Choose a legislator on the state or federal level who is also a nurse and discuss the importance of the legislator/nurse’s role as advocate for improving health care delivery. What specific bills has the legislator/nurse sponsored or supported that have influenced health care?

A fantastic instance of a legislator and nurse who’s advocating for improved healthcare supply is Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois). As an Iraq Struggle veteran and former Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs, she has a protracted historical past of championing healthcare coverage that serves the wants of veterans, their households and all People. She has fought to develop entry to high quality care by way of her sponsorship or help of varied payments such because the Veteran’s Entry To Care Act which might permit veterans to hunt remedy at non-VA services in the event that they expertise vital wait instances for VA appointments; The VA MISSION Act which streamlines companies obtainable at totally different departments throughout the VA; The Army Household Go away Modernization Act which will increase household depart advantages for present army personnel; And at last, The CARE For All People Act which seeks to ascertain common well being protection in America.

Senator Duckworth’s advocacy efforts reveal how legislators/nurses can have a strong affect on bettering healthcare outcomes. By legislative motion she has helped cross significant laws aimed toward defending those that serve our nation whereas making certain that everybody can entry high quality care no matter their monetary scenario. Her work is a reminder that nurses are brokers of change who can use their skillsets each inside and out of doors the scientific setting to make a distinction in folks’s lives.