'Unleash the Energy'

Activists, Professors Try to Use Their Own Sphere of Influence to Affect U.S. Healthcare Policy and Improve Patient Care Kathleen Dracup Dean UCSF School of Nursing For Kathleen Dracup, one of the most important things a nursing student can learn is how to voice his or her opinions and be an advocate for patients. Since coming to UCSF in 2000, she has taught future nurses to express their views on the most topical healthcare issues of the day. Dracup, 65, teaches Issues in Nursing, a required semesterlong course that explores contemporary healthcare trends such as universal healthcare, workplace politics, emerging ethical issues and hospital design related to patient safety. Among the requirements are writing a letter to the editor and an opinion piece on a chosen subject. Students must also debate one another on healthcare issues such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or physician-assisted suicide. Guest lecturers include hospital architects and presentations from students who participated in a day of lobbying in Sacramento, Calif. "When I came to UCSF, I completely redesigned the class to focus on helping students attain a voice in nurse advocacy because I want them to express the view of nursing clearly when they work on interdisciplinary teams," Dracup says. "Very often, nurses may be the only ones at the table focused on the family network-the family issues such as finances and social systems that affect patient outcomes." Dracup, who has authored more than 300 papers on cardiac care in her 35-year career as a cardiovascular nurse and university professor, first studied the needs of spouses of terminally ill cardiac patients, and has tested interventions to lower emotional distress of heart disease patients and their families. Nurses have inherited a long tradition of being "the handmaids of physicians," and typically did not feel comfortable expressing contrary viewpoints. But all that has changed, and today, Dracup says, "it's important that nurses introduced to the profession understand that advocacy role." Lisa Hale, who is taking the Issues in Nursing course this semester, says Dracup encourages students to use that voice, especially when it comes to the crisis of access and the uninsured. "Nurses are such a huge part of the healthcare system," Hale says. "The course impresses on us the need to speak up at this time." (Excerpted from a Modern Healthcare Magazine article published April 28, 2008)