Families and friends of nurses need to encourage political activism. Another barrier is the limited formal health care policy education in nursing. Bookshelf In many countries, nurses constitute the largest workforce in the healthcare sector (Juma et al., 2014; Shariff, 2014). 2023 Apr;10(4):2414-2425. doi: 10.1002/nop2.1497. PMC Among the reasons why nurses sought to be involved in politics or political action, nurses highlighted the injustices and grievances they experienced as a consequence of feeling early-life gender discrimination, racism, and faith or culture differences. Therefore, with the aim of learning how and why Canadian nurses . Gayle Morris, BSN, MSN has over two decades of nursing practice with a clinical focus in rehabilitation medicine. Health Promotion International, 26(1), 117-127. doi:10.1093/heapro/dag073. As Oestberg states, As nurses, we need to think of policy as something we can influence, not just something that happens to us.. Future research in this area needs to focus on strategies that enhance the political efficacy and participation of nurses, so as to enhance their role to strengthen healthcare and the health of the patients they serve. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! Nurs Sci Q. A list of selected online resources is included to help readers learn more about shaping and influencing future health policy. This situation is not peculiar to Ghana. During the third week, the remaining questionnaires were collected. We shortchange ourselves by deference to authority, by not insisting on representation, and by self-deprecation, a strategy that devalues us, erodes our self-esteem and belief in ourselves. Ghana City Tamale. Key words: health policy, legislative arena, legislative process, nurse advocacy, policy advocates, politics, policy process, power bases, power of numbers. Nurse; Nursing; Political action; Politics; Research. government site. Why Healthcare Finance Is Important to Nurses. Reston, Virginia: Upper Saddle River. Study findings suggested that nurses are generally very active in registering to vote, voting, and registering to be a member of a professional nursing organization; however, they often do not participate in other forms of political activities. ), Nurses, Physician Assistants, and Dentists. You may be surprised at how simple and time efficient it is to engage in policy decisions. hi Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21 (IBM, 2015). 2015 Jan 1;7(4):161-72. doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v7n4p161. Nurs Outlook. The fact that nurses generally do register to vote, and do vote in many elections, suggests that nurses may not be generally apathetic towards politics as has been suggested, but rather may limit the extent of their participation. Epub 2022 Nov 28. Nurses' roles in shaping health policy in the United States related to patient safety have not been fully expanded. Power is invariably confronted with and acts in the presence of a field of responsibility. Political participation of registered nurses. Hi, At the end of each day, data were saved on an external drive and on Microsoft OneDrive online. Results of the one-way ANOVA showed no statistically significant differences in the mean scores on political participation among the participants based on age (p = .101), or academic qualification (p = .486). PMC SettingThe study was conducted in Tamale, which is officially called Tamale Metropolitan area and is the capital town of the Northern Region of Ghana. nursingworld.org/NurseLegislatorDirectory.aspx. Kunaviktikul, W. (2014). education you need could be more affordable than you think. But. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 14(2), 97108. Morris founded Indiana's first conference for school teachers focusing on the medi Nurses are in an excellent position to influence policy that affects staffing and patient care. Fortunately, I do believe the up and coming generation of new nurses will become more involved in politics, and since nursing is the largest profession, I can only imagine what impact nurses and future nurses will have on health care policies and regulations. Note: The values in this table represent multiple responses from participants. 2020 Feb;50(1):81-100. doi: 10.4040/jkan.2020.50.1.81. AORN J. After data from each questionnaire had been entered, questionnaires were bagged in an envelope, labeled as completed and locked in a cabinet. And that support starts at home. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Whitehead (2010) argues that influencing health policy through political involvement amounts to population-level health promotion. : 10.1177/1527154417728514, Primomo, J., &Bjorling, E. A. Nursing apathy toward participation in the political process is pandemic. Alexa Davidson, MSN, RN is a registered nurse and health writer. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! (2016) noted that nurses were generally unable to make financial contributions to political organizations as a result of low-income earnings. She has published and lectured throughout her career. Scholars have presented various reasons as to why the call for nurses to be politically active is ethical and the right thing to do. Mr. Afizu Alhassan holds a Master of Nursing Degree from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University for Development Studies, also in Ghana. Such healthcare company executives The implementation of a political role for a nurse is based on three levels of commitment including survival, success, and significance. She began nursing in adult surgical trauma, then spent a decade in neonatal and pediatric cardiac intensive care units. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal And nurses can even run for state office there are two nurses currently serving in the Florida State Legislature. The study aim was to determine the extent to which nurses in Ghana engage in political activities and to identify the demographic characteristics influencing nurses' political participation. [nurses] are often the first providers to see clearly when and . :10.1177/152715440200300203, International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Citation: Alhassan, A., Kumi-Kyereme, A., Wombeogo, M., Fuseini, A.