1. Practice Readiness and a Call to Action
For this last week of discussion, go back to the lesson for the week and review the Nurses on
Boards and the National Nurse Campaign(See next page). As you reflect on what you have
learned over the last 8 weeks:1. What are your plans for the future?….Learn more through
the DNP program…. Utilize the knowledge and skills…… I wish to use the awareness and
knowledge gained to play important role you can play in your community and within health
care…..Advocate for improved healthcare quality…..2. Will you heed the call for action and
join an organization like Nurses on Boards or become engaged with the National Nurse
Campaign? (See next page for info on the 2 organizations)….Would like to join…..3. Will you
join a professional nursing organization?…. Already a Member of American Nurses
Association (AMA).4. Do you have other ideas that would work to benefit your community
or an organization that is important to you?5. Share with the class what your plans are now
that you have a new awareness of your abilities and capabilities to provide advocacy
beyond the beside.6. Compose your final Tweet about this class. Remember to be concise as
Twitter only allows 140 characters. Share your Tweet in the discussion.Supplemental
reading:Garcia, A. L. (2019). National clinical research networks: Where is the nurse? (Links
to an external site.) Nursing Economics, 37(2), 100-102. https://doi,org/135960824Hardy,
A. K., Nevin-Woods, C., Proud, S., & Brownson, R. C. (2015). Promoting evidence-based
decision making in a local health department, Pueblo City-County, Colorado (Links to an
external site.) . Preventing Chronic Disease, 12, E100.
https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd12.140507Terhaar, M. F., Taylor, L. A., & Sylvia, M. L. (2016).
The Doctor of Nursing Practice: From start to impact (Links to an external site.) Nursing
Education Perspectives (National League for Nursing), 37(1), 3-9.Nurses on Boards and the
National Nurse ActA group of people sitting at a table looking at a paper Description
automatically generated with low confidenceIn 2010 the Institutes for Medicine published
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (The future of nursing, 2010),
through a grant provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The context of this
report spoke to the idea that nurses can and should play a larger part in the delivery of
health care in the United States. Central to this theme, the IOM called for a number of
significant actions that would promote the advancement of nursing in health care and
increase the role of nurses across the entire spectrum. To this end, one of the
recommendations is that nurses should serve on board, health care panels, and corporate
boards as a means of providing a unique and qualified perspective to those these boards
would serve. As a result of this recommendation, nurses on boards was formed in 2014 with
2. the initial goal of achieving 10,000 nurses on boards by 2020 (Nurses on Boards, n.d.).The
Nurses on Boards (n.d) website says, “Nurses represent the largest segment of the
healthcare workforce, are considered the most trustworthy of all professions and play a
huge role on the frontlines of care in our schools, hospitals, community health centers, long-
term care facilities, and other places. Their perspective and influence must be felt more at
decision-making tables (Our Story, Para 3).”National Nurse CampaignAnother important
initiative is the National Nurse Campaign (Links to an external site.) . Few people knew
Terri Mills, a nursing instructor from Oregon, when she began her work to develop support
for a national nurse. The premise of her idea was to provide a larger voice to the perspective
of nursing on public health, wellness, and disease prevention. While the nation has a
surgeon general, typically a physician, the nation did not have a voice for public health.
Terri’s aim was to change this by introducing legislation that would pass into law the
appointment of a National Nurse (Chief Nursing Officer for Public Health) (National Nurse
Website, 2019).Over the last 14 years Terri has worked on this idea, she has gain a
tremendous amount of political momentum. Receiving support from Eddie Bernice Johnson
(Links to an external site.) (D-TX) and Congressman Peter King (Links to an external site.)
(R-NY), several iterations of the National Nurse Act house bill was introduced to Congress
and the Senate. Sadly, each iteration would get lost in subcommittee and then die. Support
from national nursing organizations was limited or absent. However, between the 113th
Congress and the 114th Congress – the American Nurses Association did an about face and
with changes to the bill, now provides support for the legislative initiative. Please read “In a
U-Turn, the ANA Supports the National Nurse Act” (2015).In March of 2019, the National
Nurse Act (Links to an external site.) was submitted to Congress (H.R. 1597 (Links to an
external site.) ) and the Senate (S. 696 (Links to an external site.) ) with reforms and
changes requested by grass root supporters, national supporters, and elected officials. In
2019 – Terri Mills has gained more support for this bill than she ever thought possible.
Interesting to note here is the support from other elected officials from across the country
continues to grow. Click on this link to see the support to date (Links to an external site.) as
well as the nursing advocates (Links to an external site.) for this legislation (National Nurse
Website, 2019).Read through H.R. 1597 and S. 696 and provide a summary of your thoughts
about the proposed legislation. Do you support this initiative? If you do – why? If you do not
– why?What actions you can take as a DNP practice scholar to promote and support this
legislation in your community, through your professional network, and with your local
elected officials.
