Discussion 2: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making

Registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses play crucial roles in the promotion of the optimum health and wellbeing of their populations. They are also increasingly involved in the formulation of policies that influence healthcare delivery in their organizations (Hajizadeh et al., 2021). Therefore, this paper examines two opportunities for these nurses to actively participate in policy-making and challenges associated with the opportunities. It also examines strategies for advocating or communicating the existence of these opportunities for RNs and APRNs.

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Several opportunities exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policy-making. One of them is policy assessment. RNs and APRNs have extensive experience in caring patients and addressing issues affecting their practice. As a result, they can utilize knowledge and skills gained from their experience to provide crucial insights in policy assessment. They can provide appropriate data for policy formulation. The other opportunity is policy formulation. RNs and APRNs can participate in the development of policies that address actual and potential needs in healthcare (Hajizadeh et al., 2021). They ensure the adopted policies align with the diverse needs of patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare institutions.

The above opportunities present some challenges for RNs and APRNs. One of them is the effect of organizational issues on RNs and APRNs involvement in policy assessment and formulation. Issues such as nursing shortage may limit the active participation of RNs and APRNs in policy-related issues. The other challenge is limited recognition of nurses’ role in policy-making. For a long time, nurses’ role in policy issues remains inadequate. This may affect their involvement in policy assessment and formulation in healthcare (Rasheed et al., 2020; Safari et al., 2020). Therefore, some of the effective strategies to address these challenges include educating nurses on their vital role in policy-making and advocating for the increased recognition of their vital role. RNs and APRNs have opportunities such as policy assessment and formulation in policy-making. These opportunities have challenges attributed to organizational issues and nurses’ recognition in policy-making. Evidence-based interventions such as training nurses should be adopted to address these challenges. Nurses’ involvement in policy-making ensures relevance and sustainability of the adopted policies.

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References

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), 1–9.

Rasheed, S. P., Younas, A., & Mehdi, F. (2020). Challenges, extent of involvement, and the impact of nurses’ involvement in politics and policy making in in last two decades: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(4), 446–455.

Safari, M. B., Bahadori, M., & Alimohammadzadeh, K. (2020). The related factors of nurses’ participation and perceived benefits and barriers in health policy making. Journal of Nursing Research, 28(4), e103.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Firstly, it is true that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has led to more individuals being insured, contributing to a decrease in unnecessary ER usage. However, this has yet to translate to a reduced demand for nurses. The aging population, coupled with increased access to healthcare, is projected to lead to an increased demand for nurses across all specialties.

Regarding the shortage of nurses, while it may be true that there is a shortage of nurses willing to work in some regions of the highest need, there is also a more general nursing shortage that is expected to worsen over time. Working in a psychiatric hospital, the nursing shortage has been a significant challenge. Psychiatric nursing requires specialized skills and knowledge to care for individuals with mental health disorders. The need in my facility has led to many negative consequences for patients, including decreased access to care, longer wait times, and lower quality of care. It has also increased nurses’ stress and burnout, further exacerbating the shortage.

In conclusion, the nursing shortage has significantly impacted the healthcare industry, including psychiatric facilities. While there may be some nuance to the shortage, the overall trend is increasing demand and a limited supply of qualified nurses.

For healthcare legislation to be successful and be evidenced based it is imperative that RNs and APRNs be involved in the policy-making process. By being involved in the initial stages of policy-making, nurses advocate for improvements that benefit both themselves and patients, i.e., policies that increase the scope of practice for APRNs to increase patient access to primary care providers (Milstead & Short, 2019).

One avenue that nurses can use to be a part of the policy-making process is their participation in a professional nursing organization such as the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). AANP members are involved in political advocacy committees that advocate policies like H.R 8812 ICAN Act which promotes improving patient access to health care by eliminating Medicaid and Medicare barriers to ARNP practice (AANP, 2022).

Another way nurses can affect the policy-making process is through community advocacy in local groups or within their own organizations. By being involved at a local level in healthcare issues nurses draw public attention and can positively influence public perception (Milstead & Short, 2019). While nurses are great advocates for patients, they face challenges in inserting themselves at the table of policy-making. The biggest challenge to overcome is the historically subservient nature of the nurse-physician relationship.

