The 2007 Nurse Legislative Day took place in Olympia, Washington in February 2007.
Authors: Kelsey Ray, Lon Smith, Nancy Nguyen, Thomas Goulet, and Jessica Aungst, and Spokane ICN Nursing students.
The opportunity to attend Nurse Legislative Day was an eye-opening experience that showed us how nurses stick together and fight for what they believe in. The main nursing issue discussed was described as "Safe Staffing: Saves Lives," which aims to support the staffing of more nurses so the patient-to-nurse ratio is safer. We believe it is important to support this issue because it may affect graduating nursing students in the future. By attending this alliance we were shown how we could change issues in the field of nursing. It was a chance for nurses to speak to legislators about what they aspire for.
A panel of eight people informed us of the issues they were bringing to the legislators, the most important being "Safe Staffing." Some of the students met with their Senators and Representatives to discuss the nursing related legislation. One of the ICN students from District 24 on the Olympic Peninsula met with Representative Lynn Kessler, who is currently the Majority Leader for the House Democratic Caucus. Rep. Kessler expressed support for nurses in general and was supportive of the Patient Safety Act.
Altogether, the trip to Olympia was an amazing experience. It taught us a lot about how bills are passed and how the lobbying process works. We feel as students that we have the power to make a difference in the nursing profession and that change is possible. The experience to speak to our senators was empowering seeing that the senators listened and care about our needs as nurses and future nurses.
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