Nurses and health policy

This article has been subjected to double blind peer review THE VALUE of nurses in the formulation, as well as implementation, of heath policy has long been understood, yet few nurses practising in clinical settings engage in policy debates or perceive health policy even to be a ‘nursing issue’. Bridgman and Davis (2000) define policy as a course of action by government designed to achieve certain results. Hennessy and Spurgeon (2000) meanwhile define it as the strategies and courses of actions adopted to maintain and improve health and, according to Stacey (1991), it includes the care and treatment policies developed by consultant clinicians, nurses, midwives and their teams. It also includes the policies put into effect by general managers, health authorities and those in charge of private health care. Broadly speaking though, health policy can be described as those decisions made by government that arise usually as a result of emerging problems. In the field of health care, policy is often defined or explained by those wishing to study it but, for many nurses, it is merely comprises a set of documents and proposals published by governments. Health policy should be understood however in terms of how health service managers, who are charged with implementing particular policies, and individuals such as nurses actually put policy into practice.