Letter to Legislator
- In order to effectively lobby for or against an issue of concern, the professional nurse must be able to be perceived as informed, professional and politically aware. This assignment is intended to help you sharpen those skills and perhaps even make an actual change.
- Please review the resources below prior to submitting your letter.
- Choose an issue of concern to you or your community that is in an obvious way connected to health care. Possibilities include, but are not limited to staffing levels of RNs in various facilities, health education in schools, tobacco cessation campaign efforts, injury prevention, licensure of RNs, and violence against health care workers. You can also choose a current bill on the state level.
- You don’t need to include citations in your letter but you should include facts/figures to support your ideas. For example: if you were writing about the need for children to have physical education in schools you might say “According to the American Academy of Pediatrics children should be involved in physical activities on a daily basis.”
- Draft a formal letter that is intended to be sent to your district legislator. The letter will be submitted here by the due date (see Below)
- While it is not expected that these letters actually be mailed, however, 1 point of extra credit will be awarded to the student for the presentation of a response from the addressee. Responses must be scanned and sent to the instructor via email no later than the last day of class. (This does not include finals week).
- Students should indicate in the letter that they are writing as a student of nursing or as an individual citizen but MUST NOT state that they are writing the letter as a course assignment.
- The letter should be one page maximum.
- The body of the letter should be single-spaced.
