Nursing advocacy at the local level: An Arizona success story

Arizona Nurse, Jan 2003 by Link, Denise

4) Nurse practitioners are the primary health care provider for many citizens in Arizona and Maricopa County. Limiting the type of health care provider from whom students in TUHSD may receive care creates an unreasonable barrier to health care for those students and families.

5) As a group, adolescents who participate in interscholastic sports are a healthy population that does not routinely access the health care system. Sports physicals offer an excellent opportunity to perform periodic health screening, to provide education regarding the avoidance of tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, and to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors in adolescents.

6) A comprehensive health history and physical examination requires more time than that available in the average "sports physical clinic" offered in the schools at the beginning of each sports season. Nurse practitioners in the community have the time and the expertise to determine that a student is fit to participate in interscholastic sports.

The board members listened attentively to each presentation and asked the nursing representatives questions at the end of the session. After the two required public readings of the amended policy, the TUHSD school board unanimously passed the new policy on October 9, 2002. The policy now states:

A student shall not be allowed to practice or compete in interscholastic athletics until there is on file with the principal or his/her designee a record of a physical examination performed by a doctor of medicine (M.D.), osteopathic physician (D.O.) or certified registered nurse practitioner (N.P.) licensed to practice, or a certified physician's assistant (PA-C) registered by the Joint Board of Medical Examiners and the Osteopathic Examiners in Medicine and Surgery. A physical examination is required annually. (TUHSD, 1-344a IGD(3)-R).

The efforts of this group of nurses on behalf of consumers and nursing is an example of the good that can be accomplished if we remain vigilant and are willing to become involved. Nurses throughout the state should check school policies and other local health care regulatory documents to be sure that nursing is represented. We need to be the policy watchdogs in our own communities. When issues come to light, we can then alert our professional organizations and call on colleagues for assistance in addressing the situation in an organized and professional manner. In the case of the TUHSD, a few email messages and telephone conversations and attendance at one mid-week school board meeting were all that were required for a positive outcome for both the public and for nursing. As a result, a restrictive policy that had a significant local impact on health care access and the image of nursing among consumers was replaced with one that allows clients to have access to a full range of health care providers and contains language that recognizes the expanded scope of nursing practice.

Denise Link, RN, DNSc, WHNP