Nurses are a largely untapped cohort for policy work. How to get involved is simple. Pick an issue-see a problem that needs fixing. Find like minds-start with a few, put out social media calls, and recruit outside your professional pocket. Organize by establishing leadership and communications setup. Find a champion, someone willing to speak up for the issue. Search for funds. Write policy. Find sponsors or supportive persons from the community. Sell, sell, sell your message. Come at the goal from many positions. Use effective messaging strategies: short words win; if you don't repeat, you can't compete; and numbers numb, stories sell.
Build a coalition to support a cause, any cause. The more the issue is narrowly focused the better. Come up with a short purpose statement (1 sentence). Frame your goal in realistic terms, tell who the target audience is, decide on a name for your coalition (short and not duplicative), come up with who would join, and determine whether it is an individual or organizational-based collaboration.
Personal requirements are simple: energy, passion, clinical knowledge, technology savvy, and money. Numbers are critical when selling your policy because they translate as constituent voices heard from. Check https://Congress.gov to see current legislation related to your topic.
An excellent example of policy networking is the past 3 years of the International Society for Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses (ISPN) policy committee. This 7-member group reports directly to the Board and president for the organization on matters of mental health policy, services, and research. Committee representatives are clinical practitioners, academicians, and researchers with child and adolescent, adult, geriatric, and leadership expertise. The mission is to respond in a timely manner to mental health issues affecting nurses, for example, Roe v Wade overturn and criminalization of registered nurse on medication error. Furthermore, they develop position statements quarterly while keeping up with weekly legislative letters of support on suicide, school mental health, gun violence, healthcare workplace violence, maternal mental health, and military mental health legislation. In the past year, ISPN has signed onto support over 50 letters promoting legislation and federal agency activities. One major initiative supported was the 988 suicide prevention hotline launched in July 2022, advocating for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funding to launch and maintain the program throughout the United States. During the first 24 hours, the system logged over 100 00 calls for help. Another initiative involved collaboration with the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement for a project on abandoned children at the US southern border.
The policy committee has formalized ISPN liaisons with the Mental Health Liaison Group (a Washington, DC member organization; http//mhlg.org), the Nursing Community Coalition (63 nurse organizations; http//thenursingcommunity.org), and the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice (http//globalalliance.org).
To summarize key concepts for policy work, we each have a vested interest in the political and policy outcomes on the table in our state houses and at the federal levels. Nurses have volumes of experience to speak with patient needs. No one knows better than you on the front lines. Let's move out to center for policy.
Clinical nurse specialists, who are not so involved with policy directions, are now becoming aware of impact and how collaborative and coalition work can be productive; the future of the profession depends on your relevance and who knows it.