Buck-McFadyen & MacDonnell,
Peer 1
Nurses influence through engaging in activism act as a drive to health care policy changes enhancing improvement of the quality of care by increasing accessibility of the necessary resources as well as opportunities. Political activism skills are considered essential for the nurses as it enables them to protect the nursing profession as well as their practice (Buck-McFadyen & MacDonnell, 2017). Nurses can serve in elected positions within the state or the national levels to present the broad healthcare aspects of concern and ensure they are integrated within the healthcare policies.
Unionization of nurses is considered to be pertinent as the union offers the nurses the strength and power to bargain on the enforceable contracts such as the acceptable ratio of nurse to patient, their specific roles in maintaining quality of care as well as nurses overtime working hours and pay scale. Besides, joining nursing union provides an opportunity for the nurses to engage in political activism by lobbying private bodies and the government to advocate for policy changes that enhance improved patient care as well as participating in campaigns to create awareness on the importance of nurses thereby improving patient outcome (Ulrich & Kear, 2014). Nursing unions incorporate strategies that not only increase the nurse’s voice in advocating for improved care practices but also encourages nurses’ effective involvement in patient care through making informed decisions thereby creating a workforce culture of safety. One of the Masters of Science in nursing essential is the ability of the nurses to positively influence health policy and advocacy. The masters nursing program ensures that the nurses can effectively integrate nursing concepts at the system level to not only participate in the policy development process but also utilize advocacy strategies to impact change in health care policies.
Peer 2
Unionized nurses refer to nurses who belong in labor organizations that are meant to protect the nurses’ welfare and advocate for the improvement of the healthcare system. Nurses should be provided with the opportunity to join work environment unions at will. Work environment unions range from large national unions to smaller organizations created to address specific issues in specific healthcare facilities (Dube, Kaplan, & Thompson, 2014).
