Factors Influencing Organized Political Participation in Nursing

This study addresses the issue of organized political participation in nursing. The conceptual framework is the civic voluntarism model (CVM) of Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, which posits that three factors influence organized participation: (a) having the engagement (motivation), (b) having the resources (wherewithal), and (c) having networks of recruitment (cues to action and requests). Multiple discriminant analysis showed that the CVM and its influencing factors and dimensions were useful in predicting nurses’ organized participation. Resources and engagement were found to be the most important influencing factors, whereas networks of recruitment were less important. Rank ordering of each influencing factor’s dimension was used to develop a parsimonious list of predictors specific to nurses. Free time and personal efficacy were found to be the two most significant dimension predictors of nurses’ organized participation. Suggestions and strategies for building organized participation are made based on results of this study.