Interview with the Texas Nurses Association’s Cindy Zolnierek, Part Two

In Part Two of the DailyNurse interview with Texas Nursing Association CEO Cindy Zolnierek, PhD, RN, CAE, we discussed the importance of including a nursing perspective when forming healthcare policies and the TNA’s goals for the coming year.

DailyNurse: The TNA seems to be very committed to encouraging nurses to get involved in policy and civic action. You have an annual Nurses Day at the Capitol event, and have been instrumental in getting certain laws passed.

Zolnierek: “We’re very engaged in policy. In fact, that is that's kind of what we believe our niche is, because there are over 100 nursing organizations in Texas. Every specialty nursing group, school nurses, nurse executives, faculty members, ER nurses, ICU nurses, they all have their own groups. The TNA is more generalist, but we are particularly involved in policy around health care, and specifically nursing. Things that affect nursing and nursing work environments, because if nurses have the right work environment, they can accomplish great things, but often they're not in charge of their environment. So we work to establish laws and regulations that help support a healthy and positive practice environment for nurses. That said, we've been very engaged. [The TNA is part of] a healthcare industry taskforce with about 14 health care organizations such as the Medical Association, the Hospital Association, US Homecare, long-term care, and other groups. We also work with representatives from the governor's office and the commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services, John Hellerstedt, who is basically our state COVID czar.

DN: What are your current legislative priorities? Are you also working with nurse practitioners to expand their scope of practice? That would seem to be a no-brainer in Texas.

Zolnierek: [Chuckles] “Yes, we we work very closely with them. In fact, we're part of an APRN alliance made up of CRNAs, nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, and the TNA. We all coordinate efforts around advancing nursing and removing barriers to advancement. We’re also part of a Texas coalition for health care access that is trying to remove barriers to advanced nursing practice. Again, it should be a no brainer, all the evidence is there, it's really more of a power and philosophical issue that doesn't really serve the public interest. So, this legislative session, we are going to again try to remove barriers to advanced practice nurses. We are also working for legislation to ensure that when nurses are quarantined or off sick due to contracting Covid, that it's assumed that they contracted it at work, so they're able to access benefits, and not have to use their own paid time off. We also have a bill about workplace violence. One in every two nurses in Texas will experience physical violence in their career, so we really feel a need for organizations to have violence prevention plans in place. Overall, our legislature has been very supportive of funding for nursing or nursing shortage reduction programs. It will be a tough budget year, but we really need to hang on to that money so we can continue to produce the nurses that the state needs. So those are some of our priority efforts this coming session.”

DN: Normally, TNA’s Nurses Day at the Capitol brings nurses to Austin to visit legislators, take basic and advanced classes on legislation, and attend presentations on public health and policy in the state. (Last year, one of the key speakers was Mary Wakefield, who has just joined the Biden-Harris HHS transition team). This year, the TNA Capitol visit is virtual. How is that going to work?

Zolnierek: “The upside [to being virtual] is we can have much greater participation. We can do different things. So we're having events all month long. We're having legislators visit with nurses in our region. So it's like their representative, their senator, that they'll be interacting with. So we're really excited.”

DN: Do you think the public has an accurate understanding of nursing and what nurses do?

Zolnierek: “[Before the pandemic,] nurses were rarely in the media. And even now, when we talk about nursing or nursing education, there is little mention of nursing research and findings; [people tend to associate scientific research with] physicians. Nurses have been the most trusted profession in the annual Gallup poll for 20 years, so how is it that we've not been looked to to inform the public? I have to say that during COVID, we [TNA leadership] have had well over 100 interviews with the media, and they're interested in nurses and how are nurses doing. I'm also getting questions now about what advice do we have for the public? What do we think about the vaccine or more scientific questions that aren't just nurse-centric? And that is very welcome. Because people see the hands-on care, but they don't see what's going on in our heads, how we assess symptoms or a change in condition, reactions to different kinds of medications or treatments. There's a lot going on, and we do have a strong scientific background.”

By: Koren Thomas