Nurses report feelings of powerlessness within political spheres related to a perceived preference for male voices over nurses’ opinions (Rasheed, Younas & Mehdi, 2020). Another challenge for nurses is our perception as good implementers of policy which is a passive role and not as a policymaker which is an active role. Nurses have historically had low participation as policymakers and as members of committees that affect policy, however through education and empowerment that could be changed.

To improve nurses’ ability to be effective policymakers, nurse leaders should promote participation in professional organizations and organizational committees to their fellow nurses. Nurses should be educated on the importance of their voices and views and how they can be used for the betterment of others.

When I first started with the VA, I didn’t participate in committees, and I wasn’t a part of a professional organization. However, as I moved to other positions within the organization, I came into contact with nurse leaders who both empowered and educated their nurses to be active in the policy-making process within our organization and would conduct training events to spread the word.

References

Milstead, J. A. & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6^th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning
Rasheed, S. P., Younas, A., & Mehdi, F. (2020). Challenges, extent of involvement, and the impact of nurses’ involvement in politics and policy making in in last two decades: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(4), 446–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12567

Word cloud generators have become popular tools for meetings and team-building events. Groups or teams are asked to use these applications to input words they feel best describe their team or their role. A word cloud is generated by the application that makes prominent the most-used terms, offering an image of the common thinking among participants of that role.

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Nursing has become one of the largest professions in the world, and as such, nurses have the potential to influence policy and politics on a global scale. When nurses influence the politics that improve the delivery of healthcare, they are ultimately advocating for their patients. Hence, policy-making has become an increasingly popular term among nurses as they recognize a moral and professional obligation to be engaged in healthcare legislation.

What types of words would you use to build a nursing word cloud? Empathetic, organized, hard-working, or advocate would all certainly apply. Would you add policy-maker to your list? Do you think it would be a very prominent component of the word cloud?

To Prepare:

Revisit the Congress.gov website provided in the Resources and consider the role of RNs and APRNs in policy-making.

Good post. I agree that it can be a challenge for nurses to join hospital-wide committees due to there being a lack of information on why it is important for nurses to participate in these committees, a lack of time and energy due to working long shifts, prioritizing self-care and sleep to prevent burn out, and taking care of personal matters. Shared governance in nursing is crucial for healthcare policymaking as it empowers and encourages nurses to actively participate in decision-making processes that can lead to more collaboration and employee engagement in the workplace, leading to new policies’ development (Brennan & Wendt, 2021, para 2).

Creating a supportive and inclusive committee culture, where nurses’ contributions are valued and recognized, can make participation more appealing. Hospital organizations can also incentivize nurses to join their committees by providing tangible incentives, such as continuing education credits, recognition awards, and/or financial compensation for committee work and member fees for joining professional nursing organizations. Meetings can be recorded and shared with night shift nurses or other nurses that couldn’t attend the live meeting through Microsoft Teams to watch at a later time to encourage participation.

In addition to joining a hospital committee or a professional nursing organization, RNs and APRNs can actively participate in policy-making by doing research. Health policy research focuses on improving access to care, the quality and cost of care, and the efficiency of care. The research framework should focus on improving the focus and design of research and better explicating the connection between research evidence and policy (Ellenbecker & Edward, 2017, p. 208). Nurses can conduct research and then share their findings with other healthcare professionals and policymakers. I like how you mentioned that it’s important to recognize that all parties provide different perspectives because of the roles they play. Therefore, working as a team, policies can be revised or new policies can be created based on different thoughts and research evidence, which can improve patient safety and care, and can increase nurse satisfaction as their voices are heard.

Thanks for your post!

By Day 3 of Week 8

Post an explanation of at least two opportunities that exist for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policy-making. Explain some of the challenges that these opportunities may present and describe how you might overcome these challenges. Finally, recommend two strategies you might make to better advocate for or communicate the existence of these opportunities to participate in policy-making. Be specific and provide examples.

RE: Discussion – Week 8

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Response 2

Thank you for your post Solange. The public health officials who form health policies, inform the general public, and influence government policy decision-making mostly comprise of physicians with first-hand experiences. In the same essence, nurses also possess adequate education and first-hand experience to inform healthy public policy.

