please respond to the following passage

Opportunities for Nurses to Participate in Policy-Making

A nurse can be directly engaged in policy-making by joining one of the largest professional nursing associations (PNA) in the USA, the American Nurses Association, which is a paid membership. The ANA then offers its members more specific methods of participation in political advocacy. Per the ANA, advocacy is a pillar of nursing, and political/legislative advocacy is necessary to advance the profession and improve patient care (American Nurses Association [ANA], n.d.-a).

Firstly, ANA is a special interest lobby group that makes relationships with congress members and advocates for registered nurses in the congress through its political wing at a federal level. They are involved in health policy and politics by offering professional expertise and input on the discussed laws and regulations. Our political nursing leaders from ANA regularly review the federal register for proposed regulations affecting nurses; this allows them to decide their position on the issue and address the drafted regulation before it is finalized. They offer their comments to the regulating agencies (CDC, HHS etc.), which is the most active point of involvement in the legislative process (American Nurses Association [ANA], n.d.-b).

Just by being a paying member of the ANA, you are engaging in policy-making because you have professional experts from ANA lobbying and advocating on your behalf in the congress. I believe this is a good method for all nurses to be engaged in policy-making, especially those not familiar with the politics and bureaucracy involved in the health industry and who have difficulty navigating through legislation.

Secondly, ANA’s ‘RN Action’ wing encourages all nurses to vote in local, state, and federal elections. It is advised to be engaged in the campaign trail of the running candidate that best suits your professional interests; this ensures that your voice is part of the election process. RN Action offers many methods to be involved; one way is to volunteer for your chosen candidate’s campaign. The volunteering activities typically include door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, putting up signs, handing out flyers etc. (RN Action, n.d.). Volunteering will allow you to be directly involved in the election process and have opportunities to talk to the public about your candidate’s position on important issues such as chronic short staffing of nurses in the hospitals within the community.

Challenges Interfering with Political Advocacy for Nurses

The nursing community still faces many challenges in reaching its full potential to influence policy within the legislative process. Firstly, nursing has traditionally been considered a female profession and has been culturally perceived as a “subordinate role” with limited authority and input. Although this scene has significantly changed in developed countries with more male nurses and female doctors joining the field, developing nations still run with the old-school concept of nursing (Milstead & Short, 2021, pp. 203204).

Even though the west has come a long way, the stereotype of gender roles and nursing subordination still plague some American hospitals, at least in my experience. As nurses, sometimes we can still feel subordinate to other health professionals and feel that our voice doesn’t matter. Hence, we discourage ourselves from voicing our opinions, especially at a political level. I’ve seen this firsthand where nursing opinions and concerns were largely ignored by the unit manager, which made me feel that the hospital administration wouldn’t want to hear my opinion either, although I was wrong.

Due to the emphasis on political advocacy and training on how to formulate our concerns and proposed recommendations with evidence-based data in the master/doctoral level of nursing education, several floor nurses who were studying towards their graduate degrees reached out to hospital administration and had a conference. Here, they were able to voice their concerns about current unit policies, give recommendations, and ultimately increased the nurse-patient ratio of my unit; I was too afraid to be a part of this.

I would recommend that all entry-level nursing programs offer training on political advocacy and healthcare politics. It would also be preferable if nursing students were given a free membership to PNAs to be engaged in some level of advocacy. My nursing program in Canada emphasized patient advocacy, but self-advocacy and the advancement of the nursing profession were not in the curriculum.

Strategies to Advocate for the Opportunities

The best way to support ANA is to be a paying member. As nurses, we are often underpaid and overworked; we have many other financial responsibilities that are of a higher priority. However, if one can afford to be a paying member, they certainly should. Our voluntary contribution to the ANA goes directly towards advancing our profession and bettering our experience at work. Since 1/3 of our life will be spent working, being part of a PNA that works for your interest from the grassroots to the federal level seems worth the investment.

Additionally, you may also advocate for ANA through social media such as public nursing forums and blogs. This will allow you to engage with countless nurses across the country, drawing in curiosity and interest. Through dialogue, you may be able to learn about their concerns and direct them towards information and resources offered on the ANA website.

To conclude, for regular nurses and APRNs just starting in their practice, joining a PNA and, if able to, being a paying member is the most streamlined way to be engaged in political advocacy and policy-making. Since you cannot go to capitol hill yourself or write recommendations to the CDC about proposed legislation affecting your profession, it is better to be part of an organization with leaders and experts who advocate and lobby on your behalf. In addition to this, the organization offers ample information and resources to be more directly involved in the policy-making process, e.g. templates for a letter to write to congress members. Being a member of ANA, the mothership of professional nursing organizations in the USA takes the burden of information and resource hunting off your shoulders. It lets nursing experts, people with much knowledge and wisdom, lead the way.

References

American Nurses Association. (n.d.-a). Advocacy. ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/

American Nurses Association. (n.d.-b). Agencies & regulations. ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/federal/agencies-regulations/

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2021). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide 6th edition. Independently published. https://doi.org/9798710719589

RN Action. (n.d.). Get involved. NursesVote. https://nursesvote.org/how-to-get-involved/