Practice Tip of the Week | Advocating at Nurse Day

Do you ever wish you could change things? Maybe reduce workplace violence? Increase access to care in rural areas? Get a school nurse in every school in Texas? Or get more funding for nursing faculty to educate more nurses?

All politics are local and local is the individual. Yet individuals seldom have the resources to affect policy, and organizations such as TNA cannot effectively affect public policy without the individual member. Successful influence requires organizations and the individual member working together to make meaningful change.

But nurses need a bigger voice to better advocate for patients and nursing practice.

The Policy Arena in Texas

In the world of Texas politics, the Texas Medical Association is one of the powerhouses of policy, for one simple reason: Out of 66,000 doctors in Texas, 90% of them belong to TMA. In contrast, out of 300,000 nurses, only 7% belong to any professional association. During the legislative session, this means a small number of physicians have a much louder voice than the huge number of nurses in the state.

To try to remedy that, we have two things to ask of our members:

• Encourage your friends to attend Nurse Day at the Capitol.
• Encourage them to join Texas Nurses Association.

While individual nurses have great ideas about making patient care safer and improving nursing practice, one nurse alone cannot do much. “Collectively, nurses define excellence in practice, develop innovations, and translate these into care provided to populations,” says Policy Council member Edtrina Moss, PhD, RN-BC, NE-BC, CLSSGB. “An association advocates for patients and the profession and influences policies that impact decisions related to the profession and healthcare overall.”

With TNA, one nurse’s good idea can become a legal protection for all nurses.

During the last legislative session, Tonya Poore had to advocate for her patient in the middle of a procedure. While safe harbor protections were made for exactly this situation, Poore could not leave her patient’s side to fill out the forms. When she was written up and reported to the board, she came to TNA to make sure this would never happen again. Within months, TNA helped get a law passed so now all nurses in Texas have the option of oral safe harbor when they cannot leave a patient’s side.

Poore was just one nurse, but she saw an issue and used TNA’s influence at the Capitol to improve nursing and patient care statewide.

Tools for Nurses, Resources for Legislators

In 1999, several dozen nurses came together for the first Nurse Day at the Capitol. In the years since, thousands of nurses have participated in Nurse Day, showing legislators at the Capitol how passionate nurses are about health care and their patients.

While this year’s virtual event won’t resemble previous ones where nurses flooded the Capitol chambers, both events still have a core mission in common: empowering nurses and giving legislators a look at nursing. As Moss explains: “Nurse Day allows nurses to participate in the legislative process and serve as ‘subject matter experts’ on issues and legislation that directly impacts communities, populations and the profession.”

This year’s event has three different ways for nurses to learn about policy and advocacy.

1. Our free Advocacy Toolkit, developed by our Government Affairs Committee’s Wisdom Council
2. Nurse Day at the Capitol live event on Feb. 8
3. On-demand courses in the Learning Curve on Advocacy 101 and Advanced Advocacy

In addition, while we would normally have attendees stop by legislator’s offices, this year we’ve arranged for eight virtual sessions where any nurse in Texas can register to meet their legislator and ask them questions. Even if you can’t make it to Nurse Day, attend the legislator’s session for your area so we can show them how many nurses appreciate their support! (And listen to our 2021 #NursePolicy podcast to get an overview of important issues to nurses this session.)

Nurses in Numbers Get it Done

“When nurses come together, their voices are impossible to ignore,” says Kevin Stewart, JD, TNA’s lobbyist. For many years, Stewart has worked with a number of nursing organizations and the Nursing Legislative Agenda Coalition to get policy changes made at the legislature and the Board of Nursing. “Joining an association and attending events like Nurse Day at the Capitol is an opportunity to amplify your message alongside your peers.”

During Nurse Day at the Capitol, attendees will hear from speakers like Stewart, along with Dr. John Hellerstedt, Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, and two nurse legislators: Rep. Donna Howard and Sen. Stephanie Klick. In addition, the two on-demand courses feature both Moss and Stewart, along with TNA CEO Cindy Zolnierek, PhD, RN, CAE, Stephanie Morgan, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, from the University of Texas, and Andrew Cates, JD, TNA’s former director of government affairs.

We hope you find the day inspirational and make use of the free tools on our website. As Moss puts it: “We are a movement as individual nurses, but we are a force when we join together! We are better —  greater — in numbers!”