high-quality and affordable care
high-quality and affordable care
Health policies impact health care and the nursing profession. The involvement of nurses in the development of health policy guarantees the provision of safe, accessible, high-quality and affordable care (Shariff, 2014). Nurses also have a role in patient advocacy. To this effect, they need to routinely consider the health needs of the LGBTQ community to eliminate any disparities in care and to improve the overall health of the general public.
One political action that nurses can take to strengthen their role in policy-making is to take up internship or fellowship positions with nursing organizations that sponsor policy workshops (Aram, Rafii, Cheraghi, & Ghiyasvandian, 2014). During such workshops, nurses may get the opportunity to learn about contemporary health issues such as the needs of the LGBTQ community. With knowledge, nurses would be better placed to develop policy acumen which is the capacity to analyze policies. With policy acumen, nurses can effectively analyze health care services and direct their organizations to respond appropriately to the health needs of LGBTQ people. The development of policy acumen would thus be critical to nurses’ participation in policy-making.
Nurses should also recognize the need for power as a driver for achieving goals in policy-making. Power would enable nurses to influence others inherently. Another plausible political action by nurses, therefore, would be to seek avenues and opportunities for the maximization of power (Aram et al., 2014). This may be achieved by the acquisition of adequate knowledge about health care issues. As such, nurses should engage in collaborative work with members of the LGBTQ community to gain knowledge about salient issues regarding the people. Such knowledge would ensure that nurses speak from a point of authority during policy-making deliberations.
