Increasing Nursing Advocacy and Empowerment
at the State Policy Level
Meeting Agenda
January 8, 2014
3:30- 4:30 PM CST
Project Goal: Inform and empower the nursing community to influence health care policy.
Group Chairs: Roberta Young and Amber Kracht
1. Introductions: Wanda Rose, Jeanna Kujava, Jan Kamphuis, Kristin Roehr, Amber Kracht, Kyle Martin, Patricia Moulton
2. Review November 20, 2013 meeting notes. (on group website)
Amber reviewed the notes from the November meeting. The group had talked about the legislative update process, the public
forum site, the survey results and the setting up of the collaborative email groups.
3. Review status of legislative updates, collaborative email groups and administrative rules conference calls. Feedback?- Patricia
Patricia indicated that we have held two legislative update calls in which our legislative monitor, Bruce Murry has provided a
legislative update table and discussed the status of each of the legislative studies.
Leadership Team legislative update calls
Oct- 12 participants- see link to notes from update on website
Nov- 19 participants- see link to notes from update on website
Next Legislative update calls have been scheduled for January 10, March 28, May 9
Group members discussed the lag in minutes from legislative hearings. Often times they don’t get posted until months after
the meeting and it makes it difficult to plan for testimony at the next meeting. The group indicated that we don’t have much
control over that. One could contact legislative council for a particular set of minutes and see if they can be obtained sooner.
Patricia indicated that when we send our monitor or Kyle into a meeting that we try and grab the printed materials if they are
available from those that are testifying and then scan them and distribute them. They aren’t the same as the final official
minutes- but they do provide something to work off of.
Patricia indicated the ND Center for Nursing had sent out an email flash to all nurses in the state that are on our email list to
encourage participation in open calls regarding the new Nurse Practices Act Administrative Rules changes. The calls included
an item by item review of the changes and an opportunity for nurses to ask questions. For those that suggested changes, they
were encouraged to submit those changes in writing. The NDBON has indicated that they have had a marked increase in the
number of comments this round and believe that the calls were helpful. The NDBON has also started live web-streaming their
meetings and the January 16th meeting will be streamed including the public comment period.
Administrative Rules Calls- open to all nurses
Dec 6- 30 participants
Dec 13- 22 participants
Group members wondered if the NDBON has an FAQ or something with the questions and answers about the Administrative
Rules changes. Patricia indicated that she was unaware of a document, but suspected that Connie is probably producing
something like that for the NDBON to use during their upcoming meeting. Patricia indicated she would ask Connie to see if
there is a document.
Patricia indicated that in the survey that we sent to leadership team members, that we asked which collaborative email group
they would like to join. The list of email groups is based on interim legislative studies. Patricia set these up in December and
sent each group an introductory email with links to the studies and agendas. Patricia will continue to send out updates as new
legislative meetings are set up.
Collaborative Email Groups- based on interim legislative studies
Behavioral Health Needs- 7 members
Children’s Health Insurance- 3 members
Community Paramedic- 6 members
Diabetes Prevention- 3 members
Health Care Reform- 14 members
Higher Education Funding- 7 members
Home and Community Based Services- 8 members
Open Textbooks- 6 members
Tobacco Prevention- 5 members
4. Pilot Test of Public Forum website- Test email sent out Monday, 1/6/2014 regarding the impact of the ACA- How do we need
to position resources in the state to meet the demand of ACA implementation? Also attached California report.
Patricia indicated that she delayed the testing of the public forum website until after the Christmas season. Patricia sent out
an email on Monday to both the ND Action Coalition and the ND Center for Nursing Leadership team that includes about 130
individuals. Unfortunately, when the email went out the ACA discussion point had accidentally been erased and was
resurrected a couple of hours later. Also, many individuals had a tough time with the captcha code at the bottom of the email
which is pretty much an industry standard feature to prevent spam. We removed this two days after launch. As of this
meeting 5 people had registered for the forum and one individual had added a second discussion item on community
paramedics.
Public Forum email link: http://forums.ndcenterfornursing.org/
The group discussed that the forum is pretty easy to use and that we should put an announcement on our facebook with a link
to encourage additional people to join the discussion forum. Patricia indicated that a comment she received was that we will
need to make sure we have someone lined up to post and respond to postings, otherwise it probably won’t get used. Also, the
group asked that Kyle make the global default that when items are posted or commented on the discussion forum that
registered individuals receive an email. Without this group members indicated that they probably wouldn’t check the site.
