N3375 Module 1 – Assignment: Legislative E-mail
Submit by 2359 (CT) Saturday of Module 1
Name: Raynaldo Lopez Jr Date: 5/24/25
Overview: Legislator E-mail Exercise
To take a proactive role in nursing policy, you will prepare an email to your legislator about a current nursing issue. You must first identify your legislator. Then, you will describe a current issue that is important to you with support from scholarly references related to the issue, and create a suggested action plan. Finally, you will write a concise, professionally worded e-mail to one of the state-level legislators. See sample email and resources in Canvas.
Objective:
• Identify the ways nurses can personally take part in shaping future nursing care.
Directions:
1. Find the legislator of the state you are licensed in. You will only write your email to one legislator, even if many are listed. You must only use a legislator in the state you are licensed in.
2. Identify one issue that is important to you and complete a short description of the issue. Locate at least 2 scholarly articles (dated within the past 5 years) to support your thoughts and list in correct APA format. Please see the APA tips page linked in the assignment details and/or APA journal article examples.
3. Complete an action plan section prior to composing the email as to organize your thoughts.
4. Write your final e-mail in the space provided on this assignment document.
• You MUST include one personal example about how the issue personally affects your nursing career.
5. Upload and submit the entire assignment into Canvas.
NOTE: It is not necessary for you to actually send your email to you legislator unless you choose to do so.
Rubric
Please see the rubric in Canvas for how your assignment will be evaluated.
1. Identifying Your Legislators: Find out who your legislators are at the state level. Use a google search to locate your state’s legislative system, or here is a helpful link in which you can identify your officials- https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
You only need one legislator that you are going to address your issue to. If email information is not available then you would only place their physical address. In rare cases a physical address is not listed, please include webpage address.
Record their name, title, and contact information here:
Name- Oscar Longoria
Title- Texas State representative ( District 35)
Contact Information- [email protected]
2. Issue Description with Scholarly Support: Identify a current nursing issue important to you and your practice. Locate at least 2 scholarly articles (dated within the past 5 years) to support your thoughts, include them in the description with appropriate in-text citations, and list in correct APA format. Do not copy and paste directly from the internet. For full credit, include two in-text citations from scholarly articles dated within past 5 years. “Scholarly articles” are only classified as peer-reviewed journal articles are written by scholars or professionals who are experts in their fields. Magazine articles, administration documents, reports from different kinds of organizations, essays, opinion pieces, or Wikipedia resources are not scholarly articles.
Here are examples of how to cite an article in an electronic journal:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume number(Issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented
digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and
International Engagement, 6(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
Provide a short description of the issue (1-2 paragraphs are sufficient) with scholarly support:
Private duty nurses who work alone in patients’ homes face unique safety risks, including exposure to violence, medical emergencies without support, and emotional stress from isolation. Unlike hospital nurses, we lack immediate backup or on-site security, which can compromise our safety and ability to provide care (Neumann & Gärtner, 2021).
Although these risks exist, limited standardized safety protocols protect nurses working in home care settings. Research highlights the need for targeted safety interventions—such as training, emergency response tools, and support systems—to protect nurses and improve care quality (Gebhard & Herz, 2022). Legislative attention to this issue is overdue, especially as demand for home-based care grows.
APA References:
Gebhard, D., & Herz, M. (2022). How to address the health of home care workers: A systematic review of the last two decades. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 41(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648221100234
Neumann, W. P., & Gärtner, M. (2021). Interventions to enhance safety culture for nursing professionals in home care: A systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(5), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13196
3. Action Plan:
List three reasons or examples as to how this nursing issues personally affects your practice.
• Feeling Vulnerable During Visits: working alone in patients’ homes, especially in unfamiliar or high-risk neighborhoods, can create feelings of vulnerability and anxiety. Sometimes, I worry about my safety, affecting my ability to focus entirely on patient care.