-G., (February 22, 2019) "Nurse Participation in Political Activities: Level and Practices of Registered Nurses in Tamale, Ghana" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. He has supervised numerous research projects at the undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral levels, and provided supervisory guidance for the study reported in this article, from the conceptual stages to its very final stages. Nurses and care workers are the most reluctant to get the Covid injection, according to a Sant Publique France report published in February. These findings reflect the general characteristics of the target population and the nursing population in Ghana as a whole, where the majority of nurses have a diploma as their highest qualification, and only a few nurses have masters degrees or doctoral degrees. The most common political practices reported by participants were: registering to vote (95.1%), voting in the last general election (77.3%), and voting in the last two elections (80%). It is critically important for nurses to inform and advance public policy, through direct political activities. Descriptive statistics were used to show the level of nurse participation in politics and to describe common practices engaged in by nurses as a form of political participation. He has held key positions in the university including Head, Department of Population and Health (2010 2014) and Vice Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences (2014 2018). Kelly ( 2007) posits that nurses must become political activists to safeguard the profession from unhealthy policies, which can be channeled through politics and changes in public policy. In what looked like a reverse of this question, nurses were asked to state their agreement or disagreement with the statement: Politics is not the concern of nurses. In their responses, 79% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement, again saying that politics is a concern of nurses. Clearance was also obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Tamale Teaching Hospital, allowing the study to be conducted in this hospital. : 10.1155/2016/3975634, ORourke, N. C., Crawford, S. L., Morris, N. S., & Pulcini, J. After 10 elected or politically-active Canadian nurses were interviewed, data saturation was confirmed. The majority of participants (63.6%) were in the junior ranks, holding ranks of Staff Nurse or Senior Staff Nurse. 2014 Jul 10;13:20. doi: 10.1186/1472-6955-13-20. I think nurses should have the ressources to influence policies and politics regarding healthcare. After all, healthcare legislation ultimately affects us all. Falk NL. Since Ghanaian nurses are generally more interested in just voting, and also since they register with professional nursing organizations but do not actively participate in the activities of these organizations, it may be appropriate to say that these nurses fall within the category of voting specialists. Nurses have the requisite education, experience, and legacy that will enable them to lead the world in addressing the social determinants of health, factors that have a dramatic impact on the health of populations (Lathrop, 2013). More nurses should be inspired and helped to become active politically. Political participation of registered nurses. Additionally, participants were asked whether they have ever actively supported a candidate for election as an Assemblyman or a Member of Parliament (e.g., by campaigning or wearing party souvenirs). He is currently a Senior Nursing Tutor with the Ghana Ministry of Health and the General Secretary of Nurse Educators Group, Ghana. I have been eyeing this hospital for future employment opportunities. nurses are not generally apathetic towards political activities, yet they are limited in the extent to which they participate. doi: 10.1590/1518-8345.1152.2670. Lack of opportunity and time to get involved due to the time demands of being within the nursing field. Before this position, he taught at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Kpembe, for five years, and worked as a clinical nurse for five years at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. Background: One key objective of this study was to determine the extent to which nurses in Ghana are involved in political activities. American Nurses Association. Nurs Res Pract. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol24No02PPT63. Methods: 4 Min Read. 2. muy importante el articulo que explica los motivos de la escas influencia que posee enfermeria en las politicas publicas Asimismo indica cuales son los factores que ayudarian a la participacion activa en los distintos niveles donde trabajan las enfermeras. Influencing healthcare in the legislative arena. These percentages are generally higher than the average voter turnout in national elections in Ghana, which is estimated at 71.35% (International Foundation for Electoral Systems, 2019). Because nurses have an intimate knowledge of patients and their health status, and the factors that affect these, they can make unique and sustaining contributions to how health policy is shaped. Nurses' political engagement is needed for societal advancements. In spite of the overwhelming agreement that it is important for nurses to know about politics, and that politics should be a matter of concern to nurses, only 0.4% of the respondents were found to be concerned and knew much about political issues. Budden JS, Moulton P, Harper KJ, Brunell ML, Smiley R. The 2015 national nursing workforce survey. Table 2. Power is invariably personal. For nurses to advocate effectively for the profession and their clients, to be able to address the social determinants of health and to influence policy formulation at all levels, they must be active in the political process beyond voting. Nurses' involvement in health policy making is clear; however, still few are involved in policy-making processes, even in the clinical context. