experiences of two nursing advocates, Bethany Hall-Long and Marilyn Waugh Bouldin

 experiences of two nursing advocates, Bethany Hall-Long and Marilyn Waugh Bouldin

Nurses are essential stakeholders in the provision of patient care in health care facilities. Nurses assist patients to resume their normal health status through ensuring they take prescribed medicine, assistance in decision making and generally, responding to the patients’ needs. However, it is alarming how they are underrepresented in the boardrooms of the hospitals and other healthcare-related bodies. At large, they are not even well represented in the political arena, both in state and federal governments. This results in the poor presentation of policies and laws that improve nurses’ affairs in the workplace. As a result, there is a need for more nursing advocates in active politics and healthcare boardrooms. Nurse advocates are mandated to present nurses’ welfare as well as patients’ wellbeing because they are the most important people in their careers. They assist in the formulation of reasonable policies affecting nursing. Nursing advocates also work towards ensuring that they make the working environment for nurses suitable. Rarely, nurses opt to leave their promising jobs to follow advocacy, especially in politics, because of the challenges associated with the career. This paper exposes the experiences of two nursing advocates, Bethany Hall-Long and Marilyn Waugh Bouldin.

What I Believe to be the Drivers for Each of the Individuals.

Hall-Long

Hall-Long was the first nursing professional to be elected in the Delaware General Assembly and also the first registered nurse in the House. There are several drivers evidenced in the reading that might have contributed to Hall-Long seeking a political position to advocate for nurses.

Family Political History

Hall-Long indicated that his great-grandfather was active in politics, and this might have encouraged him to vie for a political position to represent nurses. As a professional nurse, he needed to advocate for nursing when he got into the office. Also, he states that his political interest began when he was young and thus, the best way he could serve nursing was engaging in active politics.

Serving the community

Hall-Long has since childhood participated in activities promoting the wellbeing of the community. At the age of 12 years, she was a volunteer as a candy stripper at a local hospital. He also volunteered in many nonprofit in the course of her life as a nurse. Her desire to serve the community should have been a critical drive towards becoming an advocate. As a nurse, the best way she could help the community was through making a positive contribution in the healthcare providers sector. Since she was elected, she has achieved a lot through the introduction of bills in the Assembly related to healthcare provision. She mentions that she has been involved in the formulation of policies towards reducing the impacts of diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer in society.

Marylin Waugh Bouldin

Marilyn serves in the Board of Directors in the community hospital. She is a registered nurse but decided to represent nurse affairs on the board, to ensure they work in the right work environments.

Marilyn’s Key Drivers.

Desire to represent Nurses Affairs

Marilyn argues that for a long time, nurses have not been represented in the Board of Directors of the hospital, which had impacted nurses in the hospital negatively. She believed that nurses are crucial stakeholders in health provision and if their grievances are ignored, not only does it affect the nurses, but also the community at large. Through the representation of nurses in the boardroom, she would be able to share the challenges that nurses go through while in their duties and also present policies that will ensure lead to the wellbeing of nurses.

Desire to Serve the Community

The community members are the clients of the hospital and presenting their grievances to the boardroom. Due to their nature of work, nurses interact more patients compared to doctors. In most instances, patients share personal issues with nurses, like how they would like a hospital to work or provide health care. The nurses then use her to represent the grievances of the community. For instance, in her current situation, she is determined to convince board members to approve the support of the local clinic for uninsured patients. Furthermore, we find Marilyn interacts with members of the society in formal or informal meetings in market places or other areas.

Factors that led them to become advocates

The main factor that contributed to Hall-Long to become a nurse advocate was political interests. Though she studied nursing, she had much interest in politics. This was highly contributed by the fact that his great grandfather was a governor. This made him believe the only way that she could help the welfare of nurses, and the community was through legislation. On the other hand, the key factor that contributed to Marilyn to become an advocate was the sociability. Marilyn was social, and thus she understood the challenges that nurses and members of the community were going through. However, they lacked somebody to present their grievances in the boardroom since there was no nurse representative on the board. As a result, vying for the position would help to present their claims. Another factor was morale from friends. Though it was challenging, her friends kept on motivating her through the campaigns.

CHALLENGES

Hall-Long

Hall-Long notes that the main problem in her work as a nurse advocate is lack of time. Her daily schedule is filled with activities, including Assembly sittings, meetings with the public, nurses and patients. The work of an advocate needs devotion because you will have to spend time with healthcare stakeholders. This has affected her family negatively because she cannot spend enough time with her family. Furthermore, it has changed her social life, and she no longer spends time with her friends. The second challenge she notes is unpopularity during elections. Nurses are unpopular and have little convincing skills. As a result, they face a lot of challenges through competition with experienced politicians.

Marilyn

The main challenge that Marilyn faces is the lack of quorum in the boardroom. She is the only nurse on the board, and thus, she has to work hard to convince the other board members to support her policies. Like Hall-Long, Marylin faced the challenge of unpopularity during campaigns. She had to spend a lot of time gaining popularity among the voters. Third, Marilyn notes that it is challenging for being in the Board of Directors for the first time. She spends a lot of time observing how activities of the board are carried out.

For the last two years, I have been serving in the District’s Board of Directors for Healthcare Delivery. From the two readings, I have discovered that nurse advocates go through similar challenges while in their work. My work at the board is to represent the nurses and community needs. I also have the mandate to introduce new policies that promote quality and affordable healthcare and, more importantly, present the nurse’s needs. The main driver that concluded to my interest in becoming a Board member was an underrepresentation of nurses’ affairs. As a nurse, I felt that we were not appropriately treated in the line of duty. We worked for long hours, and the salary that we got was not enough for the services we offered. While the doctor’s salary increments were regularly revised, there were no changes in our pay.

However, I face similar challenges as Marilyn and Hall-Long. First, when we were starting campaigns, I received a lot of critics that nurses do not have political skills and their work is to deal with patients and not engage in politics fields. Though we were able to change the voters’ thoughts, it wasn’t easy at all. The main challenge that I experience while in the nursing advocacy career is lack of quorum when validating policies. I am the only person who is concerned with nurse affairs on the board, and some of my recommendations fail. For instance, last year, I was advocating for nurses working hours to be reduced and increment of salary. Sadly, the other board members disapproved of the recommendations.

In the next five years, my main goal is to encourage many nurses to vie for positions on different boards so that they may be able to support policies on nursing and health care provision. Second, now that I have gained enough skills in the political arena, I believe the next time will vie for more significant positions, which will enable me to further become effective in the policy. My ambition in the next five years is to become a state health care board, and I am ready to conquer the challenges.