From Practical to Powerful: How a Nursing Student Health Policy Fellowship Transformed my Political, Professional and Patient Advocacy

Abstract

Health policy education and engaging political opportunities are unfortunately rare in nursing. This article provides a Family Nurse Practitioner’s account of the impact of a novel experiential learning nurse advocacy health policy fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. Ad-ditionally, this commentary details imperative lessons gained in the transformation from unaware politically to becoming a professional asset. Moreover, this highlights how nurses can and should be active in legalizing improvements to promote patient and population health and wellness. A program whose mission is to increase the understanding of the role of the nurse as an advocate is detailed, supply-ing a new lens through which to view and change the profession of nursing while impacting citizen wellbeing and patient outcomes.