Nursing 2
A health policy is an authoritative decision made as a reflection of choices and goals of
an institution or the government. The state health policy is an important tool as it provides for
research, technical assistance and opportunities for the state and federal health agencies on
legislative matters on public health policy. An example of such policy is the Tobacco control
policy. Regulation has been used as tool for the creation of this policy which refers to a set of
laws indicating what is acceptable and what is not for individuals, firms and government
agencies (Dana, 2012). The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)
has also been used as a tool for the creation of the Tobacco control policy.
Politics has had a major influence on the decisions made in all sectors including the
public health policy bearing in mind that the legislature is purely a political arena. Their inputs
have had significant importance in policy decisions because of the wide scope of perspective as
politicians and thus have had a major boost in quality of health offered. But that’s not always the
case, politics have also manipulated some of these policies to favor their intent and secure their
political careers which by this action, some important policies have not been passed by the
parliaments or have had little or no implementation after accession.
Nurses in most cases do not have an influence on policy decision making in the health
sector but rather they are instruments of policy implementation. Nurse policy influence is the
ability to have an effect on decisions related to health care using power, advocacy and policy
competence. They need to be active in the development of health policies, acquire policy making
skills in order to address professional challenges, work in collaboration with other decision
makers to advance public health policies. Involvement of nurses in policy making process is key
because it would influence the adequacy of nurse workforce size, improve nursing education and
improve patient outcome which would mean better health care.
