Policy and Advocacy for Improving Health Population

As nursing science evolves, changes in policies and especially in the management of vulnerable groups’ needs are inevitably going to change. However, these changes need to reflect the specified needs, as well as healthcare innovations that modern medicine in tandem with technological advances has to provide. For this reason, involving nurses in the process of shaping respective policies is required (Williams & Anderson, 2018). As participants of the policymaking process, nurses can contribute significantly to the discussion, which is why the opportunities such as volunteering and collaborating with organizations that participate in legal decision-making need to be discussed. By using the two strategies above as key options for promoting collaboration between RNs, APRNs, and policymakers, one will be able to create the healthcare standards that will contribute to a rapid improvement in public health rates.

The strategies in question provide quite a several opportunities for effective policymaking, yet they also represent certain challenges. For example, volunteering will require free time that nurses may not have given the current tight schedules and deadlines, as well as increased workload, especially due to COVID-19 (Raoofi et al., 2020). Likewise, becoming a member of an organization that is connected to policymaking bodies may not be an opportunity for a range of nurses, especially those working extra hours or lacking the required social connections (Safari, Bahadori, & Alimohammadzadeh, 2020). Therefore, multiple challenges arise in the way of including RNs and APRNs in policymaking.

However, the issues outlined above can be overcome by changing the existing communication strategies and reducing the workload experienced by nurses. The specified improvements can be made by using innovative technologies for scheduling tasks and managing time and data more effectively, thus completing key tasks faster. In addition, a collaboration between policymakers and nurses can be enhanced using innovative ICT tools that allow communicating remotely. As a result, RNs and APRNs will be involved in policymaking directly, using their experience and knowledge to shape future policies.

References

Raoofi, A., Takian, A., Sari, A. A., Olyaeemanesh, A., Haghighi, H., & Aarabi, M. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and comparative health policy learning in Iran. Archives of Iranian Medicine, 23(4), 220-234. Web.

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), 1-8. Web.

Williams, J. K., & Anderson, C. M. (2018). Omics research ethics considerations. Nursing Outlook, 66(4), 386–393.