The Nurse as Advocate

The Nurse as Advocate
Student’s Name
Institution
Describe what you believe to be the drivers for each of the individuals? What factors led them to become advocates?
Bethany Hall-Long
I believe that the key drivers or factors that made Bethany become an advocate are the desire to change the lives of ordinary citizens who lacked vital resources. She was motivated to join politics so that she could improve the lives of vulnerable populations. She desired to see improvement in the things that mattered to the people she represented. According to her, the residents valued the environment, access to healthcare, education, economic development and land preservation her desire to make an impact on public health. She believed that the Delaware General Assembly required someone with expert health knowledge and that is why she ran for office (Milstead, 2017).
Marilyn Waugh Bouldin
Marilyn passion for caring for people and helping her community motivated her to become an advocate. Being a risk taker, she was not afraid of meeting new challenges. As a nurse, Marilyn wanted to meet the needs of the uninsured population. She tried to convince the board members to back the local clinic for the uninsured patients. When Marilyn heard that there was an upcoming election for new hospital board members, she believed that it was an excellent chance for her to do what she had desired. Marilyn was motivated by a friend who was politically active who helped push her to contest for an opening on the state board of health, her geographic area needed representation, and she was the right person to fill the position.

She enjoyed discussing state health issues and also received support and respect from colleagues who motivated her. When it was time for elections, Marilyn realized that she had much to offer including influencing the board’s direction. Having retired, she had all the time to serve. She was also encouraged by many professionals who believed and supported her during her campaigns (Mason, 2015).
Discuss the challenges that each of them identified in their writings.
Bethany Hall-Long
The role of a nurse legislator demands a lot of commitment due to the amount of work and time required for all the tasks to be completed. It is also challenging to balance the work of a legislator with family and education. A legislator has many roles to play, including in the office and the field with the constituents. One must be ready to deal with the massive workload in the office and also be on the ground to listen to people to lobby for policies that are likely to improve their lives. It takes a lot of time and energy to perform one’s role and to interact with the family.
Marilyn Waugh Bouldin
During her first interview with the state Senate confirmation, an intimidating comment was made due to her inexperience and youthfulness. The comment humiliated her, but she was frightened to reply. Due to the role she played, there was a need for her to improve her communication skills. She also faced financial difficulties in running her campaigns since she did not want to ask for donations. She needed to use her friends to reach as many people as possible so they could support her candidacy and also vote for her. Marilyn is necessary to learn about the hospital so that she could speak well with enough knowledge. Additionally, the campaign and learning process required time, energy as well money. She confesses that her most significant challenge was to comprehend the multimillion-dollar budget and therefore she was forced to ask a lot of questions to gain knowledge. Further, developing materials for campaigning was a significant challenge, and also she had to persuade people that she was the right person to represent them on the board. Extra effort was needed to convince people to vote for her. Due to her campaign strategy of distributing fliers, one person did not like it, and she complained to her that she was polluting the environment. Further, she had to work with people, listen to their comments and concerns and also talk in many forums so that many people could know who she was and what she stood for. Even after winning the seat she faced challenges since she had to expand still her knowledge regarding the hospital and many other areas that she had little or no experience. Being an advocate requires a lot of commitment due to the extensive role one is expected to perform to meet the needs of people.
Analyze these drivers and challenges and compare them with your own experience to date as an advocate. In what ways do you believe that you can expand your advocacy skills within the next five years?
The drivers and the challenges faced by Bethany and Marilyn are of great significance, and they can help me in expanding my advocacy within the next five years. The driving force like the one that Bethany had of having that desire to change the lives of others is critical in making sure that the life of the ordinary people has been improved. I believe my advocacy skills can be enhanced by taking into consideration the desire to uplift the lives of people Freeing people from suffering and being compassionate is one of the major skills that drive advocacy and make it a success. For Bethany, the area of influence where she felt she was better placed is attaining a political position in efforts to improve the lives of the citizens who lacked the vital resources (Milstead, 2017).
Partnering with individuals holding positions such as political positions and other health promotion programs will be the significant approach that I will use to improve my advocacy skills. Getting into a network of health advocates either locally or internally will assist in the sharing of ideas on how to improve my health advocacy skills. The move will also ensure that I have gained access to other groups that are supporting the same course. People in politics are capable of promoting policies that will ensure. Legislators also have the opportunity to make an extensive impact on the public health. Therefore, working with them will make it possible to highlight the issues that are affecting the population based on the knowledge I will have gained through partnering with other advocacy groups around the world (Mason, 2015).
Handling the challenge of balancing between health advocacy, education, and family can at times be challenging to an individual. I would ensure that have learned the skills of time management and task management to ensure that everything has gone systematically. These skills will also come handy in providing that I have handled different health advocacy campaigns concurrently in different regions. Health promotion will also require persistence. The likelihood of an individual losing their patience is quite high in such situations is quite high. However, it is always beneficial to remember that nothing worthwhile comes easy. Persistence and patience are critical in ensuring that the healthy advocacy goals that have been set are realized. Patience will also enable an individual to learn for some time to see results rather than expecting quick results from the advocacy. The art of balancing is a skill that will require some knowledge of time management to assist the population and make a significant impact on the society (Milstead, 2017).
The key drivers of advocacy for Marylyn were her desire to discuss the state health issues that were affecting the people. Further, her friend, who was politically active assisted her to position herself for an opening that was on the state board of health. The skills of advocacy that I would emulate from her is the desire to address the health issues facing the society and openly talking about how they can be resolved. Skills like engaging in a healthy conversation can be of help to me in becoming a strong health advocate. Further, the support of others and especially people who are interested in the same advocacy will be important for me in the next five years. Obtaining support from the interested parties and building a good relationship will assist in ensuring that advocacy campaigns have registered success within next five years (Mason, 2015).
Building rapport with other professional and interested parties is a skill that will ensure that my advocacy campaigns have been a success in the next five years. I would ensure that I have partnered with individuals or parties that are showing genuine compassion to the persons in society who are suffering or need health assistance. It is always good to discern between the people who are genuinely interested in the course and the ones who are involved for political gains. I believe that by taking into consideration these factors I will become one of the successful health advocates in my region.
References
Mason, D. J. (2015). Policy & politics in nursing and health care. Saunders.
Milstead, J. A. (2017). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide. Jones & Bartlett Learning.