Nurses Role in Influencing the Legislative Process

Running head: NURSE’S ROLE IN INFLUENCING THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

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Nurse’s Role in Influencing the Legislative Process What parts of the lawmaking process does a nurse have an opportunity to influence in the final bill passage?

Before a bill becomes law, it passes through different stages characterized by comprehensive analysis and review by legislator and stakeholders. The main steps of the legislative process are the creation of a bill, the committee stage, the floor action, the vote, the hearing stage and presidential action. Since nurses are key stakeholders in the health care sector, their involvement in the legislative process of a health bill is necessary. Nurses have an opportunity to influence the legislative process at the introduction of a bill and the hearing stage.

Nurses usually take part in the introduction of a bill by requesting for sponsorship from members of the Congress.

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Moreover, legislators can seek the advice of nurses and other healthcare professionals during the drafting of a health bill. Since nurses have a clearer understanding of the issues affecting the health care sector they provide the necessary assistance to the legislators with the intent of aiding in the development of policies that can potentially transform the current care system (Gostin & Willey, 2016). Nurses can also influence the legislative process at the hearing stage. During the hearing stage, the stakeholders and experts are granted an opportunity to air their perceptions on the proposed bill (Mason, Gardner, Hopkins, & O'Grady 2015). The hearing stage allows nurses to scrutinize the bill to determine if it can benefit patients without compromising their safety as well as the safety of other people and health care staffers.

List at least two ways that this influence can take place. In your opinion, would one way be preferable over the other?

Nurses are free to either support or oppose a health bill. Nurses usually support a health bill if can potentially benefit the patients. However, strongly oppose a bill that can potentially jeopardize the nursing practice and the safety of the patients (American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, 2018). There are two major ways by which nurses can influence the legislative process: individual testimonies and organizational testimonies. Through individually written testimonies, nurses present their views on a bill and the proposed policies. Nurses can also choose to present their viewpoints through organizations such as the AAPRN and the ANA (Mason et al., 2015). I believe that the use of organizations is a better way of propagating the concerns of the nurses than individually written testimonies. The use of organizations to testify for the nurses is a concrete method of influencing the legislative process since because these

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organizations typify a louder voice highlighting key issues identified by the nurses regarding the proposed bill (Mason et al., 2015).

Access to care: What role can nurses play in promoting health status through policy changes directly affecting this social determinant?

The HealthyPeople 2020 has identified access to care as a social determinant of health.

Access to care means that patients can be provided with high-quality care promptly when the need arises. It revolves around issues such as the availability of health care providers, health care facilities, affordable care, sufficient resources and effective means of transport (HealthyPeople.gov 2018). Since nurses play a direct role in the delivery of care and health promotion through policy development, they can propose policy changes to ensure access to care is improved at the community level. Nurses can liaise with legislators to ensure that more health care centers are established closer to the people. These professionals can also conduct educational forums to equip the people with the knowledge necessary to prevent the spread of diseases (Gostin & Willey, 2016).

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References American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing. (2018). How a bill becomes a law. Retrieved from https://www.aaacn.org/how-bill-becomes-law Corning, T., Dodin, R., & Nevins, K. W. (2017). Inside Congress: A guide for navigating the politics of the House and Senate floors. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Gostin, L. O., & Willey. F. L. (2016). Public health law: Power, duty, restraint. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

HealthyPeople.gov (2018). Social determinants of health. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-ofhealth Henderson, J. W. (2017). Health economics and policy. London, UK: United Kingdom: Cengage Learning.

Mason, D. J., Gardner, D. B., Hopkins, F., & O'Grady, E. T. (2015). Policy & politics in nursing and health care - e-book. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.