Why Are NPs Disengaged?
NPs aren’t the only ones who are disengaged. On a national scale, all types of political and community involvement rapidly declined from 1973 to 1994: Active involvement in organizations dropped 50%.1 From 1977 to 1998, membership in the American Nurses Association dropped from 190,000 to 175,000, while the number of nurses doubled from 1 million to 2 million.2 Some associations have seen their membership increase only to note that the percentage of professionals who belong has dropped significantly. Washington state is the perfect example. More than 3,000 nurse practitioners practice here, but only 10% belong to the state NP organization. The reasons for this lack of involvement are varied. Reasons for political apathy in nursing range from a lack of knowledge about the political process and public policy formation to feelings of powerlessness and a perceived ethical conflict between professional values and political involvement.3 In other words, we don’t understand the process, and w
