Health Care Policy for Advocacy in Health Care
The ability to advocate for patients and communities is a hallmark of nursing leadership. Health care is driven by policy, thus the DNP graduate needs not only to understand how policy is formed, but also how to influence it (AACN, 2006). Advanced practice nurses can engage in all levels of policy, from policy analysis to engaging stakeholders. The DNP graduate is able to understand and lead policy efforts within an organization, at local and state levels, and even federally. As nursing increasingly functions globally, understanding of how policy impacts global health is also imperative (AACN, 2006). In public health nursing, nurses need to learn to become conscientious disruptors, refusing to allow status quo to negatively impact those they serve.
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To highlight some of my own achievements in policy, I have included the script from my three-minute testimony developed in NURS 6633, as well as an email letter I sent to the director of the NIH earlier this year to advocate for a nurse scientist to be placed at the head of the National Institute for Nursing Research. I was additionally able to leverage my position as the Past President of the Association of Public Health Nurses to request the Quad Council Coalition also send a letter of concern to the NIH regarding the absence of a nurse scientist in the role.
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American Academy of Colleges of Nursing (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/Publications/DNPEssentials.pdf
Health Care Advocacy
Three minute Testimony
3 Minute Testimony Script
NURS6633
Summer 2019
Dear Chairman of the school board, board members, Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you this evening. My name is Lindsay Huse, and I’m the mother of two children attending school within this district. I am also a public health nurse in Wyoming, who works frequently with teen mothers who struggle to make a life for themselves and their young families. Tonight, I am asking you to support the initiative to establish a high school day care program for pregnant teens in our school district. Establishing a day care program allows teen moms to continue attending school without worry about where their child will be during the day, gives the community new opportunities to teach these young family important parenting and coping skills, improves the probability of graduation and allows for distraction-free time to prepare for testing, improves college entrance, and leads to healthier, more productive families in our communities.
Historically fewer than 40% of pregnant teens graduate from high school Last year, over 150 babies were born to girls under 19 years of age, 122 of whom attended Poudre high school.
Districts that have established a high school day care program have seen up to 95% graduation rates, with many of those students achieving excellent grades. Poudre High school’s graduation rate last year was 78.6% in 2017; had 95% of those teen parents graduated, it would have brought the high school’s graduation rate up to the state graduation rate of 80%. More importantly, Those young women AND their babies, 244 people, would’ve had greatly improved chance of earning a living wage, acquiring stable housing, and avoiding numerous health problems throughout life.
Ensuring teen parents graduate is basically a two-for-one special: People who graduate from high school not only have healthier, more productive lives, but have children who are more likely to graduate from high school and also live healthier, more productive lives.
Paula, a teen in Oregon shared her story; the availability of day care services at school allowed her to attend school and make honor roll. This empowered her to strategize toward a nursing education and career. She credited the school day care with enabling her attend school, graduate, enter college, and plan for a viable career. In my time working with pregnant teens I have seen time and time again that providing the right support can and does allow these families to not just survive, but thrive. Establishing day care within the high school setting is a win win for these students, the school district who reaps higher test scores and graduation rates, and the community, who is healthier because of healthier families. Thank you for your consideration.
Letter to NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins (and response)
August 21, 2019
Dear Dr. Collins,
Nursing is a robust, unique profession with numerous specialties, frameworks, theories, scopes, and standards. The ability to practice nursing is highly regulated, requiring years of education and rigorous didactic and clinical testing prior to licensure, and years of experience to reach proficiency. To become a nurse scientist, more years of education, and more testing, are required. Only once these benchmarks are reached does one earn the right to call themselves a registered nurse, or an advanced practice nurse, or a nurse scientist. Even the NIH recognizes that nursing is a unique field with its own research agenda and needs; thus the establishment of the NINR.
Yet, upon the announcement of the retirement of the acting director of the NINR, a dentist was placed into the interim director role, rather than a well-qualified nurse scientist. Furthermore, several other prominent leadership positions within the organization are likewise filled by non-nurses. While undoubtedly talented individuals, they all lack one imperative to carrying out nursing research: They are not nurses. They have reached none of the benchmarks.
To place a dentist, physician, psychologist, sociologist, or individual from any field other than nursing above well-qualified, PhD-prepared nursing scientists is not only a barrier to the field’s research, it is insulting. I wonder whether the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research would accept a nurse scientist at their helm, or if perhaps a psychologist might sufficiently understand the research agenda of the National Cancer Institute to truly push that research forward effectively? My guess is no, in both instances.
I write today to ask you first to scour your ranks for at least one qualified nurse scientist who might fill the role of acting director in the gap between Dr. Cashion’s departure and the arrival of a new director. Second, I ask that you begin considering the same action for all of your leadership positions within the NINR. While interdisciplinary collaboration on research is valuable and necessary, within the preeminent nursing research organization in the country, nurses should have ownership of the work produced there. Finally, as you begin your search to fill the top leadership role within the NINR, I implore you to limit your search to nurse scientists. There are thousands of well-qualified and passionate doctoral nurses who could serve our field well in this position. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best Regards,
Lindsay Huse, BSN, MPH, PHNA-BC
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September 18, 2019
Dear Ms. Huse:
Thank you for your letter regarding nursing science and leadership of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). I appreciate and share your desire to see the position of NINR Director filled as quickly as possible by an outstanding leader in the nursing research community. To this end, I recently charged a new search committee to work toward identifying a pool of strong candidates from the nursing science community to be considered for this important position. The vacancy announcement was posted on the NIH website September 13. Please spread the word about this important position and encourage highly qualified colleagues to consider applying.
NINR is, and will remain, a vital part of the NIH community. Its work to support the practice of the nation’s largest healthcare profession provides the critical link between the laboratory and the clinic to patients and families. Throughout this period of searching for the next Director, the Institute, its mission, and its functions will remain largely unchanged. NINR will continue to implement its current Strategic Plan, and NINR’s capable staff and senior leadership will continue their important roles in facilitating the work of NINR-supported scientists across the United States.
As we continue the search for the next NINR Director, I am committed to ensuring a lasting future for NINR. That is why I have asked the Principal Deputy Director of NIH, Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D., to serve as the interim NINR Director while we conduct this search. I have also asked the Associate Deputy Director of NIH, Tara Schwetz, Ph.D., to serve as the interim NINR Deputy Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the Institute. As of August 26, Dr. Schwetz has been working closely with current NINR staff to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of leadership. Both of these individuals have been willing, at my request, to make major time commitments to these interim roles.
Thank you again for your commitment to nursing science. It is through the support of the nursing community that NINR and nursing research will continue making important contributions to improve the health of all.
Sincerely yours,
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director