“Learning the Legislative Process to Advocate for Patient Care and the Nursing Profession” with guest Emily Bell, MSN, RN, LNP, PMHNP-BC

The AJN Podcast

Practical Guide to Legislative Change as a Registered Nurse

• Learn about what level of government would make the changes you want to see. Find out: is this a federal, state, or local issue?
  • Federal government example: Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) reimbursement rates for advanced practice nurses
  • State government example: Scope of practice for advanced practice nurses

• Figure out WHO are the elected officials that represent you at that level of government because you are their constituent. It is their job to listen to your concerns! Best website: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
  • Federal legislators: One U.S. House of Representatives member (representing your congressional district, where you live in the state) and two senators (represent the entire state, not just your district)
  • State legislators: State house representative and state senator (typically both represent a district within your state)
  • Local officials:County/City Executive/Supervisor/Commissioners, etc.

• Learn about your elected officials! For example, to learn more about your U.S. House member, look them up at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative. Select their name to bring you to their personal House.gov website, which includes the member’s committee assignments and their office’s contact information.
• Federal legislators will have at least two offices; one in Washington, DC, and one or more within the congressional district itself. Each office has federal congressional staffers working to address constituents’ concerns and provide official follow-up. There are options to call, fax, e-mail, or speak with staff in-person. Within the district office, these staff members typically include a constituent service representative.
• A U.S. House member specifically represents your district’s needs (including you as a constituent) to Congress more so than U.S. Senators, as they represent your entire state’s needs.

• If you are interested in a state issue, please be aware that state representatives and senators are “part-time” legislators. State legislative bodies typically meet in the first months of the year but occasionally are called back for special sessions.
  • This website shows upcoming state legislative schedules: https://documents.ncsl.org/wwwncsl/About-State-Legislatures/2024-sessions-calendar.pdf
  • Your state should have similar websites for its representatives and senators. These elected officials will likely have an office in your state’s capitol and within the district where staffers are available to address constituent concerns.

• It is important to be aware of your legislator’s committee assignments and if they serve in any kind of leadership role. Do they sit on a health committee? Are they the chair of a committee?
  • Committee assignments often are related to the member’s legislative areas of expertise and related to their professional background before running for elected office.
  • Committees will be the first place legislative change will be introduced, debated, and voted on before coming to the full legislative body. Sadly, many bills “die” in committee and thus, support from these smaller groups is needed first!

• Many organizations develop a form letter for you to send to a legislator regarding an issue or a specific bill.
  • These are helpful but please be aware that if you cut/paste, sign, and send, your letter will be placed in a pile with the rest; depending on the size of the pile of form letters about one issue, this will impact how much attention the office and the elected official gives to a certain topic.
  • Please take 5-10 minutes to personalize the form letter with your own experiences and always make sure to include in the first sentence that you are a constituent of the elected official (and maybe if you voted for them). Talk about how the congressional district is impacted by the issue specifically.
  • Provide your background as a nurse and your contact information so the legislative staff may follow up with you about your experience and your expertise on the subject.

• Reach out to nursing organizations that may already be advocating for this issue.They may have a legislative “champion” that has sponsored bills in the past and is helping to move towards progress on this issue.
  • Some nursing organizations are allowed to hire lobbyists, and some organizations cannot because of their tax filing statuses.
  • Some nursing organizations have political action committees (PACs) that raise money to impact legislation.
  • Nursing organizations can come together into coalitions in an effort to move forward complex legislative issues.

• Get to know your legislators as individuals. Often this happens by volunteering your time to help them out. Frequently during campaign season.
  • Volunteering is easy and fun. The campaign provides you with all the training and materials. You just provide your time and enthusiasm.
  • Examples: Phone banking (making phone calls to constituents), door knocking (walking around neighborhoods in the district, knocking on doors to offer information about the individual or leaving a hanger on their doorknob if not home or available), or different forms of fundraisers.