Increasing Nursing Advocacy and Empowerment at the State Policy Level Meeting Notes

March 27, 2015 11:00 AM – 12:30 AM CST

Project Goal: Inform and empower the nursing community to influence health care policy. Meeting Started: 11:05 AM Meeting Ended: 12:10 PM Participants: Amy Schimek, Carmen Bryhn, Cheryl Rising, Roberta Young, Patricia Moulton ------

Group Chair: Roberta Young

1. Introductions

2. Review notes from last meeting in December. No changes to meeting notes.

December Meeting Notes

3. Strategy: Increase visibility of ND Center for Nursing and leadership team organizations at the state legislature through a Nurses Day. Nurses Day planning group of Roberta, Amber and Patricia met to go through logistics and exchanged several emails to finalize details. All logistical details are below.

Debriefing- What went well? What could be improved? Should we offer a box lunch next time or something else such as ice cream or nothing? We may want to consider splitting into 2 days and scheduling those days as soon as possible.

Patricia reviewed the revenue and expenses for this event. There were 256 participants that registered and 14 organizations had tables at the event. The primary expense was the box lunches that cost $4,095.90. The event netted a loss of $920.73.

Nurses Day Participation/Revenue and Expenses Cheryl indicated that she would bring up at the ND Nurse Practitioners Association Board to see if they could contribute to the event. Patricia will contact Rosanne to see if NDANA would be interested, she indicated that she might be able ask.

Group discussion and Email Feedback about Nurses Day:

The day started out nice with Representative Rohr presented that was great way to start it and the talks from the NDNA and NDBON and the Center- it flowed really well.

The group discussed the tours- they thought they looked like they ran well. Patricia thought maybe we could have nurses run the tours and then we would not have to rely on the state to do them and it would provide a nice link to nurses and nursing students.

Lunches were not good.

First of all thank you to Patricia, Kyle and the partnering nursing agencies for all their work on this event. The buttons were helpful so legislators could see who was present for Nurses Day. It was wonderful to see this nursing presence at the Capitol!

It was great to see so many nursing students at this event as it is important to engage them in the process early on.

Lunches: I’m not sure how comparable other catering services are or if they can serve that number of people, however I wonder if there is another place that could cater lunch for a similar price (or else do a snack/ice cream instead).

The group thought that the lunches worked for drawing legislators. But thought something like ice cream or something could be available during the lunch time- desert for them.

NDNPA has partnered with CHAD to do an evening reception- did not have a good response this year. They had competition with a bigger Canada event. Saw other groups did breakfast- fruit, coffee, muffins, juice and coffee cake- they plan to do a breakfast. Follow-up Participant Survey Draft- edits and additional questions?

The group thought we should send it out and give a 2 week deadline.

Should add a question about the advocacy center. Participant survey is a great idea. I wonder if we could ask a question to see how their participation in this event will influence their nursing practice (Basically what impact did this day have on participants?). It would be interesting to see if their knowledge base increased, if they felt more strongly about the need for nursing presence at the legislature etc.

Nurses Day Logistics

 Date: March 11, 2015 from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CST

 Location: Memorial and Legislative Halls at Capitol- space reserved

 Title of Event: ND Nurses Day at the Legislature

 Goal: Increase engagement of nurses in state and federal advocacy issues.

 Hotel Room block- we had a room block at Kelly Inn.

 Each organization will have a table, facility management will provide tables and chairs- organizations will need to provide own table cloths and skirting and own electrical cords if they will need electricity

 Registration- Organizations were charged $25 for an exhibit table and the individual charge was $5 per person registering to offset food costs. Online Registration opened December 15th and was announced in the enewsletter. Nurses Day was marketed in each enewsletter, on facebook and to the leadership team in weekly legislative update emails. Also included in Prairie Rose. Cut-off for registration was March 6th. This was a little late to get the name tags printed, lunches ordered and to give instructions to organizations. We received several registration by organizations sending several people through check and it was challenging merging all of the lists- some name tags didn’t get printed. Online Registration Portal

 Marketing to Legislators- Kyle developed an email that we sent to all legislators a week before the event and a postcard which was distributed the day before the event. Legislator Postcard

 Catering- Box lunches cost $9.99 from the Capitol Grill- we ordered 410 lunches- enough for our participants and 155 for legislators/staff (there is 217 possible)  Organizations signed up for table space and indicated whether they needed electricity. Organizational Layout of Memorial Hall

 Sponsors- Two sponsors for $1,000 each- North Dakota Nurses Association and North Dakota Board of Nursing Nurses Day Call for Sponsors

 Email to participants: Email sent on Friday evening before the event: The email included parking instructions, list of committee hearings with linked bills of interest, overview of the day, logistics.

