ANA\C The Nursing Voice Spring 2019

anacalifornia.org  .  17 As recently as 2010, the IOM (in conjunction with RWJ and other thought leaders) urged a Future of Nursing that forwarded the notion that a good portion of our national legion of nurses could be educated to treat the booming BOOMER population and increasing general population. Seven years later, many states recognize that Advanced Practice nurses could preemptively care for patients to the full extent of their license. Interestingly, California, with the largest number of Registered Nurses (>450,000) and the greatest influx of new residents, is not one of them. Why? APRNs can and do care for an estimated 70–80% of patient care needs in clinics. (The remainder are referred to physician follow up.) This not only eases the physician provider burden, it saves money, honey! The answer lies within what I call the three-legged stool of healthcare: EBP, legal/ethical, and financial. In California, as in other states where APRNs are disallowed to practice independently, our professional group advocates from the American Nurses Association know too well how the Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner legislation continues to be sidelined by those we call teammates at work: the physician lobby, who are able to bring their tremendous financial resources to bear on our legislators. Well, that’s our democratic system, and I do not advocate altering it; nurses need to raise our cumulative VOICE. We should take a cue from other groups with many fewer voices who have managed to change the system. Ah, but that raises another question: Why don’t nurses band together? In a nation of over 3.5 million nurses, if we all speak together, we would be heard! After all, according to the recent Gallup poll, our profession has been recognized as the “most trusted” for the 16th year! ANA-i FELLOWSHIP ALTERS YOUR PROFESSIONAL PATH One of the reasons that nurses have not found a common voice is that we often only raise our concerns to one another in small numbers. ANA and ANA\C provide training in advocacy through fellowships to help overcome our reticence. As a past recipient of an ANA Advocacy Institute Fellowship, I can testify to the work carried out through this leadership course and the opportunities to advocate in our nation’s capital. Each ANA-I Fellow is commissioned to ‘go forth and do likewise,’ in terms of advocating and assisting other nurses to speak out in favor of the nursing profession, public health, and health policy issues. The ANA-I Fellowship training spurred me on to understand how I might use my strengths to advocate in many ways. In my case, this included using my training as an actor and improv facilitator. Here’s how: In the past few years, much research has surfaced about the utilization of emotional and social intelligence (EI and SI) and how this can improve communication at work. Happily, a few nurses around the country now offer opportunities for nurses to learn innovative methods to bolster interprofessional communication by strengthening EI and SI using a low- cost and effective tool called applied improvisational exercises (AIEs) or medical improv. The method is not new; ask anyone who has ever played a musical instrument, written a poem, or learned to dance. Improvisation has been a staple of the creative process for as long as… well, who knows? Perhaps cave paintings were recording early improv scenes? So, what are your super powers? How can you better advocate for our profession and public health? If you aren’t sure or if you do know and need some mentoring on how to utilize your gifts, consider applying for the ANA-I Fellowship grant. You won’t regret it! Dr. Candy Campbell is a nurse, international speaker, and award-winning actor, author, and filmmaker. She co-founded the improv company, The Barely Insane Players and has taught improv since 1995 to students of all ages. Her latest book is Improv to Improve Healthcare: A System for Creative Problem Solving . Campbell is anassistant professor in the SONHPatUniversityof SanFrancisco. She also portrays Florence Nightingale (candycampbell.com ) For more information: candy@candycampbell.com