Nurses Day at the Legislature
Dee Gilson, BSN, RN, CNOR, WNA President Elect, Legislative Co-Chair
Tammy Krell, MSN, RN, WNA Vice Prsident, Legislative Co-Chair
On February 4th and 5th, 2015 WNA hosted the annual Nurses Day at the Legislature in Cheyenne, WY. The purpose of this annual event is to support WNA’S Strategic Plan: to lead in legislation and health policy for the nurses in Wyoming, advance the professional development of nurses and to influence workforce initiatives.
Legislative leaders in nursing presented how ‘Advocacy Impacts Nursing Care and Practice”, by Justin Gill, BSN, RN. Justin is a very dynamic nurse leader who currently completing his Masters of Science in Nursing from George Town University. Justin serves on the Washington State Nurses Association Legislative and Health Policy Council. He previously held the office of Vice-President for the Nursing Students of Washington State and the office of the Student Nurses Whatcom.
Mary Behrens, RN, MS, and FNP-BC provided education on the Legislative process. Mary has been very active in her career in nursing legislation and policy at the state level holding many offices, which have included WNA Board Member, City and State Legislation offices and 8 years on the Board of ANA in Washington, DC.
Education on, “What the Current Legislative Bills Mean” and updates to the bills daily progress was presented by WNA Nurse Lobbyist, Toni Decklever, MA, and RN. This just in time discussions assisted everyone on current bill status and what the bills mean to nursing and health care. Attendees were able to speak to and ask their legislators to support bills while in Cheyenne: HB0071 Nursing Education, Wyoming Investment in Nursing amending requirements for the master’s and doctorate level education loans as specified; amending the loan payback requirements; extending the program sunset date. Over whelming this was supported both by the House and the Senate and passed and was sent to the Governor for signature. Other bills WNA supported were: SF00062 Oral Chemotherapy Parity related to health insurance, requiring insurers to cover oral chemotherapy expenses. Medicaid Expansion was another robust topic in Cheyenne during our time there, this bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate, eventually the Senate voted this down and the bill did not pass this year.
Everyone got the opportunity to visit the Capital and to see Legislation in action and to connect up with his or her legislators to support bills important to nursing.
Friday we concluded our conference with Robin Amende, J.D., from Common Ground Mediation and Coaching, LLC, Lafayette, CO. Her focus was on “Negotiating and Influencing” and how to maximize outcomes of negotiations through various education and techniques to become successful. We all were able to get some hands-on experience and practice on this topic.
Cynthia LaBonde, MSN, RN, Executive Director of the Wyoming State Board of Nursing gave a thorough discussion on Wyoming State Nurse Practice Act and “What Does the Law Mean to You’, How the Wyoming State Nurse Practice Act gets into law. Students and audience had open discussion on this process and current issues and concerns.