Time of change, time of risk

摘要

I remember as a new nurse getting newsletters from the American Nurses Association that talked about legislative initiatives for which they requested my help in sending letters to legislators or attending a legislative session to provide support. I wasn't always sure what the issue was or why my actions were necessary, and so I did nothing. But when I became a nurse practitioner (NP), every NP student and faculty member knew that the outcome of nursing legislative initiatives meant whether we could practice, whether we could be paid, and whether the circumstances of both would be acceptable to us. Many times we trudged to the state legislature to see our representatives and to explain who NPs were and what we could do and to discuss the pros and cons of the current bill before them.