AAHFN Advocacy - American Association of Heart Failure Nurses

AAHFN Advocacy

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AAHFN Advocacy Committee Purpose Statement 2025-2026

Empowering advocacy for AAHFN nurses and patients to improve patient outcomes, strengthen the nursing workforce, and promote equitable access to quality healthcare.

Strategies:

Advocate for nurses on key legislative issues through a coalition with other professional organizations
Assess national, state, and local policies for alignment with AAHFN's mission and goals and identify priority legislation for our community.
Influence federal and state policies that enhance patient safety or nursing practice by building coalitions and engaging with legislators.
Increase awareness within the Heart Failure community about current healthcare issues and policies.
Mobilize grassroots efforts to boost nursing involvement in advocacy by educating nurses on contacting legislators and creating opportunities for engagement.
Reduce healthcare disparities through targeted advocacy in partnership with other community organizations to amplify the patient voice.

This will be done:

Presence on AAHFN social media and website
Contributions to the quarterly AAHFN publication, “The Connection”
Presentations at AAHFN annual meetings and Enduring Continuing Education
Developing grassroots efforts for members to engage directly with legislators on key issues

Goals for 2025-2026:

Influence state and federal policies supporting the AAFHN mission
a. Action steps: Identify top legislation in each legislative session and create community awareness through the website and social media of those issues
b. Create opportunities through direct links for members to reach out to Congress on these key issues.
Increase community awareness of nursing’s role in advocacy
a. Action step: social media campaign with nurse advocate spotlight, connections articles, webinars
Grassroots mobilization: grow nurse participation in advocacy
a. Action step: create an online advocacy toolkit for templates for contacting legislators, build text or email alerts for urgent policy issues
Advocate for policies addressing social determinants of health
a. Action step: Collaborate with NCC
Continue to create community education on advocacy initiatives

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A MEMBER OF THE ADVOCACY COMMITTEE TO BE AN ADVOCATE!

As nurses, we advocate for our patients to receive the care and services needed to improve their quality of life within our respected work areas. You can utilize your skills to communicate with our nation’s leaders to share your expertise to ensure our patients as well as our nursing colleagues receive the support they deserve!

Read this article on Nurses Advocating for Nurses here!

Reach out to your legislators and introduce yourself as a constituent that can assist them with bills related to patient care and nursing. Remember, you are an expert and they will appreciate your generosity and support!

How to find your U.S. House of Representative