Anne Arundel Community College Long Term Care Pharmacy Definition Act Letter

Assignment Information

This assignment provides you with the opportunity to use a specific political advocacy strategy: communication with a legislator via a letter. Expressing your support or lack of support for proposed legislation (bills) can be a powerful way to speak up about an issue. In this assignment, you will identify a proposed bill and voice your support for, or argument for not, passing that particular bill.

Completion of this assignment will demonstrate your achievement of the following course outcomes:

• describe the impact of health care policies on nursing practice and health care work environments to determine the financial and regulatory influences on patient care
• evaluate the political advocacy process to identify opportunities for nursing professional involvement
• delineate strategies that nurses can use to engage in advocacy for health care policy to support equity, access, affordability, and social justice for consumers and in support of the nursing profession

Assignment Guidelines

1. Select a piece of legislation proposed either in your state or at the national level.
   1. Go to www.Congress.gov to find a piece of national legislation
   2. Go to your state’s .gov site to find a piece of state legislation
2. Identify your state representative at the level of the bill—this will be either your state, House of Representatives, or Senate representative, depending on the bill that you selected.
3. Conduct a literature review to identify evidence pertaining to the issue addressed in the bill. Find at least three sources.
4. Develop a letter to send to your state legislator. This letter should integrate the evidence supporting your position. The following websites offer templates, examples, and/or guidelines for letters to legislators that you may want to consider.
   1. National Council of the State Boards of Nursing Template Letter to the Legislator https://www.ncsbn.org/APRN_formletter_Legislator_web.pdf
   2. How to write to your legislator: http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/how-write-your-402285.html
   3. Purdue Owl: Writing the Basic Business Letter: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html