 Tours- they are run by the Capitol tour guides. The ideal size for a tour is 25 people. Patricia emailed registrants and asked them to sign up for a pre-register for tour if they are interested. Patricia called Ron at 328-3633 for the Legislative tours and 328-2480 for the Capitol tours to confirm after March 1st. Patricia pre-signed up school groups to time slots to help with scheduling. They ran 2 tours simultaneously in the AM- as we projected about 50 per time slot. Was a bit difficult to coordinate with tour guides. Might suggest having our own tour guides.

 Agenda- Download Final Agenda Download List of Hearings during Nurses Day

 Developed button to identify themselves as a nurse- the group thought it should say: “North Dakota Nurses: Advocates of Healthcare for ND” We ordered 300 buttons. We ordered them from affordable buttons.com. They were very visible at the capitol and those that commented from outside our group knew that the buttons represented Nurses Day. Button Document

 Representative Rohr and the legislative tour guide assisted with placing 13 participants that indicated they were interested in sitting with legislators during the floor session. Rep. Rohr was quickly able to find 13 legislators to volunteer. There was some dis-organization when we brought the 13 participants into the floor chambers as they were also trying to sit many high school students on the floors.

 Press- Kyle sent out press releases and called several contacts- there were several interviews with press during the day.

KFYR TV: http://www.kfyrtv.com/home/headlines/Nurses-Day-at-State-Capitol-295973821.html North Dakota Public Radio also interviewed several people- no link available

4. Strategy: Provide interim and during session legislative monitoring and communication within leadership team.

 Legislative Session Update Calls started January 9, 2015 and are Fridays at 3:00 PM through the session. Levi sends Patricia the bill status update each Friday morning. Patricia logs onto the state legislative tracking site and searches for hearings for our bills that are in a tracking list and compiles the hearings and links for the bills. Patricia compiles the leadership email that includes a list of hearings/notes from the last week, hearings for next week and included a tip of the week through crossover. Patricia takes notes each week and includes those that plan to testify in the following week’s update. If there is something urgent that was shared- she sends it out on the legislative email update groups.

Bill Status Update for March 20 th

Leadership Team Legislative Update for March 20 th

When to schedule legislative update calls after session? Start in September? Every other month?

The group thought that we should start the calls in September and every other month- Fridays at noon. The group also discussed the need to do more tracking of administrative rules and implementation of bills after they are passed in addition to tracking the interim legislative studies. Maybe create a priority matrix of the priority bill to track in administrative rules.

 Collaborative Email Groups/Communication with Leadership Team- new email communication system. Started asking Leadership Team members to indicate which category they would like to receive emails from during the December 12th legislative update meeting. The categories are the same as the legislative monitoring document: Nursing Education and Faculty Resources, Workplace Planning, Practice and Policy and Research and Development. These have been set up. Patricia sends out the list of hearings for each week early Friday or sometimes Thursday night in order to give more notice than waiting until the legislative update email is sent out. Occasionally, Patricia receives information during the week that she has sent out. This happens rarely and most information has been shared during the legislative update calls on Friday. The posts consist mostly of hearing notices.

Nursing Education and Faculty Resource Update Posts

Practice and Policy Update Posts Workplace Planning Update Posts

Research and Development Update Posts

The group thought these were helpful and we plan to use these during the interim session.

 Develop legislative platform to determine which bills to track and increase targeted advocacy efforts. Draft document has been utilized for last two months- have asked for organizations to send in their legislative priorities or platforms and bills as they become aware of them. Patricia indicated that she only has one organization’s priorities. Patricia hasn’t received any more priorities. Priorities for the bill tracking has been primarily based on whether nursing is mentioned in the bill or if an organization has an active interest in the bill- they are indicated in red on the bill status document.

December 12, 2014 Legislative Priority Document

 Status of Legislative Monitor- legislative monitor is paid on a twice a year basis. $5,000 was paid by January 1, 2015, next payment will be due July 1, 2015. Input on legislative monitor

Legislative Monitor Contract

 Status of development of policy brief describing work of center and current nursing data. No research consultant hired. This was tabled and data will be included in a five-year report that will be developed over the next year.

5. Strategy: Continue communication with all nurses on legislative issues.

 Update advocacy center with legislative calendar and updated legislative tables. New website launched January 7, 2015. Bill status update loaded each Friday. Site includes FAQs and resources.

http://www.ndcenterfornursing.org/advocacy-center/

A question about the website was added to the Nurses Day survey.  Include monthly enewsletter article about legislative happenings and targeted summaries for studies/bills of interest. Patricia has utilized the tips from the weekly legislative update emails for the monthly enewsletter and has included the most current bill status update.