The group thought that we could rotate members who would post questions to the forum and Amber volunteered to post a
comment in a month. Patricia indicated that we could also post questions based on the interim studies and what is going on
in the collaborative email groups.
5. Examine reorganized survey results (attached and on group website). Next Steps?
Patricia indicated that she spent quite a bit of town putting the survey results into a spreadsheet that she has named the
nursing sphere of influence list with coding for topical areas, types of organizations and role. The spreadsheet represents a
small number of nurses, but it was impressive to see the number and type committees that nurses are on. Patricia indicated
that she thinks the next step is to send out the spreadsheet to the leadership team and ask them to email her with their group
connections if they are not on the spreadsheet. She also indicated that she will do some web searching to try and fill it in- by
looking at the state boards and commissions and hospital boards.
The group discussed the goal of developing this list. Patricia indicated that the goal was to determine which groups we
currently have nursing representation in order to increase communication and to also determine where the gaps are so that
we can work to have a nurse appointed. The group discussed that the list might be a great resource to nurses that might want
to know who else is interested in their topic or who have joined similar sorts of groups. Would need to be in some other more
user friendly format. The group discussed that this more public list should not have email addresses on it in order to protect
nurses from spam email.
6. Other topics
The group discussed the need to get involved and get nursing at the table for the Community Paramedic Study. Patricia
indicated that we have attempted to get connected with the stakeholder meetings that are slated for February by emailing
Tom Neuring but have not had any response. Group members discussed that we could write letters to the editor, and push
their legislators in order to stop from falling between the cracks. The group also discussed that there may be another way to
meet the need short of starting a new health provider group. The group discussed that the organized nursing groups (NDNA,
NDNPA and public health) should send a letter indicating that we want to be invited to the stakeholder meeting and to
become active participants. Patricia indicated that she could call Dr. Terri Dwelle at the Health Department to see if she could
get us into the stakeholder meetings and that she will communicate with the Community Paramedic Collaborative email
group. Jeanna Kujava, Kristin Roers and Amber Kracht requested to be added to the Community Paramedic collaborative
email group.
The next meeting for this group has not been scheduled. Patricia will send out a meeting doodle- with some options for
meeting days in March for this group.
Activity Plan
Year/Annual
Goal
2013-2014
Provide
interim
legislative
monitoring
and
communicatio
n within
leadership
team.
Activities
Negotiate contract with legislative monitor and
provide initial orientation.
Draft initial interim study tracking table, obtain
feedback from group and revise.
Provide monthly updates including notes on
tracked committees/studies.
Schedule legislative update leadership team
calls- every other month starting in September?
Email leadership team to set up new
collaborative email groups for specific studiesinclude with survey for second goal
Also ask during November Legislative update
call for email group selections
Revise online advocacy center and develop
Develop
blog/facebook public forum site.
Pilot public forum site by adding all group
page and
mechanism for members to it and then use it as a
communicatio communication tool for this group and for the
practice/policy home group.
n with all
nurses.
Month/Responsible Activity Completion Status
Person(s)
July
25% 50%
75% 100%
Patricia
August
Bruce
Monthly
Bruce/Patricia
September,
November, January,
March, May
Patricia
SeptemberNovember
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
Patricia
August
Kyle
August-December
Kyle
Workgroup
Pilot forum with leadership team and action
coalition with a question about the ACA.
Revised site as needed. Develop guidelines for
monitoring site.
25% 50%
January
Kyle
Launch public forum site.
Develop list
and start
crosscommunicatio
n mechanisms.
Examine nurse participation list and survey
leadership team about which organizations our
leadership team members are active in and/or
members of (professional and personal),
coalitions, advocacy groups. Perhaps we can
list some examples. Patricia sent out draft to
group and then sent out survey. Results
available for November meeting
Examine list from survey and determine how to
link individuals and develop crosscommunication mechanisms.
August-October
25% 50%
75% 100%
25% 50%
75% 100%
Patricia
Workgroup
November-March
Patricia, Kyle, Bruce
Workgroup
Also analyze gaps where there is a potential
need.
Create a list or database for leadership
members to effectively track what’s happening
or has the potential to affect nursing.
Each organization could monitor/track nursing
testimony and communicate it back to the ND
Center for Nursing.
Nurses testifying could work with Bruce and
Patricia to review and prepare/revise testimony.
2014-2015
Develop legislative platform, hold weekly legislative update calls, continue communication across leadership team
and nurses on statewide committees
2015-2016
Evaluate effectiveness of legislative platform and communication strategies, continue interim monitoring and
communication