TY - CONF
T1 - International nurses’ collaboration in communities of interest
T2 - Leveraging family nurse strengths and leadership in policy engagement
AU - Smith, Lindsay M
AU - Roberts, Karyn J
AU - Alrimawi, Intima
AU - Brysiewicz, Petra
AU - Carr, Susan M
AU - Danford, Cynthia A
AU - Giambra, Barbara K.
AU - Honda, Junko
AU - Polfuss, Michele
AU - Ryan Schultz, Theresa
AU - Sheppard-LeMoine, Debbie
AU - Winter, Natalie
AU - Feetham, SUzanne
PY - 2025/11
Y1 - 2025/11
N2 - Background and Purpose: Despite being the largest healthcare profession globally, the voice of nurses is often dismissed or absent in healthcare policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic negative health outcomes escalated exponentially, largely associated with errors in healthcare policy. The voice of nursing was again dismissed. This presentation will describe the experiences, strategies, outcomes, and lessons learned of a recently formed IFNA community of interest (COI) focused on healthcare policy, and demonstrate how to leverage the strengths of family nurses to promote family health outcomes globally. Methods: An invitation to conversations after an expert lecture at IFNC15 (2020), grew into a COI focused on policy. A group of international family nurses, most novices in policy, committed to meeting monthly in January 2022 to explore ways to engage in health policy. We used a shared leadership model, to provide a platform for discussions, peer support, mentoring, resources, and members to gain confidence and skills to engage in policy efforts. Results: An umbrella review of the literature of nurses’ engagement in policy development and a policy toolkit for nurses to provide practical steps for policy engagement were completed and are being disseminated. Research proposals that apply the knowledge gained are being discussed. Group members have shared stories of increased engagement with health policymakers and elected officials. Members report the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise of participants, shared leadership, inclusiveness, mutual respect, and kindness of this COI contributed to the outcomes and their continued commitment. Conclusions and Implications: The focus on health policy of this COI is novel and necessary for family nurses. The members of the COI were successful in leveraging and building on shared values to develop knowledge, skills, and confidence in policy engagement. This exemplar can be emulated to leverage the strengths of family nursing and contribute to healthcare policy engagement.
AB - Background and Purpose: Despite being the largest healthcare profession globally, the voice of nurses is often dismissed or absent in healthcare policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic negative health outcomes escalated exponentially, largely associated with errors in healthcare policy. The voice of nursing was again dismissed. This presentation will describe the experiences, strategies, outcomes, and lessons learned of a recently formed IFNA community of interest (COI) focused on healthcare policy, and demonstrate how to leverage the strengths of family nurses to promote family health outcomes globally. Methods: An invitation to conversations after an expert lecture at IFNC15 (2020), grew into a COI focused on policy. A group of international family nurses, most novices in policy, committed to meeting monthly in January 2022 to explore ways to engage in health policy. We used a shared leadership model, to provide a platform for discussions, peer support, mentoring, resources, and members to gain confidence and skills to engage in policy efforts. Results: An umbrella review of the literature of nurses’ engagement in policy development and a policy toolkit for nurses to provide practical steps for policy engagement were completed and are being disseminated. Research proposals that apply the knowledge gained are being discussed. Group members have shared stories of increased engagement with health policymakers and elected officials. Members report the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise of participants, shared leadership, inclusiveness, mutual respect, and kindness of this COI contributed to the outcomes and their continued commitment. Conclusions and Implications: The focus on health policy of this COI is novel and necessary for family nurses. The members of the COI were successful in leveraging and building on shared values to develop knowledge, skills, and confidence in policy engagement. This exemplar can be emulated to leverage the strengths of family nursing and contribute to healthcare policy engagement.
U2 - 10.1177/10748407251377195
DO - 10.1177/10748407251377195
M3 - Abstract
SP - 43S
ER -