Preparing the Future Nursing Workforce for Political Activism

Vol. 1 No. 2

Year: 2011

Issue: May-Jul

Title: Preparing the Future Nursing Workforce for Political Activism 

Author Name: 

Synopsis: 

Awareness of the importance of political advocacy for both the nursing profession and for patient outcomes is critical to the advancement of health related legislature at the state and federal level. The 2010 IOM report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, recommends that nursing education prepares a workforce of nurses for key government leadership positions. This study evaluated the effectiveness of group participation in a health policy and legislative blog in increasing nursing student self-efficacy scores on political activism. The research design was an evaluative before-and-after design using each participant as his/her own control. The study utilized a convenience sample of 56 senior level nursing students enrolled in a leadership course. A paired-samples t test was conducted to compare the pre-test mean and the post-test mean of a 12 item political self-efficacy survey. The overall self-efficacy score and all three self-efficacy subscales were statistically significant (p<.05) demonstrating a noteworthy increase in self-efficacy for political activism. This study has identified an effective teaching strategy to improve the self-efficacy of nursing students in advocating for the nursing profession and patient outcomes. The outcome of this study was that graduating baccalaureate students enter the workforce with an established level of confidence in their ability to affect change in health policy promotion.