Nurse Educator and Legislator: The Nurse as an Advocate

Nurse Educator and Legislator: The Nurse as an Advocate Describe What You Believe to be the Drivers for Each of the Individuals?

A wide range of factors drives the desire for an individual to become a nurse and participate in health policy issues. The drivers vary significantly from one person to another.

Bethany Hall, who became the first nurse to be elected into the Delaware General Assembly, has highlighted some of the factors that made her make such a bold move. Hall pointed out that her roots to assist others began developing while she was working as a volunteer in the church and at her neighborhood organizations. The role played by her great-grandfather in the community while he was serving as a member of the Delaware House of Representatives in the 1920s drove her to join a political party when she entered college.

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The other aspect that acted as a driver for Bethany Hall is social motivation. Hall made it clear that she started being involved in community activities from a tender age. She had the determination to make a positive contribution to public health (Mason et al., 2015).

I believe the desire for Marilyn Waugh Bouldin to become a nurse started from her childhood years when she was taking care of her mother and younger siblings. Her excellence in nursing activities is driven by the desire to accept challenges, learn new things, and meet new people (Mason, Leavitt, Chaffee, 2017). Bouldin also appears to have a high level of selfmotivation. This was demonstrated by the fact that even after being fired for insubordination and her childcare center being declared bankrupt she never lost her passion for taking care of the members of the community. Bouldin also noted that she is a risk taker. She did not give up and was not afraid to try out new things. After leaving her promising career at a major urban hospital, she moved to a rural town in Colorado and developed an associate degree nursing program at the local community college (Mason et al., 2017).

What Factors Led Them to Become Advocates?

It is irrefutable that organizational level, community level and national issues that can potentially affect the health and quality of life of the people are the main factors that drive nurses to become advocates. Bethany Hall, for instance, noted that before joining politics to advocate for the needs of the people she worked with underserved residents in addition to working at a federal health clinic for the homeless (Mason et al., 2015). Her experiences while working with the women league of voters as well as the local city government changes her perspectives towards health and public policy. Hall noted that she started being actively involved in veteran activities since her husband was on active duty in the military (Mason et al., 2015). The desire to change the lives of the people who lack basic life resources was one of the main factors that

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drove Hall to become an advocate. Her role as a public health nurse increased her interest to improve the services and resources available to the underserved and vulnerable populations (Mason et al., 2015).

The perception that nurses should be full partners with other health care professionals and stakeholders in designing health care systems was one of the factors that led Bouldin to become an advocate. Bouldin believed that since nurses have a broad perspective of patient care, professionalism, accountability, leadership, relationship building, and teamwork they should be directly involved in leadership and advocacy activities (Mason et al., 2017). The ability to develop positive and diverse relationships through involvement with numerous community projects also contributed to Bouldin’s journey to leadership. Most of the people she interacted with assured her that she had what it takes to become a leader.

Discuss the Challenges that Each of Them Identified in Their Writings.

Bouldin and Hall have highlighted some of the challenges they had to overcome in their journey to leadership positions. Hall, for instance, asserted that even though she was determined to make a change in the lives if the people, she was defeated by a male incumbent in her first attempt to run for office (Mason et al., 2015). Another challenge noted by Hall is work, education, and family life balance. As a legislator, one is required to represent the constituents at all levels and sponsor relevant bills. Some legislators find it hard to balance caring for family, nursing education and legislative activities. Hall asserted that legislative work requires a high level of commitment that leaves little time for personal activities.

The challenges to advocacy and leadership as pointed out by Bouldin include the notion that historically nurses have rarely been involved in boardroom activities (Mason et al., 2017).

Even though numerous leadership opportunities could be taken up by nurses, these professionals

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rarely take on these challenges. Bouldin also highlighted the fear to seek support from other professionals as a major hindrance she noted that many nurses are held back by personal issues and fear of the unknown in developing positive relationships and collaborations (Mason et al., 2017). A lack of experience in giving political speeches creates fear in many nurses who would like to run for leadership positions. The other challenge identified by Bouldin is that many people tend to look at the financial background of a person thereby failing to notice the leadership potential of that person (Mason et al., 2017).

Analyze the Drivers and Challenges and Compare Them With Own Experience as an Advocate.

