The Nursing Legislation and Advocacy page on the FNA website identifies 4-different ways for you to get involved with advocacy.? Discuss which way(s) you would most likely get involved

PLEASE RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING IN 50 WORDS OR MORE:

• The Nursing Legislation and Advocacy page on the FNA website identifies 4-different ways for you to get involved with advocacy.  Discuss which way(s) you would most likely get involved with and why?

One way I would get involved with is by participating in the FNA advocacy days. Each Advocacy Days, nurses from across the state gather in Tallahassee during legislative sessions to learn about current legislative issues and specific bills that may affect their practice or the overall healthcare environment in Florida. This allows nurses to meet with legislators face to face. Nurses are able to voice their concerns and take part in helping shape the life of nurses. 

• Find and peruse the Barbara Lumpkin Toolkit (BLT).  What are your thoughts about the information provided in the toolkit and what did you learn that you didn't know before?

The Barbara Lumpkin Toolkit is a resource that can be used by nurses to speak to legislators. The toolkit discusses ways for nurses to get in contact with legislators as well as offering tips on how to do so. The BLT also details the correct way to communicate nursing concerns to legislators. Something I didn’t know is that it would be more helpful to communicate with new legislators than legislators who have a lot of experience. As new legislators could be more sympathetic to our concerns then experienced ones would. 

• The Florida Keys community experiences unique healthcare needs.  Identify 1-healthcare issues or trends you would consider advocating for that would have an impact on nursing in the Florida Keys.  Based on the BLT how would you go about advocating for the healthcare issue?

In the Florida Keys there is a critical nursing shortage. Leading to higher nurse-patient ratios that are unsafe. Per BLT to advocate for safe nurse-patient ratios I would make a list of the media in the Florida Keys. In the Keys news travels very quickly. An advantage we have is that Key West is a fairly small town and alot of people know each other. If we use the correct media tools we can recruit nurses while also providing benefits, higher pay, and different incentives to retain our staff. If this does not work, writing letters and using other ways of getting in contact with legislators to decrease the turnover and patient-nurse ratios can be also helpful. As well as joining the Advocacy Days to advocate for a safe work environment.

Florida Nurses Association. Barbara Lumpkin Institute. (n.d.). https://www.floridanurse.org/Links to an external site.