 Examine best practices on disseminating policy information to a wide range of organizations including rural nursing, state government and other entities. At the last meeting, the group thought we should survey Nurses Day attendees.

A question has been added to the follow-up survey for Nurses Day.

What would we like to ask the leadership team? A survey after the session would be good- ask about the legislative update emails, the legislative update calls, the connecting of organizations for testimony, the bill status document. See 2013 Legislative Session Survey.

Patricia will draft and send to this group to review.

2013 Legislative Session Summary which includes the survey results

6. Strategy: Develop communication strategy for linking sphere of influence members.

 Continue to revise and complete Sphere of Influence list. Patricia plans to update this winter after all of the boards have been refreshed- have not updated it yet- plan to do in January

Spring 2015 Sphere of Influence List

Patricia will bring up the list at the next board meeting and CUNEA to get there thoughts on particular nurses to suggest for the boards.

Group suggested adding the State Trauma Committee (Roberta is a member) and State Board of Cosmetology (Amy is a member) to the list.

The group thought that we should highlight individuals in the newsletter about the experience of being on one of these boards and the value. Group decided to delete the council on homelessness from the list- all of the positions are statutory.

The group thought that we should continue advertising them when they are open and have feature stories in the newsletter.

 Work on plan for inclusion of nurses on key committees/boards through tracking board openings and encouraging submissions through enewsletter, facebook and collaborative email groups.- Patricia will send an email to all of the nurses on the sphere of influence list after it has been refreshed to invite them to join our leadership team and our collaborative email groups.

7. Review funding proposal for 2015-2016. The group made changes in the proposal that is attached to the email. Schedule next meeting for September 2015? Patricia will send out a meeting scheduler for our next meeting. 2014-2015 Workplan: Group Meetings in April, August, October, December, March

Strategies Activities Month/ Activity Completion Status Person(s) Provide interim Negotiate contract with April-July 25% 50% 75% 100% and during legislative monitor and session provide initial orientation. Patricia legislative Provide monthly or bi- Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% monitoring and monthly updates including communicatio notes on tracked Legislative n within committees/studies. Provide Monitor leadership weekly updates during team. legislative session. Schedule legislative update Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% leadership team calls- September, December and Patricia then weekly during session Legislative on Fridays? Monitor Continue collaborative email Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% groups for specific studies and add new ones based on Patricia bills that come forward Develop legislative platform August- 25% 50% 75% 100% to determine which bills to December track and increase targeted Workgroup, advocacy efforts. Legislative Monitor, Patricia Increase Determine date for Nurses April 25% 50% 75% 100% visibility of ND Day at the Legislature and Center for schedule space. Workgroup, Nursing and Patricia leadership Develop and disseminate April 25% 50% 75% 100% team save the date materials for organizations leadership team Patricia at the state organizations. legislature Solicit partner organizations June-July 25% 50% 75% 100% through a and sponsors and organize Nurses Day. sub-committee. Workgroup, Patricia Develop agenda for day, August- 25% 50% 75% 100% other logistics and possible October sponsors Workgroup, Patricia Develop policy brief September- 25% 50% 75% 100% describing work of center and December current nursing data. Disseminate to legislators in Patricia, conjunction with Nurses Day- Research this was not completed- plan Consultant, to put this information Mapping together into a 5-year report. Consultant Develop marketing materials October- 25% 50% 75% 100% for legislators and market January nurses day. Kyle Hold Nurses Day March 25% 50% 75% 100% Workgroup, Patricia, Kyle Evaluate effectiveness of April-May 25% 50% 75% 100% Nurses Day. Workgroup, Patricia Continue Update advocacy center with Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% communicatio legislative calendar and n with all updated legislative tables. Kyle nurses on Include monthly enewsletter Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% legislative article about legislative issues. happenings and targeted Patricia summaries for studies/bills of interest. Examine best practices on August- 25% 50% 75% 100% disseminating policy December information to a wide range of organizations including Workgroup, rural nursing, state Patricia government and other entities.- added question to Nurses Day survey and leadership team survey?

Develop Continue to revise and Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% communicatio complete Sphere of Influence Workgroup, n strategy for list Patricia linking sphere Work on plan for inclusion of Ongoing 25% 50% 75% 100% of influence nurses on key Workgroup, members. committees/boards through Patricia tracking board openings and encouraging submissions through enewsletter, facebook and collaborative email groups. Pilot communication strategy September- 25% 50% 75% 100% for linking Sphere of Influence June members with leadership Workgroup, team. Patricia 2015-2016 Evaluate effectiveness of legislative platform and communication strategies, continue interim monitoring and communication