Nurses need to start taking initiative to be more involved in politics to influence positive patient outcomes. As per Barzegar Safari et al. (2020), currently, nurses only participate at a moderate level in policy making activities.

Through the course, we have realized the importance of participating in professional nursing organizations to take an active role in political action. As beginners, nurses can take on small roles at their unit level to explore the policy-making related activities as you mentioned. The only way to know what is involved in policymaking is to actively participate in political action activities and seeking opportunities (Milstead & Short, 2019).

For example: nursing school provides us with basic knowledge and skills for a particular area of nursing but with experience we become proficient with the policies, skills, medications, etc. of a certain unit. As novice nurses, hesitancy to start something new is natural, especially politics, but that should not stop one from engaging.

Some of the strategies identified to increase nurses’ participating in politics and policy making include providing information to nurses regarding health policies, increasing nurses’ partnerships at senior levels of management, and changing nurse’s perception regarding their participation in politics is vital (Barzegar Safari et al., 2020).

By using the mentioned strategies suggested, it has the potential to change nurses’ perceptions and become more actively involved. Just as nurses have the obligation to act in patients’ best interests at all times, nurses also have an obligation to participate in policymaking as policies affect patient outcomes at a broader level.

References

Barzegar Safari, M., Bahadori, M., & Alimohammadzadeh, K. (2020). The related factors of nurses’ participation and perceived benefits and barriers in health policy making. The Journal of Nursing Research, 28(4), 1-8. doi: 10.1097/jnr.0000000000000385
Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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Opportunity 1: Engaging in Professional Nursing Associations

Joining and participating in professional nursing associations is one way for Registered Nurses (RNs) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to actively participate in policymaking. These organizations give nurses a place to collaborate with their peers, develop leadership skills, and influence healthcare policies (American Nurses Association, 2021). RNs and APRNs can advocate for policies that improve patient care, address health disparities, and promote the nursing profession by joining these organizations (Smolowitz et al., 2015).

Opportunity 2: Participating in Health Policy Internships and Fellowships

Pursuing health policy internships and fellowships is another way for RNs and APRNs to actively participate in policymaking. These programs give nurses hands-on experience in policy development, implementation, and evaluation, as well as legislative exposure (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Participation in such programs provides RNs and APRNs with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively advocate for policies that improve healthcare outcomes and population health (Rushton et al., 2018).

Challenges:

Time constraints and competing priorities are two challenges that RNs and APRNs may face when participating in policymaking through professional nursing associations or internships and fellowships. Trying to balance work, family, and other responsibilities can make it difficult for nurses to devote time to these opportunities (Smolowitz et al., 2015)

Overcoming this challenge: To address this issue, nurses can seek assistance from their employers in obtaining flexible work schedules or professional development time dedicated to policy engagement. Furthermore, nurses can prioritize their participation in policy-making activities by setting attainable goals and collaborating with peers to share responsibilities (American Nurses Association, 2021).

Lack of confidence and expertise in policymaking: A lack of confidence and expertise in policymaking is another challenge that RNs and APRNs may face. Many nurses may feel unready to participate in policy debates or navigate the legislative process (Rushton et al., 2018).

Overcoming this challenge: Nurses can gain confidence and expertise by participating in educational programs, workshops, or seminars on health policy, legislative processes, and advocacy. Working with experienced nurse advocates and mentors can also help you navigate the policy-making process (Institute of Medicine, 2011).

Recommendations for better advocacy and communication of opportunities:

Utilize social media and online platforms: RNs and APRNs can use social media and online platforms to raise awareness about policy-making opportunities. They can share information about upcoming events, internships, and fellowships, as well as interact with colleagues via online forums or discussion groups. By utilizing these platforms, nurses can reach a larger audience and encourage more of their peers to participate in policymaking (American Nurses Association, 2021).

Example: A nurse could start a LinkedIn group dedicated to discussing health policy issues and promoting available opportunities. They could share resources, events, and experiences to encourage and support their colleagues’ participation in policymaking.

Create and promote opportunities for policy engagement through collaborative partnerships with academic institutions and healthcare organizations: Nurses can create and promote opportunities for policy engagement through collaborative partnerships with academic institutions and healthcare organizations. These collaborations can provide nurses with resources, expertise, and support to ensure that they are well-prepared to participate in policymaking (Institute of Medicine, 2011).

