RESEARCH ARTICLE
Iranian Nurses’ Status in Policymaking for Nursing in Health System: A Qualitative Content Analysis
Mohammad Ali Cheraghi 1, Shahrzad Ghiyasvandian 2, Akram Aarabi*, 3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2015Volume: 9
First Page: 15
Last Page: 24
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-9-15
DOI: 10.2174/1874434601509010015
Article History:
Received Date: 28/10/2014Revision Received Date: 22/12/2014
Acceptance Date: 5/1/2015
Electronic publication date: 8/6/2015
Collection year: 2015

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Presence of nurses in policy making will result improvement of nursing practice, and increase qualification of patients’ care, but still few nurses are involved in policy debates and health reforms and their status in policy making for nursing is not clear. The aim of this study was to elucidate Iranian nurses’ status in policy making for nursing in health system. This is a qualitative study. Using purposive sampling 22 participants were interviewed to gain deep understanding from the phenomenon of status of nurses in policy making. Of these 2 were not nurses but the members of Iran’s council for health policy making. Data were analyzed by employing conventional content analysis. Nurses’ status in policy making declared base on the implications of three main themes including “the policy making framework”, “perceived status of nurses in policy making”, and “the manner of nurses’ participation in policy making”. The conclusion of the present study is that Policy making for nursing is a subcategory of Iran’s macro health policies. What made the status of nurses more efficient in policy making for nursing was their practice and rate of participation in the appointed positions and the society. Results of this study represented major points of weakness in nursing policies and some recommendations for modifications.