or download all content the institution has subscribed to. We undertook a systematic website review of international- and national-level professional nursing organizations to determine how they engaged registered nurses in health policy activities, including policy priority setting, policy goals and objectives, policy products, and mechanisms for engaging nurses in policy issues. If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Continued work is needed to promote nursing engagement and to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies used by professional nursing organizations to support political activity. This product could help you, Accessing resources off campus can be a challenge. Common policy products were position statements, briefing notes, fact sheets, media releases, and research evidence summaries. With telehealth technology, nurses and other health care providers are able to advise and care for people who cannot travel to an appointment in person. The ICN website lists events such as upcoming conferences and their location. Finally, we identified the types of mechanisms that organizations used to engage nurses in political action such as petition signing, rallies, and presentations. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing is the largest health care profession in the United States, with more than 3.8 million registered nurses (RNs) nationwide. Identification, inclusion, and data extraction from websites involved a systematic and iterative process involving two reviewers (C.C., R.H.V.) These increased leadership opportunities also include roles that require advanced degrees. A guide for data extraction is provided in Table 1. As part of this tool kit, RNs are provided with resources that include how to get involved in a political campaign, writing letters to the editor, how to engage politicians and carry out lobbying activities. This organization describes its strategic planning activities through a publically available strategic plan. Login failed. Priority setting is an important process for nursing professional organizations to consider as it involves activities that identify which health service issues should receive priority, which nursing issues require urgent attention, and who as patients need immediate attention over others. C.C. Bradley Ranked Among Nation’s Best Universities – The Princeton Review: The Best 384 Colleges (2019). To be successful in political engagement, nurses must understand both the policy process and how to influence key decision makers. Sharing links are not available for this article. The purpose of this study was to examine, through the review of websites, how national professional nursing organizations engage nurses in health and nursing policy. This diversifying trend also is apparent in the industry’s racial makeup. Future research might include attempts to have individuals fluent in these languages interpret the websites for inclusion and be involved in data extraction when applicable. This trend is having a significant impact on nursing practice in hospitals and other U.S.-based care organizations. Your membership in a nursing organization unites you with your peers. (2011), nursing participation in health policy was influenced by psychological engagement, including nurses who were interested in health policy issues and confident that their actions might make a difference. Politics, power, and predictability of nursing care, Tax Compliance After the Implementation of Tax Amnesty in Indonesia, Gender, Democracy, and National Development in Nigeria. Policy products that the ANA offers include a “policy activist tool kit” (ANA, 2012b). Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Professional nursing organizations provide the opportunity for nursing as a profession to influence nursing practice, nursing education, health policy, and healthcare standards. (, Duncan, S. M., Thorne, S., Van Neste-Kenny, J., Tate, B. Organizations that met these four criteria as determined by the two reviewers were included in the website review and will be referred to as “included organizations” throughout the article. Find out about Lean Library here, If you have access to journal via a society or associations, read the instructions below. While strategies vary by context, they usually involve community wide initiatives, such as educating school children on the importance of healthy eating or encouraging a city’s seniors to get vaccinated for the flu. With a better understanding of the policy process and the policy arena, including the pressures surrounding decision-making and multiple competing drivers, nurses can identify and develop a role that facilitates ongoing political engagement. A common way to engage nurses was to provide “tips” to writing letters to government representatives, lobby government on nursing issues, policy and legislation, and how to meet with government representatives.