1) Nurses can be an integral part of designing public policy as political leaders. As a registered nurse, you have a professional commitment to improve health care. However, many nurses are not politically active and do not lobby for important aspects of their profession.
• What are the reasons many nurses do not actively engage in lobbying efforts?
• What actions can nurses take to encourage themselves and their peers to get involved politically and lobby for specific issues such as healthcare policy changes? Provide a detailed example.
2) The United States and other countries are experiencing nursing shortages. To help ease the shortage, many resources are spent on recruiting foreign nurses.
• What are the reasons for these shortages? If the United States and other industrial nations put their resources into increasing nurse retention, would the need to recruit foreign nurses decrease? Why or why not?
• Choose one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and discuss how a community nurse can work toward achieving that goal.
3) As healthcare organizations become more complex and our focus on the patient experience expands, nurses are leading and participating in evidence-based practice (EBP) projects and quality improvement (QI) initiatives with the goal of improving patient outcomes.
• In what ways is EBP applied where you work or where you do clinicals?
• Discuss the findings of a QI initiative or study from either your clinical location/hospital website or another online source.
4) Lifelong learning involves a commitment to remain current within a rapidly changing, increasingly complex, and technologically reliant healthcare world.
• Why is it important for nurses to commit to lifelong learning in relation to patients, organizations, and self?
• How can organizations such as Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) assist nurses in their lifelong learning journey?
