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Nursing Day at the Legislature (Feb 26, 2021)

N430 Capstone
Questionnaire

Name: Jane Horne

Did you: _____ Attended on 2/26, or ___X____ Listened to the recording?

Directions:
1) Please address the following questions
2) This exercise is “pass/fail” (Incomplete or complete)
3) “Pass” status required to apply 8 hours for “Professional Development”.
4) These will be corrected promptly after the due date so that you know your status.
Expectations:
- You need not write a novel, but commentary needs to have specifics and substance.
- Only 1-3 sentences will be inadequate when asked to explain, etc.

Keep paragraphs short. Avoid run-ons……

(…that means 3-5 sentences per paragraph)
1) Have you ever been to the Utah Capital - the actual buildings? Yes / No
- If so, your impression(s)?

No, I have never been there. I have only driven past. I was looking forward to seeing the inside, but due
to the COVID-19 situation I was not able to attend in person. I also worked the night before and the
night of the meeting, so I am very grateful there was a recording of the meeting.

2) Could you ever see yourself “going into politics”? Yes / May be / Horrors, never!
- Explain:

I do not particularly like politics, so probably not. I do not like confrontation or arguing with people, so
politics are not something I enjoy very much. Politics has never been a topic of interest to me and I just
do not see myself participating in anything related to politics.
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3) Was there anything specifically from the discussions on Feb 26 which influenced you “away
from” from politics, or something which “drew” you more toward being involved in politics.?
- Explain:

In my opinion the meeting was a little hard to follow because I did not know all the names of bills and
all they entailed. I think this influenced me away from politics. Something that pulled me into politics
was the fact that most of the participants were nurses and are or have in the past worked in the field.

4) What are your general impressions of the speakers? (Senators/House Members/UNA)

(Be specific: Do they seem sincere or not? Knew what they were talking about or not? Gave a good
spin? Were real? Care about what they do or not? Competent? Etc.). Explain:

My general impression was that these were people who really care about nursing and the medical field.
They all knew what they were talking about and seemed very confident. I only recognized the class
guest speaker who came last week, Diane Forster Burke. I felt like they were all sincere and gave a good
spin with their own added personal shot stories to the discussion that made the bill easier to understand
because it was applied to real life scenarios.

5) Any particular person and/or issue that impressed/especially interested you?

- Explain:

The person that stood out to me the most was Diane Forster Burke, because we had the pleasure of
having her for a guest speaker in our online classroom. I thought the issue about keeping track of
vaccination records was very intriguing because I was curious of how hospitals and clinics all kept track
of who got which vaccine and when. I had my own personal issue with this when moving form Florida
to Utah 5 years ago. We could not find my records and the hospital I got them at did not keep records for
that length of time and were transferring to an online system. So, I had to receive some vaccines even
though I was already vaccinated when I was little.

6) Something that you learned. / What surprised you?

- Explain:

I learned many things from listening to this zoom meeting. I learned about all of the bills that are
currently in the agenda like the vaccine tracking, gender pay gap, at home rape kits, etc. It surprised me
that everyone was easy to understand and they explained the bills in a way that they could apply them to
nursing everyday life.

7) Choose 1 bill presented (or choose another subject) which you believe it important:
- Create a brief note which would be appropriate to write to a representative expressing
your support or opposition. Use a format that is not jumbled.
- Use the guidelines for the type of note which was discussed by one of the speakers.
- (If referring to a specific bill, include the number and name)
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7a) Bill (or topic) #1:

House Bill 117- Discussed by Diane Forster Burke

This bill discusses the VACCINE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. The issue at hand was adults not
being able to keep all their vaccine records the way pediatric patients are able to. I will keep all the
records in one place to help keep track and to help prevent over vaccinating adults, which in turn will
help cost Medicare less money. I mentioned above why I believe this bill is important and helpful.

See Letter Below Please.

8) Was it worthwhile to attend this Day at the Legislature? Yes / No

- Explain

Yes, but I believe it would have been more engaging and exciting if it were in person. I think it was
worth listening to once, but I am not sure if I will do it again, only because I am not a big fan of politics.

9) Any suggestions how the UNA could have done this differently given an online format was
required?
- Explain: (Note a few strong and/or weak points)

The positive side of it being online was that it worked with everyone’s schedule. I think they should
keep an online option even when Covid-19 is not as prominent. I think it will have more attendees and
more listeners because nurses can listen when they have some free time if the time of this meeting
interferes with their work schedule. One weak point I noticed was that I missed out on seeing the actual
building and process of this meeting, which I feel like was a little disappointing.
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Letter to Representative (#7):

Dear Representative Raymond P. Ward,

I am currently in my fourth and final semester of nursing school at Westminster college. I

attended the online zoom Nursing Day at the Legislature meeting on Friday, February 26th 2021. I first
heard about Utah House Bill 117 when Diane Forster Burke discussed it during the meeting for my
capstone synthesis nursing class. I wanted to write to you in support of the Utah House Bill 117. I
believe it is a wonder idea to create this bill to help keep track of all adult vaccines given. It is similar to
how vaccines are kept track of in pediatric patients. I think this bill will help Medicare save money in
the long run and help decrease the rates of over vaccination. I think it will be super beneficial to the
healthcare industry, especially to nurses. Nurses usually ask patients if they have received their vaccines
for the year as primary preventative medicine. This tracking system will help provide nurses with
information on their patients on which vaccines they have already received and help provide only the
ones they need. I personally experienced the dilemma of having my vaccines not being kept track of
when I moved from Florida to Utah 5 years ago. My family couldn’t locate them and I was not able to
prove I was vaccinated. I had to be revaccinated in order to attend school. I also believe it will be useful
with the elder population. I think it will help because it will make sure they don’t get vaccinated more
than necessary especially if they aren’t able to remember if they have received the vaccine already. I
wanted to thank you for all of your hard work and effort in helping the healthcare system become more
innovative.

Sincerely,
Westminster student nurse Jane Horne