Reflections on the Political Process
Points: 20

Directions:
Answer the following question:
• How has this course (Health Care Policy) changed or not changed your views on becoming involved in the political process surrounding health care? USE THE PAPER BELOW WHICH IS MY ORIGINAL FEELINGS ABOUT THE POLITICAL PROCESS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.

Text and Materials
READINGS AND RESOURCES
REQUIRED READING
• Estes, C. L., Chapman, S. A., Dodd, C., & Hollister, B. (2012). Health Policy: Crisis and Reform in the U.S. Health Care Delivery System. (6th ed.) Jones and Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury, Massachusetts. ISBN: 978-0763797881.
• Milstead, J.A. (2014). Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse’s Guide (5th ed). Jones and Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury, Massachusetts. ISBN-13: 9781284048865.
• American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association (6th Ed.). Washington, DC: The American Psychological Association. ISBN: 978-1433805615.
• Various articles linked within the course.

Week Eight
READINGS AND RESOURCES
REQUIRED READING
o Chapter 11 from Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse’s Guide.
o Chapter 13, pages 693-751 from Health Policy: Crisis and Reform in the U.S. Health Care Delivery System.

REQUIRED RESOURCES
o Use the World Health Organization’s website to inform your assignments for this week.

THIS IS THE PAPER: Nursing/Health Care Issues and Politics

Why Nurses are Generally Reluctant to Become Involved in Nursing/Health Care Issues and Politics
The reluctance to participate in the nursing, healthcare issues, and political processes that affect them is widespread. The profession needs a vibrant and united voice concerning the political processes now more than ever. Most of the nurses feel like being vocal in the political processes touching on healthcare issues would jeopardize their jobs, as they might appear to be ‘opposing the system’ (Milstead, 2004). They fear that they might be witch hunted for supporting or opposing legislations that are not are not friendly to their profession. Another reason for their reluctance could be a due to the fact that they might find it as waste of their time; they feel that politicians are in better position to handle the matter and not them. Some also think that there is no need for their involvement in political activism because it does not come with financial benefits. The barriers to nurses’ participation in political processes that affect their careers encompass a wide spectrum, ranging from feelings of powerlessness to their lack of their knowldege on intricate political topics (Milstead, 2004).
The Nursing’s Profession’s Responsibility to Be Politically Active
The nurses’ have to know that they have an inherent power as a group of health care industry workers to bring changes and amendments in all health policies. It is the nurse’s professional duty to ensure they participate actively in the process of coming up with policies. They have to make sure that they put efforts to come up with and uphold high quality benchmarks of the healthcare industry (Boswell, Cannon, & Miller, 2005). They need to work collaboratively with the policy makers and all the industry stakeholders to vote for adoption of policies that genuinely meet the Americas’ health care demands. The nurses also ought to lobby for establishment of laws that protect the patients from the rogue, unqualified or unethical treatment by any health provider. It is important to know that both patients and the public reap the benefits of enhanced health care standards that come as a result of results the nurses’ getting involved in the formulation and enactment of health policies. The nurses have a duty to share professional skills with state and federal policy makers since health care industry workers are well educated and polished in their knowledge about the best policies (Boswell, Cannon, & Miller, 2005).
Strategies That Can Be Taken To Increase Nurses’ Involvement in the Political Process
There needs to be concerted efforts to raise the number of politically brave and active nurses so that the profession achieves common goals. One of the best strategies to achieve it is to outline to nurses the importance of political involvement. In addition, there need to be actions on the part of the policy makers to improve nurses’ engagement in decision-making by establishing increased opportunities for nurses to have their input on the policy-making processes (Congress, 2015). The policy makers should increase the number of nurses represented on consortiums that make recommendations to policy changes and amend the health care law to have nurses competitively hired for positions of leadership in the nation (Congress, 2015). Another strategy would be to enlighten nurses via training and seminars to help them to have a better knowledge and engage in policy enactment. Lastly, healthcare workers have to take action themselves to improve their capacity to be involved in the formulation of policies.

References
Milstead, J. A. (2004). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide. Burlington, MA: Jones &
Bartlett Learning.
Boswell, C., Cannon, S., & Miller, J. (2005). Nurses’ political involvement: Responsibility
versus privilege. Journal of Professional Nursing, 21(1), 5-8.
The Congress. (2015). Bills and Resolutions. Retrieved from http://thomas.loc.gov