Why is nursing's collective voice weak and rarely heard?

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Unfortunately, nursing's collective voice is rarely heard.Only about 20% of the entire nursing workforce are members of a collective professional organization (Woodward, Smart & Benavides-Vaello, 2015).Other health care professionals, like the American Medical Association, have more united professional organizations with large memberships, providing a united voice and political clout that influences health care policy and law.Nurses have multiple professional organizations.With high membership dues, nurses likely join only a few groups and may gravitate toward their specialty organization.Without a single national organization with the majority of nurses as members, nursing's voice is diluted.When organizations promote an issue, the collective voice of the group rather than the individual sends a more powerful message to influence policymakers.Without a collective voice, nursing's influence on shaping health care policy is weakened.The fact that nurses are women is not relevant to this issue, the problem is percent of participation in professional organizations and not the gender of the participants.Health issues are most certainly on the forefront of the political climate especially as it pertains to the Affordable Care Act.While physicians have some issue with patient trust, nurses enjoy an extremely high rate of patient respect and trust, often polling as the most trusted professionals.

Why Is Nursing's Collective Voice Weak and Rarely Heard