Case Study Questions 1 are for  the state of Florida .

1) This case is a good example of nursing power through building partnerships and coalitions that have similar missions. Can you identify two coalitions that your state nursing association actively works with? Can you describe the policy issues that these coalitions address?   

2) Case Study Questions 1. Which of Lt. Governor Hall-Long’s list of nursing accomplishments played a role in her journey in politics?  What knowledge and characteristics are natural components of nurses’ professional
backgrounds that help them seek a public service life? How can a political career unfold synergistically with a nurse’s ambition to run for political office? Why is “running for office” described by politicians as a challenging personal experience? information: 

CASE STUDY A Career in Politics to Role Model: Bethany Hall-Long’s Nursing Pathway to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office in Delaware Veronica D. Feeg

A career in politics might be the aspiration for a college student in political science or pre-law, but is seldom one for a nursing student. In fact, courses in health policy or politics may be absent or scarce in nursing undergraduate or graduate curricula, and the notion to become active in politics is unlikely. In fact, Bethany Hall-Long, first woman Lieutenant Governor of Delaware, would be the first to admit that it was not in her plans in the beginning of her personal journey. In fact, she attributes her current position, stated with candor in her numerous inspirational presentations to nurses over the years, to her tardiness for class when the only seminar topic left for students to choose was about nurses in politics—and she was “stuck with it” (personal interview Hall-Long, 2017). Although she only learned after she won her first race in 2002 that her great-grandfather had been a member of the Delaware House of Representatives, she had little kitchen table discussion about politics growing up. In fact, her farm upbringing and spiritual roots in rural Delaware taught her about taking care of people— “where much is given, much is expected, and it is how you treat the least among us” (personal interview Hall-Long, 2017)—but not about public policy. What is noteworthy in this model career in politics, which she defines as “public service,” is her early commitment to caring for the homeless in community health nursing, which became the foundation of her academic career: to understand policy and serve “the many.” She attributes her incremental successes, beginning from the day when she was late to her graduate school class, to being coached by mentors such as Catherine Malloy in Charleston, South Carolina, with whom she continued to work throughout her doctoral program in nursing administration and policy at George Mason University. Using what she learned from her study of health policy, she became active in her local city government and organizations such as the League of Women Voters and a federal health clinic that served the homeless. In these experiences, public policy was “made real” and prompted her continued volunteer service in other nonprofit organizations. She claims that she learned from working with these groups that as nurses, we do not have to stay in our lane of just working with other nurses. She learned how to organize, to use her health knowledge to work for things that people care about, and to build coalitions of groups for action. She says that a leader at the League of Women Voters told her that she “had what it takes—drive, personality, and skills—to think about running for office,” which she tucked away at that time. With her husband in the military at the time, she moved to Washington D.C. Entering the doctoral program, still moonlighting as a nurse, she continued to grow into real public policy experiences that were fueled by taking care of homeless veterans and at-risk populations. To make a real impact, she believed that we had to elect nurses who could make a difference, but she realized she needed experience to be taken seriously. Along the way, it was nurse mentors who connected her with Capitol Hill opportunities on an assignment that would influence a dissertation and numerous other connections, including Bob Dole and Ted Kennedy from a U.S. Senate Committee. While a student, she served as a U.S. Senate Fellow and a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy analyst for the Secretary’s Commission on Nursing. In her own words, she was not afraid to pick up the phone, encouraged by her mentor, and ask if the national commission studying the nursing shortage needed a policy graduate student—for issues that matter to nurses—jobs, environment, transportation, and environmental justice, as well as health care in general and women’s health in particular. Returning as a faculty member to Delaware, her home state, she decided that her public health and health policy student assignments gave her reasons to run because: (a) she desired to make a significant contribution; (b) she had been well prepared to understand process and as a nurse, she already understood the needs; and (c) the opportunity presented itself to run for the Delaware General Assembly. In her own words, her public life since 2000 did not begin smoothly—she won the primary but lost her first race by 1% in a race against a long-term male incumbent. But she says that she learned from that experience, pulled herself up by her bootstraps, ran again in 2002, and won in a tough election against the local school board president. She served continuously as the first nurse elected to the Delaware General Assembly from 2003 to 2017, as a member of the Delaware House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009, and then in the Delaware Senate from 2009 to 2017. She lists among her accomplishments cosponsoring a range of legislation including the Governor’s Cancer Council and the Health Fund Advisory (Master Tobacco Settlement) Committee. She was the prime House sponsor of legislation creating a cancer consortium for Delaware. She cosponsored a blue ribbon task force to analyze the problem of chronic illness in Delaware and make policy recommendations. She cosponsored needle exchange legislation that has made an impact on HIV infection rates, and she updated the state’s indoor tanning laws to prohibit children under age 14 years from using tanning beds and for those age 14 to 18 years to require parental consent (Hall-Long, 2007, 2012). Among her legislative accomplishments during her Senate years, she chaired several important committees including health care, community and county affairs, transportation committee, veterans committee, and insurance committee, among others, where nurses can play a significant role. Her political campaigns and subsequent elections over these years are remarkable (see TABLE 1-1), but she acknowledges that it is not easy to run for office. She describes “running” for office as just that: experiences good and bad teach us how to continue on a path if we are passionate free. This opportunity gave her access to the four presidents of the Tri-Council for Nursing (American Nurses Association [ANA], National League for Nursing [NLN], American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], and American Organization of Nurse Executives [AONE]) at age 25. She grew friendships and experience that laid the framework for her dissertation. Lt. Governor Hall-Long’s doctoral dissertation is noteworthy: A Policy Process Model: Analysis of the Nurse Education Act (NEA) of 1991–1992. Along with her work in politics, she studied the policy process, knowing clearly that public service mandates an understanding of public policy. This exploratory case study examined a theoretical model and applied it to explain the Tri-Council for Nursing’s political efforts during the reauthorization of the Nurse Education Act that year. She interviewed members of the Tri-Council for Nursing, U.S. Division of Nursing, and U.S. Congressional staff, and examined 75 public documents and records as secondary sources of data. Her findings supported the conceptual categories and organization of the model and its ability to discern differences among political actors and corresponding policy stages. This grounding and depth of understanding would serve her well in her subsequent political journey, recognizing fully that in order to improve services or make substantial change for the health of constituents, one needs to know the underlying policy and politics that are successful. Over these years, she became active with the Democratic Party, working on political campaigns and serving to connect with nonprofit organizations and groups. She worked on community issues that were important and continue today: homelessness, housing, jobs, economic opportunity, and women’s and children’s issues, particularly infant mortality prevention through improving access for disadvantaged young mothers. She developed relationships in the community and in politics. She says that it was working with Mark Warner, who became Governor of Virginia and is currently a U.S. Senator, that she got her grassroots experience on the campaign trail together. She believed that she could enlighten and inform policymakers who do not understand nursing or health care. To most politicians, nurses are all the same and she was determined to be at the table to educate about issues, particularly infant mortality prevention through improving access for disadvantaged young mothers. She developed relationships in the community and in politics. She says that it was working with Mark Warner, who became Governor of Virginia and is currently a U.S. Senator, that she got her grassroots experience on the campaign trail together. She believed that she could enlighten and inform policymakers who do not understand nursing or health care. To most politicians, nurses are all the same and she was determined to be at the table to educate about