Mark Longshore, PhD, RN
The Colorado Nurses Association represents all nurses in Colorado, and through ANA, all nurses across the United States. Over the past year, CNA has increased conversations and collaboration with groups like CCBN, ENA, AWOHHN, public health nurses, and CONL. We hope to make connections with long term care nurses. Those connection inform, guide, and improve CNA’s advocacy work by bringing in the expertise of these other groups.
As I often tell groups when invited to speak, representation often means telling legislators “please include nurses” as we did for HB26-1102 and SB26-008. Another bill that stands out was HB26-1107 which started out as a transparency bill for families looking at dementia centers and turned into a bill allowing CNAs to give injections, allowing the Board of Nursing to figure out what injections meant, what education these CNAs should have, and how the nurse might be held responsible even if not present. Working with a number of other legislators, we were able to get that part of the bill removed. We also work on bills that impact our patients, like SB26-041 which would have required notification to the attorney general of certain mergers among healthcare providers. While research finds such mergers reduce access and increase costs, we also heard from nurses who lost their job or had to work in increasingly difficult situations after mergers. Notably, we are just passed halfway through this session so I am certain other bills will come up. You should receive this issue of the Colorado Nurse right about the same time we hold our wrap-up Town Hall to go over all the bills CNA has taken action on. We hope you can join us for that look back.
Finally, I ask you to consider your goals. Do you want to network with other nurses, making connections and discussing how nursing can get better? Do you want to be more active in health policy – from your employer up to running for office? Do you want to learn, demonstrate, and hone your leadership skills? The Colorado Nurses Association can help. We have several groups working on the Nurse Practice Act and other legislation. You can make nursing better by being part of those discussions or just responding to our surveys when we ask “what problems are you experiencing?” We are always looking for nurses to provide testimony to the legislature, Board of Nursing, or other groups. (I look forward to the day we have as many nurses testifying in support of a bill as there were therapists testifying in support of an AI bill.) For leadership, nominations for our Board positions will open in a couple of weeks. We are excited about our updated strategic plan and where it will take CNA and nursing through the work of the CNA Board and staff and we need leaders to chart that path.
Last issue had telephone triage and this month has post-operative pain as examples of nurse implemented change making a difference. I look to each of you to keep doing great things while making sure you share your ideas and lead change in nursing.
