Are you attending the Annual Meeting in
Boston?
Are you interested in learning how you can
tackle a specific
local or state legislative issue?
Attend our FREE workshop, entitled, “The Nuts and Bolts of Political Action:
How to Effect Change at the Local, State and Federal Level”
Space is limited – Sign up now!!
During the Annual Meeting in Salt Lake
City, members stated in session after session how important political action
is for midwives and how unprepared many feel in this endeavor. In addition,
the #1 valued service identified by members in the recent ACNM Values
Proposition Survey was representing the profession to federal agencies and
members of Congress.
As a response to these requests, on Friday,
May 23rd at the ACNM Annual Meeting in Boston, the Government
Affairs Committee and ACNM Staff will be hosting a ˝ day workshop (from 8 am
to 11:30 am) which will provide the basics of local, state, and federal
political action for novices and experts alike. This workshop will briefly
review how to generate health policy and the 2008 ACNM Legislative Agenda.
The focus of the session will be highlighting state and federal legislative
issues affecting CNMs/CMs, including direct entry midwifery licensure,
prescriptive authority, physician supervision language, Medicare
reimbursement, professional liability, advanced practice nursing education
funding, and scope of practice/challenges from AMA. Effective techniques
for addressing these issues will be reviewed. Participants will break into
work groups to discuss strategies for tackling these issues and share their
action plan with the group. A guest speaker from a federal or state
legislative office will be invited to speak regarding a specific maternal
and child health policy issue.
Our suggestion is that chapters consider
sending a midwifery student, Chapter Chair, Chapter Legislative Contact or
any energetic CNM/CM considering legislative advocacy work. Chapters may
want to consider paying for Thursday night’s hotel expenses, as this
workshop is offered prior to the official beginning of the annual meeting on
Saturday.
Attending this workshop would be a win-win
for both the chapter members and the individual CNM/CM, who could then
return to the chapter well-informed and ready to teach fellow chapter
members strategies for tackling challenging legislative issues at both the
local and state level. And the CNM/CM could get free CEUs!! If
questions, please do not hesitate to email Heather Bradford, CNM, Chair of
the ACNM Government Affairs Committee at hbradford@comcast.net.
