Table of Contents
Introduction
Because obesity has become a major concern around the world, the concerned health bodies have been actively involved in regulation of its growth among human beings. Most of the health organizations have participated in this practice through the formulation of policies that regulate the possible causative agents. However, there has been a need for enforcement of such policies. As a result, there has emerged a question of how nurses can be involved in influencing health policy related to the epidemic. This paper seeks to explore some of the ways.
Nurses Involvement in the issue of obesity
According to Cohen (2001), nurses not only need to formulate health policies, but also influence them. As a result, there is need to be actively involved in the development of those policies to be able to influence them.
On the issue of obesity, nurses can actively engage themselves in different ways, to change them. Since nurses are the first people to interact with clients directly, it becomes easier for them to strengthen health policies. The first way they can be involved in influencing the health policy related to policy is through communication. There is the need for the nurses to educate the society about the social norms that accelerate the rate of obesity, through nursing educational programs (Hewison, 2008).
Secondly, nurses can also improve teamwork to influence the policy of obesity (Boswell, Cannon & Miller, 2005).In this case, nurses can either form nursing coalitions campaigning on the issue of obesity, or they can be involved in inter-disciplinary participation (Taft & Nanna, 2008).Teamwork provides the necessary framework for policy influence in the nursing profession.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is undeniable that nurses play a major role in strengthening policies in health. That said, it remains clear that they can be an effective tool in influencing the health policy related to obesity.
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- Taft, S. H., & Nanna, K. M. (2008). What are the sources of health policy that influence nursing practice?. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 9(4), 274-287.