Introduction: For several decades, there have been repeated calls for nurses to become more involved in policy and political processes. Aims: The purpose of this article is to conduct an integrative review to identify and assess the current state of the science relating to supporting the pursuit of greater involvement by the nursing profession in policy and political processes. Design: Standard integrative review procedures were used to identify studies that examined how policy competence could be achieved. A comparative thematic approach to synthesis was used. Both published and grey literature written in English between January 1965 and January 2015 were identified via a structured search of CINAHL, SCOPUS, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Results: Forty-five primary studies were identified with literature from North America dominating, but contributions from low-and middle-income countries have recently started to feature. Studies tended to focus on the immediate impact of didactic and action learning-based approaches. The majority of articles were descriptive survey designs utilizing small convenience samples. Conclusions and policy implication: Many programmes of education have focused on developing an understanding of legislative policy and political processes, but the development of policy and political competencies at team and institutional levels has been ignored. Existing research have looked at the short-term effects of educational programmes. At this time, there are conflicting reports on the impact of variables such as gender and educational preparation on policy and political competence. There is an urgent need to address these major gaps if nurses at all levels are to play a full role in shaping policy and political process.
IntroductionThere have been repeated calls over several decades for nurses to have a bigger role in influencing health and social policy. Authors have frequently acknowledged that, in general terms, nurses are inadequately prepared to operate in the policy arena (Adams et al. 2011;Antrobus & Brown 1997;Ferguson 1998
FundingThis research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-or-profit sectors.
Conflict of interestNo conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.
135© 2016 International Council of Nurses Literature Review at both the knowledge required (content) and the processes that can be used to support the development of policy and political competence. While these articles are informative, they lack a comprehensive and systematic examination of the work published in relation to this important topic.
AimThe purpose of this article is to conduct an integrative review to identify and assess the current state of the science relating to supporting the pursuit of greater involvement by the nursing profession in policy (at team/ institutional/organizational level) and political (public/legislative) processes.
MethodTo achieve the aim of this study, the authors conducted a structured examination of the published and grey li...