Legislative Awareness Project, Essay Example

The primary role of the nurse in the political arena pertains to their involvement in Professional Nursing Organizations (PNOs). In a sense, these organizations act as special interest groups that promote patient and nurse advocacy. In addition, these programs provide nurses with sufficient professional development to ensure that they are able to enhance their professional skills. However, it is also important to consider that members of the state’s nursing association, presidents of clinical specialty organizations, local nursing activists, local nursing political appointees, and local heads of collective bargaining units and health care also hold political power. It is therefore important for nurses to appeal to these organizations and individuals to improve upon their working conditions and voice their opinions about health related legislative topics.

Major health issues currently discussed by the state nursing board include issues related to the funding for Planned Parenthood, the anti-vaccination movement, and the sales of cigarettes in pharmacies. These are reasonable issues because they are directly related to the health of individuals that nurses work with on a regular basis. Overall, I do not believe that I have a sufficient understanding of legislation as it pertains to health issues if they are topics that are not being actively discussed in the news. As such, I do believe that it is important to regularly research these topics to gain a better understanding of the political issues that are immediately pertinent to the nursing field.

As mentioned above, two current local health issues are Planned Parenthood and the anti-vaccination movement. Planned Parenthood is an issue because many women in low income neighborhoods rely on the services of this organization to remain healthy. While many people argue that Planned Parenthood is evil because they help provide abortions, these abortions do not occur within their own facilities and very little of the organization’s funding is used for this purpose. It is important to therefore advocate for the health of women in low income neighborhoods. In addition, anti-vaccination is a pertinent issue because more families are opting to not vaccinate their children. This is problematic when these children attend school because a sick child will have a higher likelihood of spreading disease in this case.

I am not currently a member of the state professional nursing organization, but I plan to do so once I enter professional practice. The state assembly committee that deals with health and health related issues in my state is simply named the Committee of Health. The state senators for my district include (name) and (name), and their current voting record on health issues include (insert). The names of the state representatives from your district include (name) and (name) and their current voting record on health issues include (insert). The state board of nursing lobbyists include (name) and (name) and can be contacted by e-mail or phone. During the last nursing board meeting, death with dignity was discussed.

The state nursing board is composed of a delegate assembly and board of directors. The initials DHHS stands for Department of Health and Human Services and this is the federal health department that oversees health regulations in the states. Overall, I think my legislative awareness as it pertains to PNOs and BNOs is strong, but it is important for me to be more aware of my political representatives and local issues. I will therefore conduct more research to remain knowledgeable about these political plights.