02/19/2024

Advancing Health Equity Through Policy and Advocacy

Policy Committee Update

The advocacy pillar of ACHNE’s CALM strategic plan includes a few key objectives -- one is to improve the confidence of members in their ability to teach advocacy to reduce health disparities and promote health equity. To meet this objective, the policy committee polled members in June 2023 and had a 10% response rate (n = 27).

The policy committee analyzed the survey data and reported back to the executive committee these key findings:

• 33% of respondents are completely confident in advocating for the health of patients and communities.
• 41% of respondents are completely confident in teaching the topic of advocacy in healthcare for patients and/or communities.
• The two content areas that were most highly ranked by respondents to assist them in teaching advocacy for the purpose of reducing health disparities and promoting health equity were

(1) How to use a pedagogical strategy to teach students about advocacy

(2) Tips, tools, and resources for public health professionals to engage in advocacy

• The highest priorities for training public health nurses in academe/practice related to advocacy skills and competencies include

1. involvement in real-world advocacy with communities, taking action
2. focus on the “how” of the process, what to do stepwise with concern, determining an actionable item/strategy

Please email Gina Alexander at g.alexander@tcu.edu if you’d like to join our committee meeting.

ACHNE is active in policy with the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC), as outlined in the 2022 contributions of ACHNE to NCC advocacy (the 2023 recap will be ready in January 2024). Achievements of the NCC are outlined in the FY 2023 Year in Review .