Policy and voter education strategies

Nurses and Politics

There are undoubtedly some people in our society for whom political activity would be inappropriate. It could be argued that judges should not be politically active, because we need for our judges to be impartial within the court of law. Actively campaigning would fight that image of impartiality.

However, there seems no logical reason for nurses to refrain from political activity. In fact, on some issues nurses might provide valuable information of use to all voters on some issues. In addition, politics is involved to some degree with most jobs, and if nurses are to perform in their jobs most effectively, they need to be able to work effectively in all aspects of their jobs. Des Jardin (2001) points out that nurses often serve in professional organizations, serving on committees or acting as elected officers. Belonging to a professional organization helps keep a nurse up-to-date on important influences that might affect his or her job. and, as anyone who belongs to a union knows, by forming a group, a collection of people with similar jobs can create a more powerful voice for themselves. While people tend to think of these actions as fighting for higher salary, professional organizations have fought for limits on how much overtime can be demanded of a nurse as an issue of patient safety. They have campaigned against re-assigning what used to be nursing duties to lesser-trained staff when they felt patient welfare would be put at risk as a result. When professional nursing organizations take such actions, they balance the influence that hospital administrators, who may not be trained medical professionals, may have over medical care for the community.

On community and national levels, nurses have an ethical obligation to promote human rights awareness and influence health care policies by letter writing and visiting legislators to share nursing knowledge and expertise. The first step and strongest action a nurse can take to implement any political strategy is to register to vote. Without the vote, nurses are not empowered to choose, support, and vote into office the candidate of choice who can support nursing and patient-friendly health care legislation. Des Jardins argues that in fact nurses have a moral and ethical obligation to participate in their government in every way available to them, starting with registering to vote, so they can support candidates and issues they believe will support good health for the society in which they live.

In addition, Helms, et. al. (1996) argue that attempting to influence policy at the hospital level as well as for local, state and national politics is important for nurses who work in a time of change. They encourage nurses to work together and try to help find solutions for the serious issues facing health care today. They particularly encourage nurses to be active regarding health issues, such as the changing laws for Medicare. These authors urge nurses to consider what actions could be implemented as a mode for positive change within the health community.