DNP student Ryan Davis, CRNA, MSN and Sean Flaherty ’25 (NURS), have a passion for advocating, on a federal basis, for nurses and the profession itself.

Accompanied by the School of Nursing’s Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson, Ph.D., RN, FAHA, FHFSA, FAAN, these two students were able to take that passion to the Capitol where they attended the American Association of Colleges of Nursing annual Student Policy Summit.

Established in 1969, the AACN currently represents over 875 schools of nursing in universities nationwide, UConn being one of them.

The conference was held on March 30-31 in Washington, DC, open to baccalaureate and graduate nursing students. Only two students from each AACN member institution can attend and permission from the dean is acquired.

“Nurses play a crucial role in health policy advocacy, influencing healthcare legislation and shaping the future of healthcare,” said Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson, PhD, RN, FAHA, FHFSA, FAAN. “The Student Policy Summit provides student nurses with the unique opportunity to experience how nurses can effectively advocate for changes that benefit patients, their communities, and the broader healthcare system.”

Davis, a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) was nominated by her advisor Joy Elwell, DNP, FNP-BC, CNE, FAAN, FAANP, based on her DNP project which deals with recognizing CRNAs as advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) in her home state of New York, which is the only state in the nation that does not recognize them as such.

The conference was an invaluable experience for Davis. She was able to witness a panelist who, like her, is a CRNA. Seeing him advocate on a federal level inspired and motivated her to continue doing the same.

“Having these people in bigger platforms and on the federal level, just advocating for our profession is really nice to see,” Davis said.

Like Davis, Flaherty has always had an interest in the legislative side of nursing, and after being nominated to go to the conference by the dean, he couldn’t say no.

“I looked at this and I thought what a great opportunity, to go to Washington DC and do something completely different than what we traditionally are doing in this four-year program, which is nursing completely at the bedside,” he said.

Sharing similar remarks to Davis, Flaherty said the conference was very insightful and showed him a side to the nursing profession that he is not used to seeing.

It was humbling to see “how complex the field of nursing is and how many different alleys you can go down and still be extremely successful and influential,” Flaherty said.

“It sounds so simple,” he added, but it was really “learning about the government.”

Beyond the Bedside

A key takeaway for both Davis and Flaherty was how nursing can go beyond the bedside.

“Hearing some of the speakers and the panels, how they advocate and what they advocate for is just so inspiring for me to want to take it beyond my practice of doing nurse anesthesia and take it more politics and health policy,” said Davis.

The importance of advocacy and being exposed to multiple nursing avenues was a crucial part in the students’ experience at the conference.

“To be involved in the other side of nursing, this legislative making process with all of the rules and regulations, the laws and the practices of what we [as nurses] practice by was really neat to kind of open my eyes to that side of nursing,” Flaherty said.

Using Your Voice

The conference taught Davis a lot – how to speak to legislators, write letters, and follow up – but what she really learned, was how to use her voice.

“What I got from it in terms of applying it to my DNP project and even as a UConn student is to not be afraid to use my voice when it comes to advocating for something that I believe in or something that my profession needs, such as being APRNs,” she said.

They had the opportunity to visit with Connecticut Senators and Representatives “to discuss the importance of support for nursing, nursing research, and nursing education,” said Dickson.

Specifically, they discussed the importance of the PRECEPT Nurses Act and the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs.

The PRECEPT Nurses Act is a bill that provides a tax credit for nurses “who serve at least 200 hours as a clinical preceptor to nursing students, advanced practice nursing students, or newly hired licensed nurses in a Health Professional Shortage Area,” according to the AACN website.

The Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs address nursing workforce demand including education, retention, practice, and recruitment.

Flaherty also advocated for university funding. As an out-of-state student from upstate NY, he knows how crucial financial aid is in supporting the nursing workforce.

There’s plenty of people who want to be in the workforce and continue their education in the nursing field, but they can’t afford the education of a state school, said Flaherty. “If you’re going to talk about how we have this nursing shortage, the quick solution would be to get more nurses,” he said. “And how do we do that? It’s funding students to be able to have that education because the number one barrier is going to be the cost.”