Executive Leadership for Public Health Nursing in Colorado February 16, 2009
Posted by phnac in PH Nursing Leadership.add a comment
As many of you may know PHNAC has established addressing the lack of executive leadership for Public Health Nursing as a priority this year. As your president I have taken the lead to gain support from other public health organizations to explore the need for this position and to redefine this leadership role in Colorado.
Please read this Case for Action document for your reference. I will report more about the action steps that I have taken so far at our winter membership meeting on February 27th after the winter conference. I want to invite you to respond to this message with your individual input into this process. It is my intention to represent your voice and your views on this important issue. Please take time to express your input so that I can include it as I move forward during the upcoming months. Thank you for your support and insight.
You can contact me at rbeam@tchd.org or respond to this blog.
Rita Beam, MS, RN
President, PHNAC 2008 – 09
Your PHNAC Legislative Committee at Work January 28, 2009
Posted by phnac in Legislative.add a comment
by Brene Belew-LaDue, RN – President – elect
One of the advantages of membership in PHNAC is involvement and representation in the legislative process. As public health nurses and as members of communities across Colorado, I believe it is our responsibility to be aware of how health care and health care related bills are being enacted in the legislature. PHNAC provides the opportunity to participate and express your opinion about what is happening at the state legislature. This committee is active during the legislative session which runs from January through May.
PHNAC has a legislative consultant who represents PHNAC at the legislature. The committee meets monthly by teleconference on the third Thursday of each month during the legislative session at 12:00 PM. Our legislative consultant, Jennifer Miles, emails bill summaries that we have chosen or Jennifer thinks we may be interested in for the session. The committee decides if the bill is something that we want to monitor, support by signing the PHNAC name to it, or actively lobby for that year. We are limited to two bills that we can lobby for each legislative session by the contract that we have with Jennifer.
The PHNAC legislative committee at this time has about 12 members that join in the conference calls. All PHNAC members are welcome to join in on the calls. Dawn James from Kit Carson County is the Legislative Committee Chair. There are times when we may ask the PHNAC membership for expert opinions or advice on certain bills if we do not have the expertise to decide on the action for the bill. We also may send out alerts at different times during the legislative session to ask for your assistance by contacting your representative to support or oppose a bill. The success of SB – 194 from the 2008 legislative session was the result of several members of the legislative committee and Jennifer actively supporting the measure for the legislative session through the governor signing the bill. This is your PHNAC legislative committee at work.
If you are interested in the legislative committee please call Dawn James (hhsdj@kitcarsoncounty.org or 719-346-7158, ext. 16) if you have any questions about the important work that your legislative committee does.
