ANA-MAINE Center for Maine Nurses
 Legislative E-mail/Phone Campaigns
In 2003, when there were major threats of health care budgets cuts in Augusta and Washington DC, ANA-Maine formed the ANA-Maine Legislative Buddy Program. The initial idea was basically pretty straight-forward. Since most policymakers do not know what a nurse is or what one actually does, ANA-Maine helped to align a nurse ‘buddy’ with a Maine legislator. That nurse was asked to make initial contact either in person, by phone or via e-mail. Then, whenever something came up in the legislature potentially affecting nursing practice or patient care, these nurse ‘buddies’ were contacted by e-mail, received ‘talking points’ on the issue(s) and asked to contact their assigned legislator and advocate for their nursing practice and high quality patient care outcomes.
Over the course of the first two years this initiative was in place, approximately 250 of Maine’s nurses offered to be a legislative buddy. Joe Niemczura, ANA-Maine’s first Board President and founder of this initiative, related that this program was extremely necessary and very successful in promoting the ‘face and voice of nurses’ in at least two significant pieces of legislation in 2003.
What ANA-Maine has realized over time is how powerful electronic communications can be for nurses to voice their concerns and positions on key Maine legislation. Given our busy schedules, it also is an efficient way to articulate what nurses and patients need in this State and be very effective in bringing about the results that needs to be seen.
A case in point: In late December 2005, ANA-Maine engaged in a mass e-mail campaign to encourage the nurses in Maine to contact the members of the Appropriations Committee of the Maine State Legislature. On January 5th this committee was going to consider 37 bills carried over from the last session in terms of funding. On the list was LD 263, the bill to provide an additional $1 million to the university-based schools of nursing. In addition, at the end of the last legislative session there was support to add an additional $700,000 to include the Community College nursing programs. ANA-Maine felt it was critical to mobilize the efforts of not only the 250 Legislative Buddies, but also another 1750 nurses we knew of by their email addresses.
What happened? ANA-Maine expresses a very heartfelt thanks to all the nurses who responded and joined this e-mail campaign. We received word that there was “great feedback” from the nurses of Maine who responded to their legislators in this very special way. The members of the Appropriations Committee tabled LD 263 until later in the session. By the end of that day, the general sense was that funding for Maine’s University and Community College nursing programs would be included in the Governor's part-two budget, which was to be issued a few weeks later. And then, in Gov. Baldacci’s State of the State Address on January 18th, he said, “We recognize there is a high demand for health care professional education in Maine. My budget provides $750,000 to educate more nurses at both the University of Maine and the Community College System.” This is yet another demonstration of how Maine’s nurses can make themselves heard and help to affect the changes and improvements that are needed for themselves, future nurses and the patients and families of this great State. And it also shows how ANA-Maine can mobilize, inform, and assist you in that cause!
How can I help? For nurses to make just as much of an impact on their legislators in the future, we need your help. By simply sending us your current e-mail address we can keep you up-to-date on what is going on in the Maine State Legislature with regard to issues concerning your practice and other healthcare agenda. We will never share your e-mail address with another person or organization or agency. Your privacy is protected. We also promise to send messages with your e-mail address in a ‘blinded’ way so that others who also receive that message cannot see your address. We intend to only send you messages as things come up that related to nursing practice, education, and healthcare issues and concerns. With this in mind we ask you to please do this:
 | Send to ANA-Maine a confirmation of your current and preferred e-mail address. Do that today and send it to info@anamaine.org. |
| If and when you ever change your screen name or internet provider in the future, simply send us another message (at info@anamaine.org) and we will update our files. This will best assure that you are always informed of significant issues concerning your practice and patient care. |
| If for whatever reason you later decide you do not wish to receive messages like this, simply send us an e-mail at unsubscribe@anamaine.org and ANA-Maine will remove you from our listserv. |
Only together can we continue to make a significant impact on key Maine legislation and make known the issues and concerns of our nursing colleagues and the patients and families we care for.
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