Driver Forces Both hall and Bouldin appear to be driven by the belief in self. These professionals believed that regardless of their background and the existing challenges they had what it takes to take up leadership positions. The both analyzed the health care system and decided there was a need to institute a new mechanism through which positive contributions could be made to public health. The driving factors for these individuals are comparable to my life experiences to date as an advocate. I have been involved in a wide range of advocacy activities aimed at generating practical health policies to transform public health. The desire to transform the health care system through advocacy campaigns has all along been driven by social motivation. I have worked closely with vulnerable members of the community who require high-quality care services that are not always available. Social motivation has driven my passion for meeting new people, accepting challenges, and learning new things that can be incorporated into the care system to improve access to care for members of the community. I have also realized that despite

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the numerous challenges that exist in the nursing profession and the health care system, I have never lost the passion for taking care of the members of the community.

Learning from the best is the other aspect that has contributed to the success by Hall and Bouldin in their endeavors. Subsequently, I believe that when one develops connections with experienced persons, there is a high likelihood of learning their skills. I believe I have adopted similar tactics to Bouldin and Hall in conducting advocacy activities. Through working hard and focusing efforts on prioritized activities, I have achieved exemplary results in extremely tricky situations. Working closely with patients, families, and members of the community have made it possible to gather vital information regarding the pressing health issues.

Challenges It is unfortunate that the practice of patient advocacy is faced with numerous challenges.

These challenges hinder the accomplishment of the projected outcomes as well as the roles of nurses as advocates (Tomaschewski-Barlem et al., 2017). Advocacy involves developing policies that may contradict existing procedures. Some of the proposed policies may generate resistance by the people they were intended to help. Undeniably, as pointed out by Tomaschewski-Barlem et al. (2017), advocacy may trigger different opinions regarding the patient’s best interests resulting in an imbalance of power relationships. Conflicts that may turn out to be obstacles to patient advocacy me be generated if the differences are left unresolved.

Hall and Bouldin have outlined some of the main challenges they experienced in their quest for leadership positions. These challenges are a true reflection of the nursing professions.

One of the biggest challenges experienced by nurses at all levels of care is family-educationwork life balance. Work and education take a huge chunk of the nurse’s time leaving very little for the family (Sare & Ogilvie, 2011). To excel in advocacy activities, the nurse must devise a

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practical plan and allocate a substantial amount of time to different activities including meeting with stakeholders and building relationships. The other challenges outlines by Hall and Bouldin include overload, the fear of taking risks, poor communication and lack of support from stakeholders. Bouldin noted that to influence policy development, the nurse must communicate effectively with legislators and stakeholders. Many nurses, however, fear to call or write to their representatives to explain their position on certain health issues. I have been involved in scenarios where nurses wanted to push for the establishment of more health facilities at the community level but were not sure whether the representatives would support their proposal.

Furthermore, nurses have been taking a binder of information to their representative rather than presenting one page “leave behind” fact sheet detailing their proposal. Some legislators may lack time to go through the nurses’ proposal thereby delaying their support for potentially beneficial initiatives.

Expanding Advocacy Skills Networking is one of the potential ways through which advocacy skills can be enhanced.

Since advocacy is about identifying the needs of the people and supporting initiatives, including policy development, that can address these issues; networking can establish a platform on which major communitywide health challenges are identified and prioritized (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2013). The other way through which advocacy skills can be enhanced is through listening.

Attentive listening makes it possible to gather information concerning the issues being raised by the people. Nurses should understand that people have differing opinions concerning health policy and the issues affecting the community (Sare & Ogilvie, 2011). The other way that advocacy skills can be enhanced is by taking part in policy development initiatives. Participation

THE NURSE AS AN ADVOCATE in these activities provides one with a chance to identify how experienced health care professional and legislators argue out important issues (Sare & Ogilvie, 2011).

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Mason, D. J. Gardner, D. B., Leavitt, J. K., Chaffee, M. W., & O'Grady, E. T. (2015). Policy & politics in nursing and health care. St Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Mason, D. J. Leavitt, J. K., Chaffee, M. W. (2017). Policy & politics in nursing and health care (7th ed.). New York, NY: Saunders/Elsevier, Sare, M., & Ogilvie, L. A. (2011). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in health care. Sudbury, M.A: Jones & Bartlett.

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2013). Foundations of nursing in the community: Communityoriented practice. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Tomaschewski-Barlem, J., Lunardi, V., Barlem, E., Silveira, R., Ramos, A., & Piexak, D., (2017). Patient advocacy in nursing: Barriers, facilitators and potential implications.

Texto & Contexto – Enfermagem 26(3), 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/01040707201700010001