Interagency Collaboration: A Strategy for Obesity Policy Success

Abstract The obesity epidemic has moved obesity policy to the forefront of the national healthcare agenda. Broad-based stakeholder and interagency involvement can lead to confusion regarding the role of nursing, and the focus and process of sound policies in obesity management. While nursing is one of the most trusted and ethical of all professions, public perception is that nurses are largely absent in the policy arena. Nurses have a professional responsibility to advocate for clients in the policy process as well as in the clinical care of obese clients, including the removal of barriers to effective obesity management. Societal norms policy focuses on secondary and tertiary interventions while devaluing primary interventions through nonsustainable reimbursement levels, and a lack of integration of evidence-based obesity management in interdisciplinary healthcare educational curricula serves as a barrier to effective obesity policy. Empowered with knowledge of the policy process and interagency collabor...