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the World Population Review. Nurses can also write their state representatives regarding healthcare policy. Perhaps they will even bring more political activism. Nurses must have a seat at the decision-making table to ensure that policy decisions, made by legislatures without healthcare experience, are patient and staff-centered. Good information.There are some Conferences happening in which medical specialty would be Nursing and here is one of those conferences. Before He has supervised numerous research projects at the undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral levels, and provided supervisory guidance for the study reported in this article, from the conceptual stages to its very final stages. / D.O. Even working ten-hour days and not taking any breaks at all that allowed only 4.8 minutes per call. 2015. Nurses are strong patient advocates. Table 1. Nurses' political involvement: Responsibility versus privilege. During his time at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, he was deputy secretary for the local chapter of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association. Finally, employers need to provide staff nurses with the time, resources, and opportunities to influence local, state and federal policy. Search for jobs related to Why are nurses reluctant to get involved in politics or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 22m+ jobs. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site. Additionally, the nurses of today are younger, more educated, and more diverse. This article explores various patient safety issues and how nurses can . This piece was developed in collaboration with one or more of our writers. Nurses have a valuable hands-on perspective on patient care, staffing ratios, and how the healthcare system affects patients' lives. Although nurses constitute the largest segment of the health care workforce in the United States, their participation in all levels of health policy advocacy remains low. This travesty forced on American Healthcare is not just a matter of nurse to patient ratios/caseloads. Nurses must be seen and heard in health policy debates. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 14(1), 4147. The authors discuss their findings, and conclude that nurses may not participate in high intensity level political activities, but they do engage in low intensity actions, such as voting in elections. gaining membership of the GRNMA is a very passive endeavor nurses are automatically drafted into the association once the government posts them to start working. 2012;42(12): 46-49. One systematic review of the literature published between 2000 and 2019 found no precise reason why nurses are reluctant to become involved in health policymaking. Our contributing writers leverage diverse educational and professional backgrounds to create content for NurseJournal. He serves as an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Nursing, School of Allied Health, University for Development Studies, where he also doubles as the examination officer for the department. Studies exploring the political behavior of nurses in Ghana are virtually non-existent. 2020 Aug;54:151279. doi: 10.1016/j.apnr.2020.151279. MeSH Mr. Afizu Alhassan holds a Master of Nursing Degree from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University for Development Studies, also in Ghana. Data Collection InstrumentThe instrument for data collection included two main sections, one designed to capture data on the demographic characteristics of participants and one designed to assess their level of political participation. An official website of the United States government. These previous nursing leadership positions have motivated him to study the political behavior of nurses. He is a health development consultant who has had significant experience in health and sustainable livelihoods surveys and programming, at Ghana's regional and national levels. Epub 2020 May 5. It will conclude by addressing the relationships between political participation of nurses and their demographic characteristics. Additionally, studies show that nurses are not given sufficient support to generate the evidence needed to influence healthcare policy. From apathy to political activism. This article reports findings from a survey of registered nurses in three hospitals and two nursing training schools in Tamale, Ghana. But in order to do so, they will need to partner with members of other medical professions such as physicians. https://www.emedevents.com/c/medical-conferences-2019/palm-springs-encore-cpc-review-2019. Nurses can undertake internships with elected officials to personally work on matters affecting healthcare. He is the current Convocation Representative (Professorial) on the University of Cape Coast Council and a member of a number of professional associations. Only 30% and 45% of participants in studies by Vandenhouten et al. I also think new nurses are unaware of the type of impact they can have on different policies at the local, state, and national levels; they may also not know where to even start becoming involved in politics as well. 2010 Jan;23(1):60-2. doi: 10.1177/0894318409353794. All registered nurses working in the selected facilities were included in the study population. Political Practices of NursesNurses were generally not likely to actively support a candidate for elections.As a way of exploring additional dimensions of nurses level of political participation, practices that nurses usually engage in as forms of political activity were analyzed.
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