Home care nursing: integration of politics and nursing

Home care is an important player in the health care arena because of its desirability and potential for cost savings. Today, home care nurses are joining physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes at the table in policy discussions with government, business, insurers, and consumers. Home care nurses are speaking up and demanding a piece of the health care pie, on behalf of their patients. By virtue of their frontline position in the community, on the street, and in the patient's home, home care nurses are often the first to see unmet needs or identify inequities. They are taking these to the public, if needed, to effect the necessary change to ensure access, promote quality of care, and improve quality of life. They are also holding payers, such as government, accountable when promises to patients are broken. Home care nurses are doing what they have always done, doing what they have to do to find services for patients. Today that means becoming political.