Nurses Need a Seat at the Table

?By: Kathy Baldridge, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP

For 22 years in a row, Gallup polls have shown that?nursing is the most trusted profession, highlighting our compassion, hard work, and the profound impact we have on patients and the healthcare system. Despite being highly ranked in honesty and ethical standards by patients and the public, we often do not have a seat at the table when it comes to health policy decisions, including those about nursing.?

?Why, then, aren’t nurses helping make the major decisions that impact their profession??

?Despite?unsafe work environments,?unmanageable workloads, and barriers to practice, nurses continue to be great advocates for the needs of our patients. However, when it comes to advocating for our individual or professional needs, we feel like our voices aren’t heard by or don’t matter to legislators, hospital administrators, and other decision-makers.?

?This further contributes to burnout, something?over 91% of nurses struggle with,?and is one reason nurses leave the bedside or the profession altogether.?Now is the time for action! Solving the retention and recruitment problems contributing to the nursing shortage is complex.?But the solution is simple: nurses need a seat at the decision-making table.?

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A current hot issue for legislators nationwide is how to recruit more nurses and offset the looming workforce crisis. Many states have introduced and debated bills on ways to recruit more nurses and support them throughout the education pipeline. However, these bills fall short of addressing the true issues while also ensuring that quality education remains the top focus because nurses on the front lines with the expertise and experience needed to help solve these problems are not able to contribute their knowledge. We must change that by empowering nurses to advocate.?

?Advocacy is a learned skill. In nursing school, students learn the pathophysiology of disease, critical thinking, and develop the skills necessary to deliver effective care to patients. Advocacy should be taught alongside those courses. Nursing schools should educate students on the importance of advocating not only for their patients but for themselves and their profession once they enter the workforce.?This means giving students the tools and practice to develop their advocacy skills early.?

?Once in the workforce, practicing nurses must encourage one another to join or create advocacy communities and consider getting involved in leadership activities, such as serving on community boards or influencing local policy. And if you don’t have a local American Nurses Association (ANA) or similar chapter, start a new one. By ensuring nurses not only learn but also employ their advocacy skills, we can make sure decision-makers will?see us as key players and take our feedback seriously to transform healthcare and increase patient access.?

?The first step in individual and professional advocacy is unity. Nursing is the largest healthcare profession, with nearly?4.7 million registered nurses?nationwide. Nursing encompasses a wide range of skills and is in every healthcare setting. Within our masses, we cross all generations, cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds, and political views. We must acknowledge that although we will not agree on every point along the way, our healthcare system needs disrupting, and we have the power to do so if we speak with one voice.?

?So, whether you are an ICU nurse, ER nurse, flight nurse, pediatric nurse, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, certified nurse midwife, or a certified nurse specialist, we are all vital, dedicated parts of the healthcare community, committed to improving access to quality care and overall patient outcomes. This is the foundation for grassroots advocacy – a community with a united mission.?

?The next step in advocacy is determining your ask. What would you like to see changed?? Once you identify the problem, what are your solutions? To maximize our impact, nurses should:

?Pick 1-3 issues you would like to address,

• Gather information about what has been tried before, what worked, and what didn’t,
• Develop a detailed, tangible solution,
• Gather your allies, including other nurses, patients, and outside voices,
• Identify targets (who makes the decisions: CNO, CFO, CEO, Hospital Board, legislator?)
• Organize meetings with your allies and identified targets to make your pitch, and
• Execute the plan!?

?It’s important to remember advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. Be determined and in it for the long haul! That is the only way we will see change. Though the advocacy process is often difficult, it is necessary to advance the profession and serve the best interests of our patients.?

?We need to be our own advocates. Nurses must be at the table to impact and affect change for issues that involve us. Unless the decision-maker is a nurse, they cannot truly understand how their decisions will impact the nursing profession.?

?One of my favorite Florence Nightingale quotes is, “Nursing is a progressive art, such as to stand still is to go backwards.” It is time to stop standing still and instead unite, get involved, and progress to address the recruitment and retention issues at the foundation of improving healthcare across the country. Our profession, our patients, and our healthcare system cannot afford to go backwards.