Taking a seat at the table: an educational model for nursing empowerment

Abstract

Background The human resources for health crisis has generated much debate as to the radical changes necessary to mitigate the risks to universal health coverage. Nurses can make a significant impact on global health, if only they feel empowered to take their seat at the political table. Aim The aim of this paper was to outline nurse‐led initiatives to enhance organizational culture and clinical processes at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. These have been designed and implemented by the United Kingdom (UK) Defence Medical Services to empower the nursing workforce in Pakistan. Outcome An educational model has been developed that will build capacity, within a workforce constrained by numbers, by bridging the gap between nursing theory and practice. It is geared to actively engage Pakistani nurses in quality improvement to ensure care is based on best evidence that will enhance patient outcomes. Conclusion and implications for nursing & health policy The wider impact of the model has already been evidenced by nurses, country‐wide, who are gaining the necessary skills and confidence to realize their true potential in influencing the patient care pathway and future policy. This is crucial to the recruitment and retention of nurses who might otherwise seek alternative career paths if they lack a sense of value within the profession. Their renewed sense of value will enable them to find their voice and ability to contribute to the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.

Nursing and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Scoping Review

“…Despite being the largest healthcare profession, nursing has been described as inadequately represented in policy and decision making, particularly when compared with medicine (Rosa, Kurth, et al, 2019). The nursing profession is largely missing a seat at the policy table (Lamb, Hofman, Clark, Hughes, & Sukhera, 2020; Premji & Hatfield, 2016), with one paper arguing, “nurses are consistently absent from policy and decision‐making tables and nursing knowledge is not being integrated into comprehensive planning” (Rosa, Kurth, et al, 2019, p. 637). Other articles suggest it may be the dearth of scholarship that accounts for the underrepresentation of nurses in policy (Ajuebor et al, 2019; Benton, Beasley, & Ferguson, 2019; Squires, 2019).…”

Defence Healthcare Engagement: A UK Military Perspective to Improve Healthcare Leadership and Quality of Care Overseas

“…Nurses visited for short placements from other healthcare facilities and left feeling better able to lead change in their own hospitals. 28 Initial quality improvement programmes (QIPs) centred on compliance with WHO hand hygiene guidance, surveillance for hospital-associated infections related to indwelling venous catheters and engagement with the WHO Safer Surgery project. Each QIP demonstrated significant and sustained improvement during the deployment, raising the quality of care and helping to prevent hospital-associated infections.…”

Evaluation of an international health partnership to capacity build emergency, trauma and critical care nurse education and practice in Zambia: An experience from the field

“…Recognising, developing and valuing nurses are crucial in order to protect the future of healthcare systems and maintain high‐quality care (Lamb et al., 2020; World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). Zambia has a population of approximately 16 million, and, according to the United Nations Human Development Index, it is ranked 146 out of 189 countries (UN Human Development Reports, 2022).…”