.NRS 440 Topic 4 DQ 1

.NRS 440 Topic 4 DQ 1

NRS 440 Topic 4 DQ 1 Read

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson is a nurse by profession. Johnson served as a nurse in Texas before she was elected in 1993 to represent the 30th Congressional District of Texas which she represents to date, making her the first nurse to serve in the United States Congress (Pollitt, 2020). Congresswoman Johnson has played a critical role in advocating for nurses’ role as advocates for public health because she introduced bill H.R. 1597 that the U.S. Congress passed to become the National Nurse Act of 2019.

The National Nurse Act of 2019 established the office of the National Nurse, improving healthcare delivery since nurses participate in national policy formulation. Before, nurses did not have a national office to advocate for their rights and be involved in formulating federal healthcare policy. The roles and responsibilities of the National nurse include serving as the national spokesperson for nurses in policy, preventative medicine, and leadership, working together with the Surgeon General’s office to identify and address national health priorities, advocating for healthcare professionals to work with community programs to improve health, increase emergency preparedness and public safety and prepare and submit biennial reports to the U.S congress on nurses working in the U.S Public Health Service (U.S Congress, 2019).

The National Nurse Act of 2019 has helped to address health disparities because the federal government provides funding for community nursing programs which helps to increase healthcare access among vulnerable populations in the United States. Hence, congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has used her nursing background to address health disparities through the enactment of the National Nurse Act of 2019, increasing the role that nurses play in national healthcare formulation by creating the office of the National Nurse, which works in collaboration with the Office of the Surgeon General to provide preventative care and advocate for healthcare access among all Americans.

Eddie Bernice Johnson’s main contribution is the passage of bill H.R. 1597, which became the National Nurse Act of 2019 after its adoption by the U.S Congress. Johnson used her nursing background to lobby for the bill’s passage because she knows nurses play a critical role in promoting healthcare since they spend more time with communities and patients than physicians. The importance of Eddie Bernice Johnson was that she helped to address health disparities and advocate for better working rights for nurses at the national level through her work as a representative of the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. Congress.

References

Pollitt, P. A. (2020). Nurses in Congress: Eddie Bernice Johnson – UNCG. libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Pollitt_Phoebe_2020_Nurses%20in%20Congress_Eddie%20Johnson.pdf

U.S Congress. (7 March 2019). Congresswoman Johnson introduces national nurse act of 2019. ebjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-johnson-introduces-national-nurse-act-of-2019

I enjoyed your post and research, I also wrote about Cori Bush. In reading over the other the responses to this weeks discussion post, I noticed most of the representatives mentioned were female. It made me wonder about male legislators and historical figures we may be overlooking.

Medicine began amongst medicine men, shaman and healers. It then transitioned to monks and priests. The military had male nurses in every war long before women were allowed to fill that role. Only then did the title change from male nurse to corpsman or medic. Men in Nursing asserts that most historians reporting on nursing history are female and that has led to a biased version of our overall history.

Additional oversites are the lack of mention of male patron saints of nursing. There are 8 in total, 4 female and 4 male. The book goes on to blame Florence Nightingale with the creation of her school, she effectively ended men in nursing for the time.

There is some truth that the establishment of Florence Nightingale School of Nursing in London coincided with males in the field finding other roles.(O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2007) Florence Nightingale wrote in a letter in 1867, “The whole reform in nursing both at home and abroad has consisted of this: to take all power over the nursing out of the hands of men, and put it into the hands of one female trained head and make her responsible for everything” (O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2007)

A different perspective and an interesting read. I also discovered some information on Travis Nelson RN, he is a fulltime union representative with the Oregon Nurses Association and Oregon State Representative. He is a champion of African American and LGBTQ rights. He is fighting