Problem:
Legislators undervalue nurses

Legislators control much of the funding for nursing education, research and residencies, as well as the rules that govern nursing practice, including the regulation of staffing levels, overtime, whistleblowers, and scope of practice. Unfortunately, many legislators do not seem to understand that nurses are highly skilled, autonomous science professionals who are critical to the future of health care. For example, despite that nurses form the largest body of health professionals, nursing research receives less than 1/2 of one percent of the National Instutues of Health budget in the US. The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is the third worst-funded of the 27 NIH Institutes.

Legislators undervalue nurses so they underfund clinical practice, education, research and residencies.

Legislators don't understand what happens when there are enough nurses so they fail to enact safe-staffing ratios.

Legislators are fed misinformation by hospital groups and even some nursing groups about safe staffing and don't know who to believe.

Solutions:

See the:
The Legislator Project
will be aimed at educating legislators that nurses are college-educated autonomous professionals who save lives, do research, need residencies, funding for their schools, and safe staffing.