Can nurses strike for more money? Challenges for taking nurses’ self-interests into account in the light of the deliberative systems theory: A partial analysis of 2016 strike in the Children’s Memorial Health Institute

Abstract

A 2016 nurses’ strike from the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, together with a public discussion surrounding it, is an example of a number of challenges for taking nurses’ self-interest into account in health policy-making. This paper is devoted to an analysis of these challenges from the perspective of the la-test trends in the theory of deliberative democracy – specifically, the deliberative systems theory. The paper presents an analysis of selected actions and statements of the main stakeholders of the dispute. The starting point for the analysis is (within the deliberative systems theory) a comprehensive rehabilitation of self-interest in deliberation and appreciation of the systemic role of strikes. The article contains a summary and theoretical synthesis of challenges for deliberative consideration of self-interests in policy-making. Three main challenges – i.e., the typical non-deliberative strategies regarding self-interests – are distinguished: 1) compartmentalization – reducing the problem to a narrow bargaining of these interests; 2) instrumentalization of other inputs (such as emotions) to suppress self-interest; and 3) too rigorous standard of public deliberation that leads to the exclusion of self-interests as contrary to the common good. The article discusses the criteria for as-sessing these strategies from the perspective of functionality of the deliberative system. The use of the deliberative democratic theory in the analysis of the discourse surrounding the nurses’ strike indicates the usefulness of applying this research perspective in the area of public health.