ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the need for nurses and the profession to adopt a more proactive stance in relation to political action, particularly in the light of issues such as skill-mix and increasing protectionism in relation to the composition of the health care workforce in the light of such developments as Brexit. As an occupational group their (nurses) sheer size and the nature of their relationship to patients' means that they are often the most affected professional group in relation to political and policy developments in health care. A level of political and policy influence are trades unions. During the 1980s and 1990s the United Kingdom saw a series of profound changes in the organisation of health care and, most profoundly for the nursing profession. Between 2009 and 2013 the Irish government introduced severe cuts to the health service budget which resulted in a draconian impact on nurses and the nursing profession.