An APRN, for example, could collaborate with a local university to create a health policy course or workshop for nurses that could be promoted within healthcare organizations and through professional nursing associations. This collaboration would not only raise awareness about policymaking opportunities but would also provide nurses with the necessary education and training to effectively participate in these opportunities.

References:

American Nurses Association. (2021). Policy & advocacy. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/policy-advocacy/Links to an external site.

Institute of Medicine. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. National Academies Press.

Rushton, C., Williams, C., Paparella, S., & Kelley, S. (2018). Health policy leadership for nurses. Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(7-8), 365-367.

Smolowitz, J., Speakman, E., Wojnar, D., Whelan, E. M., Ulrich, S., Hayes, C., & Wood, L. (2015). Role of the registered nurse in primary health care: Meeting health care needs in the 21st century. Nursing Outlook, 63(2), 130-140.

By Day 6 of Week 8

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’* posts by suggesting additional opportunities or recommendations for overcoming the challenges described by your colleagues.

*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 8 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6 of Week 8

To participate in this Discussion:

Week 8 Discussion

NRSE 6050 Week 8 Discussion

Potential opportunities that may exist for RNs and APRNs to participate in the policy-making process.

The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making

Nurses may affect policies in a particular way. Nurses are solvers and communicators of the issue and are capable of collecting information, mobilizing communities, and making demands of normal policy-makers for nursing. By informing and influencing lawmakers, nurses may engage in decision making to alter laws and promote legislation.

Each nurse will take an interest in policy-making since they are influenced by most policies implemented (Williams & Phillips, 2018). APRNs and RNs will take an active part in policy-making in different ways. APRNS and RNs will be active in decision formation for the first time by advocacy. By the principles of advocacy, any person affected by a particular policy has the right without limits to express an opinion.

APRNs and RNs should comprehend that they have the opportunity to communicate their assessments on any policy that may influence them. The advocacy opportunity guarantees that there is no any nurse who is denied the opportunity to communicate his/her assessment on a specific policy. The subsequent opportunity held by the APRNs and RNs to be engaged with policy-making is through leadership.

An APRN or RN has a leadership job that requests cooperation in policy-making (Chilton, 2015). APRNs and RNs should scrutinize the policy detailing, usage, and some other policy processes certainly. If an APRN or an RN has any issue or question concerning a specific policy, he/she can educate the leaders about it.

Various challenges will undoubtedly confront the advocacy opportunity for APRNs and RNs. To begin with, there are issues with gender equality concerning advocacy. There are times when male APRNs and RNs can be precluded the opportunity from securing communicating their thoughts and suppositions on a given policy, particularly on the off chance that it is intended for ladies. Besides, there is the challenge of rivalry for assets about the advocacy opportunity (Williams & Phillips, 2018).

The opportunity for leadership jobs held by APRNs and RNs likewise has its challenges. To begin with, there is the challenge of changing leadership styles and abilities as various leaders have different leadership styles and accept. Additionally, there is the challenge of communication as certain associations might not have the correct communication channels where the APRNs and RNs can air their interests concerning a given policy.

Various recommendations can be utilized to advocate better or impart the presence of the opportunities for APRNS and RNs in policy-making. To begin with, there is powerful training. It is significant for all the nurses to be prepared and taught on the rights that they have about policy-making. Also, nurses should consistently advance and promote good leadership (Joel, 2017). With great leadership, the APRNs and RNs have the space to air their sentiments and thoughts with regards to policy-production.

Third, nurses should be searchers of data and guarantee that they utilize their expert gatherings to air their sentiments and thoughts with regards to policy-production. It is significant that nurses bolster other medicinal services experts and lawmakers through teaching and pushing for a policy that best serves our patients, families, and communities.

References

Chilton, L. (2015). Nurse Practitioners Have an Essential Role in Health Policy. Journal for Nurse Practitioners.
Joel, L. A. (2017). Advanced Practice Nursing: Essentials for Role Development. F.A. Davis.
Williams, S. D., & Phillips, J. M. (2018). Nurse Advocacy: Adopting a Health in All Policies Approach. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.

RE: Discussion – Week 8

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Discussion 2: The Role of the RN/APRN in Policy-Making