Advocacy Through Legislation

Advocacy through Legislation Problem Nurses encounter a lot of situations in their line of duty that cause them to evaluate their past experiences and think of alternative ways in which a situation would have played out. For this reason, nurses take up advocacy for a policy change that favor’s patient outcomes which are driven by their innate instinct to care for their patients in the best way achievable. This is exactly the case in Florida where nurses have actively taken up an advocacy role in an attempt to bolster some of the recurring situations they witness on a regular basis. One such problem is the proposed public charge rule amendment (Hacker, Anies, Folb, & Zallman, 2015). For years, immigrants in America have had the freedom to receive financial assistance from the government especially when it comes to the health sector. The proposed change by the Trump administration drastically changes this situation. The change makes the chance of immigrants who benefit from public services more difficult to acquire legal citizenship in the United States (Hacker et al, 2015). This has a direct ripple effect on immigrants being hesitant to seek out treatment for fear of it being used to diminish their chances of getting legitimate citizenship. Idea for Addressing Solution. Nurses in Florida get to witness this absurdity up close, taking into account that the state of Miami is home to a large number of immigrants who make up a large percentage of the labor force especially in the upmarket regions of the state. It is my strong belief that legislation is the best course of action for advocacy since this is a policy that trickles down from the national government. This means that the only way to repeal or at least mitigate the effects of such a rule is through official channels which appeal to the congress and government officials (Reed, Fitzgerald & Bish, 2018). The first and most important step is for nurses to form coalitions that are united in support of the fight against the proposed public charge rule. These coalitions can in-turn navigate the law to ensure that the nurses present a feasible idea in the form of a bill (Vitale et al, 2019). During this time, the nurses may be required to testify during public hearings to further strengthen the legislation. This would be a unique opportunity for like-minded nurses and other stakeholders to voice their opinion and argue to support the rejection of the proposed public charge rule. This testimony, in this case, would be provided on behalf of the public, which in this instance, is a large number of immigrants currently residing in Miami who stand to lose out on healthcare and other social benefits. Once a committee of qualified officials listens to the point of view of the nurses, I believe that the legislation will have sufficient grounds for further analysis and consequent consideration. Research the Issue Evidence 1 According to Mohammed et al (2015), every one of five residents of Florida are immigrants, a large majority of whom come from the Caribbean Islands. All these immigrants are in need of affordable healthcare as they seek to gain official and legitimate residency to be considered a law-abiding citizen. Taking into account the fact that the immigrant p...