Skill Sets for Nurses Participating in Heathcare Decision Making Process

Our nurses who would like to participate in the healthcare decision making process must master advanced mass communication skills in order to "work" the media and get the appropriate messages across as wide a cross section as possible. In this day and age of hourly news cycles and instant Internet communication, nurses in such leadership roles must have the skills to understand and manipulate the way the news is created, distributed and consumed. They need to plan their strategies by leveraging such comprehensive media expertise.

Again, and related to that, is the necessity for the nursing community as a whole to get involved in better public relations and explain at a higher level the crucial role they play in the national health system.

A case in point -- go to Google News for example on any given day and make a news story search with the key word "nurse" and you would be surprised at the number of negative stories returned about nurses supposedly "taking advantage" of their patients or displaying some kind of character weakness that none of us associate with this dignified profession.

That goes to show that image building and maintenance is a public process that should be tended to with the same care that goes towards nurses' patients and their professional development.

A solid positive image, a "market brand" if you will, that clearly communicates the precious "value added" that nursing profession represents is an invaluable ingredient for all nurses climbing up the proverbial ladder of decision making. It's the "water" that raises all the "boats" effortlessly.