Twenty incumbents and candidates for the New York State Senate and Assembly addressed nurses and nursing students on healthcare policy issues and responded to their questions and concerns in an informative and fast-moving Meet the Legislative Candidates Night less than two weeks before Election Day.
The Oct. 24 event, held in Hays Theatre in the Wilbur Arts Center at Molloy University, lived up to its billing as a Policy Dialogue with Legislators and Candidates in Nassau County on important social issues affecting nursing, health and social work. More than 180 nurses and nursing students attended.
Presentations from legislators were limited to between four and five minutes each. Incumbent Assembly Member John K. Mikulin sounded a familiar theme with the assembled politicians, saying, “I thank you for taking up this career, I thank you for wanting to serve. I thank you for being here and being so involved in what we do in government.”
Mikulin, a member of the Assembly’s Health Committee, said much work remained to do as he spoke about legislative priorities outlined earlier by two members of the public policy committee of the Nurses Association of the Counties of Long Island (NACLI). “I am very happy to work beside each and every one of you…I have been working on issues that really matter to you,” Mikulin said.
(The NACLI public committee members were Dr. Jessica Varghese, PhD. RN, an assistant professor at New York Institute of Technology, and Stacey Jackson-Harley, PhD. Student at Molloy.)
Many legislators and candidates addressed Long Island’s high cost of living and supported steps to make sure healthcare workers are well compensated, including initiatives for student loan forgiveness and safe staffing in hospitals.
The evening was sponsored by the Nurses Association of the Counties of Long Island (NACLI), the Molloy Nursing Student Association (MNSA), the Barbara H. Hagan School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Doctoral Nursing at Molloy University, Sigma Epsilon Kappa Chapter, American Nurses Association—New York (ANA-NY), and the Offices of Advancement and Community and Government Affairs at Molloy University.
Dr. Jennifer Emilie Mannino, PhD. RN, professor and director of the PhD in Nursing Program at Molloy, in welcoming remarks, encouraged the nurses to take next steps after the event by posting comments on LinkedIn and speaking with their legislators.
Calling nurses “the backbone” of the health care field, she explained that their voices are “very powerful,” a comment reiterated by legislators and other speakers. Nurses are “first and foremost patient advocates,” Dr. Mannino said, encouraging them to ensure that “the voices of those you serve are heard.”
Two guest speakers spoke nurse-to-nurse with attendees about making their voices heard on legislative issues that affect them and their patients.
Dr. Nicolette Fiore-Lopez, PhD. RN, the chief nursing officer for St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, spoke about a personal experience that illustrated the importance of advocacy for nurses. Dr. Lopez said she didn’t fully appreciate the need for political advocacy until a state commission in 2006 recommended the closure of St. Charles Hospital. As CNO, she was an integral part of the top-level team that successfully fought the recommendations.
“We were able to have significant modifications made to them which enabled us to continue,” she explained. “The fight consisted of grassroot efforts, engaging the community and local political leaders, to assist us. Interestingly, we found that not all politicians were interested in helping us…But we fought, and we got it, and I still work there today.”
Dr. Lopez, a board member of Molloy University, offered other examples of her advocacy work and encouraged nurses listening to her to use their standing as the country’s most trusted professionals (by 78 percent of adults) to their advantage. She added that legislative aides listen to their every word and “have to have you help them” as they work toward crafting health care legislation.
Responding to a question, Dr. Lopez noted that the passion of nurses is best exemplified in their stories about their professional work on behalf of their patients. “It’s all about putting faces on your stories, faces on legislation…and never giving up,” she said.
Dr. Loren Dempsey, a pediatric nurse practitioner at NYU Langone Hospital on Long Island and assistant professor of nursing at the Hagan School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Molloy, has been deeply involved in improving health outcomes for people with asthma and their families during her 30-year career. She founded the Molloy Lung Force Team, a group of faculty, nursing and respiratory therapy students certified to offer asthma education programs in schools and community programs and on the Mother Cabrini Mobile Health Care Clinic. More than 300 students and staff members at Molloy have been certified over the past two years.
Dr. Dempsey explained how important it is to keep children with asthma free of symptoms, such as cough, shortness of breath and wheezing, especially considering that they are leading causes of school absences. Asthma affects one of 13 students. Children living in communities near Molloy such as Hempstead, Uniondale, Freeport and West Hempstead are two to three times more likely to visit emergency rooms, and much more likely than peers in surrounding communities.
She spoke in detail about the steps she takes before and during the meetings with legislators. They include getting to know each legislator and their health policy focuses; crafting email messages to them sharing her expertise in caring for children; sharing key facts about the problem of childhood asthma; and how the New York State Asthma Initiative is responding to the problem.
Dr. Marcia Gardner, PhD. RN, dean of the Barbara H. Hagan School of Nursing and Health Sciences, addressing attendees, said the forum presented “a very important opportunity to hear from candidates about the issues and related legislation decisions which directly affect our professional lives.”
“Our roles in providing health care services to clients and patients are directly impacted by the decisions that are made by our legislators,” she explained.