Nursing and Change PPWA 2.2 - Article Example

Nursing and Change PPWA The very fundamental aspects that are deemed to be positive for nursing practice have not been as well understood as the actual caring for the infirm. The laws of nursing or health apply for both those that are sick and those that are healthy (Rains & Barton-Kriese, 2001). It is only that the consequences for the violation of these laws results into more violent consequences for the less healthy relative to the healthy. This is what was asserted by Nightingale many years ago though it is still applicable in the contemporary nursing paradigm (Almond, 2006).

Nursing has in the past in the present and in the future have an interest and influence in the workplace, public policy and government. It is common for the word politics to be deemed misplaced in a nursing setting since federal and state government actions are always looked on negatively. The nature of politics and the divisions therein make political participation seem distasteful to the nursing practitioner. However, it must be acknowledged that politics has a great impact and significance on how the nursing practitioner does his job and more important the good of the society (Ivanov & Blue, 2007).

It is therefore incumbent upon the nursing practitioner to be informed as far as is necessary with regard to what is happening in politics in issues of policy and health care legislation. The current situation shows that many nursing practitioners do not engage in politics since they do not deem politics to be important for their practice. In order to explain this there are a variety of perspectives and theoretical models which have to be applied. The first level of change is the individual or psychological level of change.

At this level of change an important aspect to be taken into consideration is the attitudes and opinions of the people (Roux & Halstead, 2009). The interviews with the nursing practitioners established that nurses are mostly affected psychologically in line with the Health Belief Model. Most of the nurses interviewed asserted that they did not engage in politics since they did not believe that engaging in politics would have any positive effects on aspects of policy making and legislation. One of the theories I deem to be very important in an analysis of the nurses’ attitudes is the comfort growth panic model.

This theory asserts that people in an organization in need of change may be classified into stages of comfort, growth and panic (Gebbie et al, 2003). This draws parallels with the Lewin model of unfreeze, transition and freeze. From my analysis I established that nurses were in the comfort and unfreeze phase of change. The nurses particularly those that had been in employment for long believed policy making was not sufficient but they were complacent since they did not believe they could make a difference.

This culture was transmitted to the new employers resulting in very little involvement overall. In order to foster change in the nursing profession it is important that theoretical models of change are employed in an understanding of the nursing practitioner and how to enhance involvement. Since the practitioners are complacent, they have psychological attitudes which need to be changed first before any meaningful change can be attained (Fulton et al, 2010). After identifying the psychological impediments that account for non involvement of nurses in politics, the transition can then begin.

It has to be asserted that the psychological attitudes and opinions against political involvement are mainly cultural and hence a culture change needs to be put in place (Holzemer, 2010). The transition from a culture of complacency and non involvement is an important phase as how this is done may doom the project or make it a success. Finally, after the transitioning of behavior and attitudes there will need to be a program for ensuring non regression to the former culture. In order to undertake the process, the theoretical perspectives will be applied in policy making in nursing professional organizations to foster political involvement.

The first step of the process is convincing the nursing practitioner that there is a benefit to political involvement. This will be achieved through pointing out that the ills affecting the nursing profession can be dealt with if they were engaged in politics. It is important that the nurses be encouraged and supported in their political aspirations which will enable them to have positions of power from which they can influence policy and legislation. The nurses will be made to know that they stand to benefit from their involvement in politics since their welfare will be taken care of.

As such cues to action such as printed brochures and pens asking nurses to get involved in politics will be aggressively pursued. Change will also be pursued through putting up a transition mechanism according to the Lewin framework. Through the use of the Lewin framework there will be identification of the unfreeze change and freeze stages timelines. First of all the organizational culture of the nursing profession which has been determined as being complacent will be modified through psychological means in an unfreeze process.

This will then be followed by a transition mechanism which erases the negative opinions and attitudes against political involvement. The change process will then adopt a psychological and socio-cultural process in which new attitudes will be inculcated on the nursing practitioner. Following the successful change of attitudes and opinions the process will then shift to the freeze mode which a process intended to maintain the acquired attitudes (Bosek & Savage, 2007). This freeze process will be maintained and supported by the organization’s management in order to prevent regression to the discarded negative culture.

References Almond, G. A. (2006). The civic culture revisited. Newbury Park: Sage. Bosek, M. S. D. W., & Savage, T. A. (2007). The ethical component of nursing education : integrating ethics into clinical experience. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Fulton, J. S., Lyon, B. L., & Goudreau, K. A. (2010). Foundations of clinical nurse specialist practice. New York: Springer. Gebbie, K. M., Rosenstock, L., Hernandez, L. M., & Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2003). Who will keep the public healthy?

: Educating public health professionals for the 21st century. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press. Holzemer, W. L., & International Council of Nurses. (2010). Improving health through nursing research. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Pub. Ivanov, L. L., & Blue, C. L. (2007). Public health nursing: Leadership, policy, & practice. Australia: Delmar Cengage Delmar. Rains, J. W., & Barton-Kriese, P. (2011). Developing political competence; a comparative study across disciplines. Public Health Nursing, 18(4):219-224: Roux, G. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2009).

Issues and trends in nursing: Essential knowledge for today and tomorrow. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.