Public Policy & Advocacy
Nurses are leaders, and nurses have unique skills and perspective to share. Nurses sharing their perspective and being represented on community boards, healthcare organization boards, and in elected office is good for our profession, for patients, and for our communities.
ONL's Role in Advocacy
ONL helps elevate and amplify nurse leaders' voices and empowers nurse leaders grow their influence and engage to impact policy. ONL also serves as a collective voice of nurse leaders in the region and as a centralized hub focused on sharing information to support advocacy throughout our region on issues impacting nursing practice and the health of our communities. Our role is to support member advocacy at the organizational, local/community, and state levels.
Helping Nurse Leaders Grow Their Influence and Engage to Impact Policy
ONL works with our members to identify key issues, provide viable solutions, and influence and build buy-in with key stakeholders and decision-makers. We do this through grass-roots advocacy as well as through strategic partnerships and interactions with key policy leaders, legislators, and other nursing and healthcare organizations and associations.
We support nurse leaders in their efforts to influence public policy in a number of ways:
- Providing coaching for nurse leaders preparing for meetings with legislators or for hearings
- Sharing context and background on policy topics
- Offering talking points and reference material that may be useful in policy discussions
- Helping leaders write or edit written testimony or prepare for media events
- Facilitating connections and relationships that may help to advance the work
- Leveraging our multi-state structure as an asset for sharing lessons learned and insights in policy discussions so that nurse leaders throughout the region can benefit from the experiences of their peers in different states
ONL's Policy Platform and Multi-State Agenda
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Healthy Work Environments
- Workplace safety / violence
- Appropriate nurse staffing and opposition to inflexible mandatory staffing ratios
- Investments in employee supports, wellbeing, and meaningful benefits
- Nurse manager span of control
- Care team re-design
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Positioning Nurses and Clinicians to Lead and Influence
- Hospital Board Diversity
- Intentional messaging / strategies to elevate the image of nurses and nursing
- State appointments and collaborations relating to healthcare decision-making and oversight
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Nursing and Healthcare Workforce Development
- State policies and priorities related to nursing and healthcare workforce development
- State budgets and workforce implications
- Regulations concerning Certified Nursing Assistant training and licensure
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Engagement with state Boards of Nursing
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ONL Government Affairs State Representatives
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Jeannette Bronsord, DNP, MSN, MS, RN, NEA-BC
CT Representative, ONL Government Affairs Committee
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Amanda Ford, MSN, MBA, RN, CMGT-BC
MA Representative, ONL Government Affairs Committee
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Ara Millette, MBA, DNP, RN, NE-BC
RI Representative, ONL Government Affairs Committee
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Helene Thibodeau, DNP, RN, CCRN, NEA-BC
NH Representative, ONL Government Affairs Committee
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Carol Conroy, DNP, RN, FAAN
VT Representative, ONL Government Affairs Committee
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Key Issues
ONL strives to support our community of nurse leaders with responsiveness and action on the key issues impacting nursing practice today. Current key issues include:
Ways You Can Get Involved
Advocacy takes many different forms and requires engagement and persistence. Change is possible when we contribute to the dialogue. There are several ways you can get involved today to help amplify the voice and influence of nurses and nurse leaders on public policy:
- Leverage time and contact with state and public sector leaders and connect the dots for them if they are less familiar with nursing leadership and practice. Find your legislator >>
- Collaborate with the government affairs team in your organization, and the Boards that you can influence, and look for opportunities to infuse nursing priorities and perspectives.
- We need to keep nurses in the conversation, and if you can open doors for others, please do so, with intention.
- New members are always welcome on the Government Affairs committee. Join us!
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