Through learning advocacy, understanding politics, and policymaking can help nurses in influencing healthcare and enhancing the social agendas that usually influence human health (Weitzel et al., 2020). Nurses work directly with patients and have to communicate with them at all times, which makes them ideal agents for advocacy. I have been able to observe a situation where nurses influence health care through advocacy (Abbasinia, Ahmadi, & Kazemnejad, 2020). In one instance, my colleagues were involved in improving access to mental health in a community we were working in. What we believed in was that by improving access to mental healthcare, we would help in improving the well-being as well as the health outcomes of the individuals in the community. What the group did was conduct research on the infrastructure that existed in the community in regard to mental health and the number of individuals who are likely affected by the different mental health conditions.
The group also looked at the areas of improvement before they reached out to the local policymakers, legislators, and other community leaders in order to ensure that they can create awareness in the community of the need for individuals to focus on mental health. When the group had attained the right level of awareness, they started organizing meetings and invited various experts on mental health to speak (Abbasinia, Ahmadi, & Kazemnejad, 2020). They cemented the need to deal with the lack of mental health services in the community. The group also focused on fostering effective collaboration with other organizations that were dealing with the same issues in the locality with the goal of having a combined approach to the problem. The collaboration focused on gaps in mental health services and made the local leadership aware of the need to improve the infrastructure involved in mental health access and provisions. As a nurse and a future nurse leader, I was able to appreciate the important role that is played by nurses in advocacy.
This discussion helps in the attainment of the course’s learning outcomes. In particular, the discussion aids in understanding the role of the nurse leader in driving policy reforms. This discussion also helps in interpreting research and bringing the nursing perspective to policymakers to ensure that they understand the importance of policymaking in shaping nursing practice. At the moment, nursing practice requires a change of policy especially in areas such as staffing and fostering independence in nursing practice to ensure there is enhanced quality of care that is provided to patients.