• Lack of Immediate Help in Emergencies Unlike in hospital settings, when working solo at home, I don’t have quick access to colleagues or security if a patient becomes aggressive or an emergency happens. This isolation can delay response time and increase the risk for both patient and nurse.
• Increased stress and burnout and constantly being alert to potential safety risks add extra stress to my job. Over time, this ongoing concern contributes to burnout and can impact my overall mental health and job satisfaction.
What help/assistance are you requesting from your legislator?
I respectfully ask that you collaborate with the Texas Board of Nursing and home health agencies to ensure that the unique safety challenges faced by private duty nurses are acknowledged and addressed through statewide healthcare policy.
Now, list three reasons or examples as to why this assistance would positively impact nurses.
• We’d finally have clear safety guidelines to rely on. There’s no consistent standard for what to do when a private duty nurse feels unsafe at a patient’s home. If legislators worked with the Texas Board of Nursing, they could help create statewide safety protocols that give nurses like me a better sense of what’s expected—and what protections are in place. That kind of clarity would take a lot of pressure off our private-duty nurses.
• We could gain access to better tools and training. Many of us work long shifts alone in unpredictable environments, and we don’t have access to the safety resources that hospital nurses have. If lawmakers helped fund or promote safety training and simple tools like emergency buttons or check-in apps, it could make a huge difference in feeling more protected on the job.
• Our work—and the risks we face—would finally be recognized. It often feels like private-duty nurses are invisible in state-level decisions. Having our safety concerns identified in policy would mean a lot. It would validate our challenges and show that our role in the healthcare system truly matters.
4. Writing the E-mail: Write an e-mail explaining the importance of this issue to your practice. Limit the e-mail to one page. Choose details you developed above; use the ones that you think create the strongest and most persuasive e-mail. Remember to include a personal example from your practice.
Follow the format of the sample e-mail located in the assignment instructions in Canvas. (The format must be strictly followed, especially for how to address the legislator and inclusion of information that classifies you as a constituent.)
Be sure to edit your e-mail for spelling, grammar, and word usage. Read it aloud, and/or get a friend or relative to read it and provide feedback. You will not be sending this to your legislator as part of this assignment but you may choose to send it to them on your own to make them aware of the issue you have addressed.
Space for you to write your final e-mail to your legislator: Type directly below.
Subject: Request for Legislative Support to Improve Safety for Private Duty Nurses
Dear Representative Longoria,
My name is Raynaldo Lopez Jr., and I am a registered nurse living in Peñitas, Texas. I work as a private duty nurse, providing one-on-one care to patients in their homes. I am writing to ask for your support in improving workplace safety protections for nurses like myself who work alone in home care settings.
Private duty nurses often face unique challenges that nurses in hospitals or clinics do not—such as working in unfamiliar neighborhoods, handling medical emergencies without support, and dealing with unpredictable patient behavior while completely alone. These safety risks are made worse by the lack of clear, statewide protocols to protect home care nurses (Neumann & Gärtner, 2021). Research also shows that targeted interventions—like emergency alert systems, formal safety training, and access to mental health support—can significantly reduce risk and improve nurse well-being and patient care outcomes (Gebhard & Herz, 2022).
In my practice, I have experienced the emotional toll of walking into homes where I felt unsafe, unsure of whether anyone could help me if something went wrong. I have faced situations where I had to make tough calls about my safety while trying to stay focused on my patients. The constant need to stay alert in isolation adds stress that can lead to burnout and impact the quality of care I provide.
I respectfully ask that you work with the Texas Board of Nursing and home health agencies to ensure that the unique safety challenges faced by private duty nurses are acknowledged and addressed through statewide healthcare policy. This could include establishing safety protocols, supporting emergency response tools, and ensuring nurses access ongoing training and support.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your continued commitment to healthcare workers in our community. Please consider standing with private duty nurses and helping us feel safer and better supported in our essential work.
Sincerely,
Raynaldo Lopez Jr.
Registered Nurse
Peñitas, TX 78576
[email protected] | (956) 638-5127
Submit this Assignment Document into Canvas for grading.
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