NURSE PARTICIPATION IN POLITICAL ACTIVITIES: LEVEL AND PRACTICES OF REGISTERED NURSES IN TAMALE, GHANA

Abstract

Many nursing scholars, professional nursing organizations, and other health-focused organizations, expect and encourage nurses to engage in socio-political activities. Yet, studies have shown that nurse participation in political activities remains low. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 225 registered nurses in three hospitals and two nursing training schools in Tamale, Ghana, using a structured questionnaire. Study findings suggested that nurses are generally very active in registering to vote, voting, and registering to be a member of a professional nursing organization; however, they often do not participate in other forms of political activities. The authors discuss their findings, and conclude that nurses may not participate in high intensity level political activities, but they do engage in low intensity actions, such as voting in elections.