REPLY TO THIS DISCUSSION
Nurses advocate for their patients on all levels of patient care. It is often overlooked the role that nurses take in influencing policy making, but this is one way that a nurse can advocate for patients. Registered nurses (RN) and advance practice registered nurses (APRN) have several ways to influence policy making and create an improvement in patient care. One way is to join a professional nurse organization group. These groups often have a common theme in nursing and goals of the professional nurse role. The organization may have an issue that they want to bring to the capitol and a member can aid in this goal (Burke, 2016).
Another way that nurses can get involved in the legislative process is to write their state representatives about healthcare issues that they have personally seen in the field (American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, 2020). This is a way anyone can get involved; however, a nurse becomes more skilled in their area of interest their state representatives may appreciate their input of expertise.
To explain these strategies to other RNs and APRNs on how to get involved in policy making this writer would first start at their place of work. Every month this writers workplace has a town hall meeting to discuss happenings in the hospital and in the mental health field. This would be a great platform for the writer to explain these strategies to others on how to get involved with policy making. Another way to explain these strategies to other nurses would be to join other professional nursing organizations and demonstrate how the nurses can get involved in these strategies. Nurses often do not take advantage of their professional role in policy making (Arabi et al., 2014). Explaining that this may be another way to advocate for their patients may make these nurses realize the role they can have in policy making.
