One NASN State Affiliate’s Perspective of Legislative Advocacy

Abstract

At the end of the 2011 legislative session in California, the California School Nurses Organization (CSNO), a state affiliate of NASN, was looking for a new way that school nurses could garner legislative support, in a visible and positive manner, as strong advocates for pupil health. When California State Assembly Member Susan Bonilla (who currently represents the 14th Assembly District) offered to sponsor a state bill to help improve the student-to-school nurse ratio in California's public schools (which several sources between 2007 and 2011 estimated as being between 1:2,187 and 1:4,000), the CSNO's Government Relations Committee (GRC) sprang into action. The committee reviewed NASN's list of strategic plans for legislative advocacy for guidance. Upon learning that one of NASN's legislative priorities was the passage of H.R. 2229 (C. McCarthy), the Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2011, the GRC crafted and subsequently worked to successfully pass a California resolution bill, Assembly Joint Resolution No. 24, in support. Such legislative advocacy efforts may well be viewed as a model for other NASN state affiliate organizations.