Increased Political Activism Among Nursing Staff

Increased Political Activism among the Nursing staff

Nurses are usually the most powerful people on earth, given the fact that they have a remarkable potential to exercise tremendous power both in the societal and political arenas. This power emanates from the great body of healthcare knowledge that they possess and in their large numbers. Contrary to this absolute fact, most nurses do not maximize this policy changing potential that they own. Regrettably, they view political activism not as power tool but as a barrier to the furtherance of their nursing profession. This emanates from the view that nursing is about application of service through actual involvements which politics does not entail (Rains and Barton-Kriese 219).

Political activism according to them is more about theory and more of discourse on subjects rather than actual involvements with patients, a feature that characterizes the nursing profession. This nursing view of political involvement is narrow and is the major reason for the pandemic nursing apathy towards political activism. Today’s nurse without political involvement, is more of a person busying himself with the process of rescuing a situation to the extent that he lacks time to find the root cause of the problem so as to eradicate it once and for all. This paper uses knowledge based on nursing history, change process and views from nursing colleagues to design a plan of action that will increase political involvement among the nursing staff.

Nursing History and Political Involvement

Nursing involves the provision of care to individuals, communities and families with an aim to make them attain and maintain optimal health and quality of life (Basavanthappa 515). In the earlier years nursing was asso...

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