Political competence is defined as the perspectives and values required to attain effective collaborations and involvement in the nursing profession (Scott & Scott, 2021). Nurse leaders must demonstrate excellent political know-how and competence to ensure seamless operations in nursing organizations. Political competency can be demonstrated at the local level when a nurse intervenes in culturally sensitive communities.
Thus, they can determine cultural and social determinants of the cause of different health issues in the locality they operate in. At the state level, the political competency of a nurse can be demonstrated when nurse leaders are at the forefront of advocating for protecting the junior nurses that are undertaking different tasks in the state healthcare facilities (Thomas et al., 2020).
This can be fulfilled by advocating for the junior nurses to be provided with protective equipment to maintain their safety when in the workplace. Some protective equipment could include gloves, PPEs, and many others.
At the national level, political competency can be demonstrated when nurse leaders collaborate with fellow healthcare practitioners to foster human healthcare that can ensure suitable provision and management of quality care to ensure positive patient outcomes (van Dongen et al., 2021). The nurse leaders can also display competency by ensuring that nurses’ values are upheld/maintained during political discussions involving healthcare stakeholders.
Different issues can be discussed hence streamlining the areas that seem not to be working well. There is a high likelihood of achieving quality care when there are seamless work operations, thus ensuring patient contentment is attained at different levels. Further, when patient satisfaction is attained, the healthcare professionals also feel fulfilled as they are motivated that the tasks they are procuring are beneficial to their clients/patients.
References
Scott, S. M., & Scott, P. A. (2021). Nursing, advocacy and public policy. Nursing ethics, 28(5), 723-733.
Thomas, T., Martsolf, G., & Puskar, K. (2020). How to engage nursing students in health policy: results of a survey assessing students’ competencies, experiences, interests, and values. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 21(1), 12-20.
van Dongen, L., Cardiff, S., Kluijtmans, M., Schoonhoven, L., Hamers, J. P., Schuurmans, M. J., & Hafsteinsdóttir, T. B. (2021). Developing leadership in postdoctoral nurses: A longitudinal mixed-methods study. Nursing Outlook, 69(4), 550-564.
Also check: MN506 Global Nursing Shortage