Practice Tip of the Week | Election Day

By Kevin Stewart, JD

Today’s practice tip of the week is a bit unconventional, but it may be the single most important action you, as nurses, take all year. This one action will have almost immediate impact on your practice and your patients. It will also shape nursing in the state and the nation for many years to come. That action and today’s practice tip of the week is to get out there and vote!

Today is election day, and presumably many of you have taken advantage of early voting, but if you haven’t, we would like to take this opportunity to make one more plea for you to go cast your ballot. Voting is not just a privilege but a responsibility, and every vote matters.

Everyone knows that the stakes are high in every presidential election, and choosing the leader of the country now, during a global pandemic, is certainly more important than ever. But there are also critical state and local races, which arguably have even more impact on your practice and everyday life. Your state officials, for example, make the overwhelming majority of the decisions about nursing practice and licensure in Texas. Casting your ballot in these races is the only way to ensure that your voice is heard, and it will shape the state legislature for years to come.

In the Texas House, Democrats are nine seats away from taking the majority. Plus, regardless of who holds the majority next time around, the House will be selecting a new speaker. The makeup of the House, and in turn who is selected as speaker, depends entirely on the outcome of this election. While the Texas Senate is more stable, Republicans currently have the exact number of seats they need to hold the 60% supermajority necessary to bring bills to the floor. If Senate Republicans lose a seat, they will either have to change the chamber rules dramatically or work across the aisle to get legislation passed.

Your vote also has broader, although more subtle, impacts. Each election, nursing organizations conduct surveys and gather information to determine how many nurses voted. When TNA goes to the State Capitol to defend your practice, we are able to share that information with legislators and their staff. Legislators know how many nurses in their district vote, and they certainly take that into consideration when voting on bills and deciding what legislation to support. In practice and in politics, nurses are stronger when we work together.

Given the COVID pandemic, we expect this legislative session to be overwhelmingly focused on health care. There will be new legislators and stakeholders who are interested in nursing issues. Representatives and Senators will want to hear from nurses in their district about how they can provide support through legislative action. This session will be, without a doubt, one of the most pivitol sessions for Texas nurses.

So please, if you haven’t already, go out and vote. Encourage your peers and coworkers to vote as well. It is critical that elected officials across the nation hear the voices of nurses louder than ever. Let’s make 2021 the year of the nurse vote!