Nurses everywhere need to develop skills in developing and proposing new healthcare policies and implementing these. As a profession, nursing has a responsibility to be involved in health policy development to improve the health of people everywhere. In response to this commitment, Curran started the company Best On Board, which is an educational program to help nurses get the education and certification they need to serve on boards. These are exciting times for nursing. Nursing leaders can advocate for staff by actively involving staff in decisions that directly affect the practice environment. Predictors of hospital‐based registered nurses' engagement in on‐the‐job policy activities. These health policies vitally and directly affect the delivery and availability of care for populations, health outcomes, health disparities, health equity, and the environmental, socio‐cultural and industrial contexts of health workers. “But even if you aren’t personally involved in research, you can be quick to share and implement best practices and support the research that has been done.”, “Along those lines, be quick to embrace technology,” she continued. © 2020 AMN Healthcare, Inc. All rights reserved. While some nurses work primarily as advocates to advance these aspects of the profession, all nurses are to some extent nursing advocates. This access needs to be wide‐ranging, from exposure to policy knowledge in undergraduate education to more specialized graduate programs focused in every specialization on some aspects of policy, through to a variety of continuing educational opportunities. Health care and public health systems around the world operate within frameworks of health policies. An important landmark document for the future planning for nursing will be the release of the 2020 State of the World’s Nursing report by the World Health Organization. This includes the announcement of the 2020 Year of the Nurse and Midwife; the campaigns of Nursing Now and the Nightingale Challenge, and celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Educate. “With 40,000 members across the country championing this cause, we have the opportunity to impact surgeries in every hospital,” remarked Guglielmi. At graduate and post‐doctoral levels, undertaking evaluation of health policy, laws and regulations is central to understanding how to develop health policy to benefit the health of the public and will expand the knowledge of nurses regarding the complex workings of health systems. Learning from countries such as the USA and UK where nurse policy involvement has increased and has shown success is vital. This report will describe how nurses can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage and will be a seminal document for policy development for the next 3–5 years (WHO 2019). For nurses around the world to take their place at decision‐making tables, and to be more fully engaged in policymaking and reform, they need to have the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes. Unfortunately, nurses’ involvement in health policy studies is still quite small when one reviews the research literature, but research that informs health policy has enormous potential. and you may need to create a new Wiley Online Library account. Use the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Nursing advocacy is the practice of promoting patient rights, making improvements in the healthcare industry, and portraying a positive image of the nursing community. Sometimes there are real bureaucratic walls which act as barriers to nurses being denied opportunities to openly voice their policy concerns, for example because they are government employees. Through this approach VMMC has made significant improvements in the areas of preventing pressure wounds, patient falls and medication errors. Working off-campus? The very basis on which nursing operates to provide safe, effective care is under threat in many locations.