Chapter 8
How to Get Involved in Health Policy Advocacy

If you can write a letter, send an e-mail or leave a brief phone message - just like you do for your patients, friends or family - you can "do" health policy advocacy. It’s that easy. Being involved in advocacy is important. If elected officials do not hear from oncology nurses, they and their staffs will not be aware of our issues or concerns. With a brief phone call, e-mail, note, or letter, oncology nurses can educate Congress about the issues impacting the nursing community and people with cancer.

The first step to get connected to ONS’s health policy activities is to sign-up for ONStat. ONStat is the ONS grassroots electronic advocacy network through which ONS members can contact their members of Congress to advance the ONS Health Policy Agenda at the national level. ONStat makes it fast, easy, and effective for ONS members to weigh-in with their policy makers by providing template messages and allowing for them to be linked automatically to their elected officials' e-mail addresses just by entering their zip codes. (To view the zip code link on the Legislative Action Center, visit www.ons.lac.) Participation in ONStat is easy and requires only a minimal time commitment and a willingness to take action on the policies that affect people with cancer. If you opt to participate, you will be contacted when one of your elected officials is faced with a decision affecting oncology nurses and people with cancer.

To find out who represents you in Congress as well as to familiarize yourself with priority ONS issues and the current ONS Health Policy Agenda, visit the ONS Legislative Action Center at www.onslac.org. While there, you have the opportunity to click on links that connect you to the latest health policy information, electronic newsletters, e-mail action alerts, and helpful advocacy tips. If you are not already a member of ONStat, be sure to sign up at www.ons.org/lac/onstat.shtml.

Please help us recruit more oncology nurses to health policy advocacy and ONStat by sending the link to the online enrollment form to your friends and colleagues and/or by distributing enrollment forms at your next ONS chapter meeting. Mail completed forms to Jennifer DiVito, at the ONS National Office, 125 Enterprise Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15275. To download a PDF of the form, click here.

Also, the ONS Legislative Action Center links you to important Action Alerts, as well as gets you connected to your State Health Policy Liaison who can help you become engaged in ONS health policy advocacy efforts. For additional health policy resources, visit the Health Policy Tool Kit Resources (http://www.ons.org/LAC/pdf/Resources.pdf).

If you are not registered to vote, the League of Women Voters Web site allows men or women to register online at https://electionimpact.votenet.com/lwv/voterreg/index.cfm or check out the Health Policy Tool Kit Resources (http://www.ons.org/LAC/pdf/Resources.pdf) for additional links.

“All that nurses need to make a difference is a personal story, relevant data, and their own professional experiences to illustrate to policy makers the impact of their decisions,” Coletti says. “Legislators love and trust nurses. Nurses speaking to elected officials and their staff really does make a difference.”
Mary Ann Coletti, RN
ONS Missouri State Health Policy Liaison

The Health Policy Tool Kit is a project of the Oncology Nursing Society.