The Role of the Bedside Nurse in Legislative Action

“Are we Really Going to Let Her Eat that Placenta?”

Objectives

• Differentiate Policy from Politics

• Define the different legislative branches and their roles.

• Discuss opportunities for nurses to make a difference in the lives of women and children as an individual at the local level.

• Discuss opportunities to make a difference in the lives of women and children as a group at the State and Federal Level.

• Identify current legislative health topics related to women and children.

Definitions

• Policy: course of action aimed at getting desired outcomes; can be at local, state, federal, level

• Politics: process to influence decisions and exert control over situations, affairs

Implementation of Political Development

• Stage 1 – Buy in

• Stage 2 – Self Interest

• Stage 3 – Political Sophistication

• Stage 4 – Leading the Way

Who Makes What Decision?

What does that Mean?

• House Bills

• Senate Bills

• How a Bill Becomes A Law

• A representative or senator gets an idea for a bill by listening to the people he or she represents and then working to solve their problem.

• House members and senators can introduce bills on any subject during the first 60 calendar days of a regular session.

• The chair of each committee decides when the committee will meet and which bills will be considered.

One Voice

A Large Voice

• 22 states and Washington, DC have more than 1 nurse for every 100 people. The 15 states with highest concentration in order SD, MA, NE, ME, RI, DE, ND, MT, PA, IA, OH, MN, WI, MO, TN

House Bill 201

• The Unborn Infants Protection Act

• Led by Governor Greg Abbott

• Require all fetal remains to have cremation or burial

• Supporters state they are providing for the dignity of the unborn

• Opponents state it causes unnecessary stress on mothers and families and can be disposed of as other human medical waste

• Bill struck down by Supreme Court Dec 2016- still in the courts

Advocacy

Advocacy

• Advocacy is active promotion of a cause or principle

• Advocacy involves actions that lead to a selected goal

• Advocacy is one of many possible strategies, or ways to approach a problem

• Advocacy can be used as part of a community initiative, nested in with other components.

• Advocacy is not direct service

• Advocacy does not necessarily involve confrontation or conflict

Examples• You join a group that helps build houses for the poor--

that's wonderful, but it's not advocacy (it's a service)

• You organize and agitate to get a proportion of apartments in a new development designated as low to moderate income housing - that's advocacy

• You spend your Saturdays helping sort out goods at the recycling center - that's not advocacy (it's a service)

• You hear that land used for the recycling center is going to be closed down and you band together with many others to get the city to preserve this site, or find you a new one. Some of you even think about blocking the bulldozers, if necessary - that's advocacy

2016 CASA Legislative Priorities

• An increase in appropriated state funding through the Health & Human Services Commission (HHSC) of $2 million annually (from $13 million to $15 million) to support anticipated growth in volunteers and children served.

• Continued state funding under DFPS for the innovative Collaborative Family Engagement (CFE) initiative.

• Consolidation of all child abuse and neglect investigations under CPS.

• Funding for information systems to enable CPS to improve placement decisions for children and youth in foster care.

CASA Volunteers

Awareness and Intervention

• Awareness: is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being conscious of something.

• Intervention: interposition or interference of one state in the affairs of another

Elijah Rising

Elijah Rising

Elijahrising.org

• Van Tours

• Interventions

• Kendleton Farms

Human Trafficking

Slavery

Volunteerism

LifeHouse Houston

LifeHouse remains only one of two maternity home's in a 14-county area open to minors as young as 12 years old. All residents benefit from cost-free lodging, meals, pre-natal care, life skills training, counseling, access to work/school, and God's overwhelming love.

Testimony

References

• Butts, J.B. & Rich, K.L., (2008) Nursing ethics across the curriculum and into practice (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

• Cohen, S. Mason, D., Kovner, C., Leavitt, J., Pulcini, J., & Sochalski, J. (1996). Stages of nursing’s political development: Where we’ve been and where we ought to go. Nursing Outlook, 6, 259-266.

• CdeBaca, Luis (11 July 2013). "The State Department 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report". state.gov. United States Department of State. Retrieved 27 July 2014.

• "HumanTrafficking.org - News & Updates: Houston, Texas Major Hub for Human Trafficking". humantrafficking.org. Retrieved Feb 20, 2017.

• Schaffner, Jessica. "Optimal Deterrence: A Law and Economics Assessment of Sex and Labor Trafficking Law in the United States." Houston Law Review 51, no. 5 (2014): 1519-548.

• "U.S.: Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery - Human Rights Watch". Retrieved Feb 20, 2017.