Jordanian Nurses' involvement in health policy: perceived benefits and barriers

AIM: To examine (1) the level of involvement of Jordanian nurses in health policy development and (2) perceived benefits, barriers and impacts on health outcomes of involvement in health policy process. BACKGROUND: Lack of nurses' political involvement may result in self-serving policies by policymakers who are in power and passing policies that are less than optimum. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted in this study. A convenience sample of 231 nurses was recruited with a response rate of 77%. The instrument of Registered Nurses' Involvement in Health Policies was used in this study. RESULTS: The results revealed that participants were most frequently involved in the health policy activity 'voting for a candidate or a health policy proposal'. The mean scores for involvement of participants as nurses and as citizens were low. The most perceived frequent barrier to involvement in health policy was lack of time. DISCUSSION: The low rate of Jordanian nurses' involvement in health policy could be explained by the fact that most participants had family roles in addition to work roles, which might leave little time for health policy activities. Lack of mentoring for nurses by nursing leaders could also negatively affect their involvement in health policy development. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: Results of this study could be baseline information for Jordanian nurse leaders to enhance the level of nurses' involvement in health policy development. Such findings could also add knowledge to the existing literature about nurses' involvement in health policy.