“Important decisions about our profession are often made without the voice of nurses”

With lackluster strikes resulting in no change in wages or working conditions and reports of toxic regulation, many are hoping the new administration will alleviate their woes.

“We need to teach our future nurses how to get involved and give them the skills they need to create future change.”

David Collett

While we ignore the glaring gaps in our pre-licensure education, we are not teaching nurses politics. There are countless articles about how nurses need to be more active and have a stronger voice.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council itself even requires us to teach our students how to participate in and influence the policy process.

But without the skills, we leave our students and future nurses alone in the often harsh world of politics and activism. Some join unions or political parties, but most withdraw completely.

There are many misconceptions about how to influence politics. Many people think of picketing or demonstrating through London.

In reality, many of the important decisions affecting our profession or the care we provide are made in conference rooms where nurses often have no voice.

This was demonstrated by my own experience when I was elected unopposed to the board of an NHS Trust as a nursing representative.

Of the hundreds of nurses working at my local hospital, I was the only one who wanted to do this.

Most healthcare organizations would give their right arm for dedicated employees rather than constantly chasing nurses to fill out THIS survey once a year.

While most nurses would like to trust that their views will at least be considered, many are skeptical that they will be read at all.

But the answer is clear from the facts: If we want to build a profession that has the skills and willingness to deal with problems big and small, it starts with training.

However, this is a more complicated solution than you might think. Even with the NMC regulations, it is not entirely clear how this will be implemented into the pre-registration curricula.

I recently carried out a mini-review of the preparatory courses for the BSc in Adult Nursing at various English universities, examining the modules advertised on their websites.

I found that only seven out of 72 institutions had modules specifically designed to teach students how to participate in or influence the political process.

Most choose to anchor policy in other ways, such as in the areas of care drivers, health determinants or clinical leadership.

While these are obviously important issues for the education of our future nurses, how policies affect practice and how they are developed in the first place are two different things.

This is a difficult challenge for educators and curriculum developers. From many students, we encounter shiny, uncomfortable looks at the mere mention of politics.

Most approach the idea of ​​engaging with such content with the same pessimism and apathy that has gripped the nation, as evidenced by the record-low voter turnout in our last election.

To make matters worse, there is very little evidence anywhere in the world about what the best course of action might be. I believe it is a legitimate concern.

As recent strikes have shown, if we don’t try, we risk continuing to build a workforce that lacks the confidence or skills to articulate arguments in a way that can bring about meaningful change.

If our future nurses do not know what a consultation is or how to find one, if they do not understand the influence their local MPs have on the political system or what their own employers do with their feedback, politics and policy will continue to be something that is done to us rather than with us.

It is not enough to simply say that nurses need to be more active. We need to teach our future nurses how to get involved and equip them with the skills to create future change.

David Collett, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, University of Central Lancashire