Factors Influencing the Impact of Nurses on Health Care Policy

Abstract

Background: Health care policies directly affects the nursing profession. Given that nursing is a multifaceted, interactive, interdisciplinary, and complex profession, health policies are unavoidably necessary. In order to attain quality care, accessibility, and cost-effective care to improve the quality of life and welfare of society, nurses are expected to consciously recognize the challenges and collaborate with other decision makers to initiate, influence, create, and advance current health care policies.

Purpose: To identify the elements affecting nurses' influence on health care policy and offer the advice that nurses need to support choices about the creation and application of policies.

Methods: Desktop review was done on 18 articles published between January 2001 and May 2022. PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases and internet engines were searched. The following phrases were used to search for the data: “nursing policy”, “politics”, “health care policy”, “nurses influence on policy making/politics/health policy”, “nurses challenges in policy making/politics/policy”, and “importance of nursing policy making/politics/health policy”

Results: According to the analysis, nurses have the ability to influence health-related decisions and affairs through their political knowledge, effective communication, and teamwork with other members of the health team. This improves the work environment for nurses and improves patient outcomes.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the researcher observed that nurses' participation in policymaking has not increased over time. Majority of the authors in this study focused on the following issues as obstacles to the development of health policies: a lack of resources, a lack of enabling structures, a negative perception of nursing, and a lack of knowledge and skills in policy making.

Recommendation: Nurse leaders play a crucial role in mentoring, supporting, and developing future nurse policy makers because nurses must be active rather than passive agents who come out to influence and take the lead in policy development. The use of health policy in nursing discipline allows for career growth by providing a guiding and driving force, where the professional body of nurses is directed towards achieving their mission and vision through their set course values and beliefs.