Workplace Advocacy has long been the focus of the NHNA Commission on Professional Affairs. No professional issue compares to the threats posed by the nursing shortage and the impact that shortage can have on the daily lives of New Hampshire's Nurses.

Workplace Advocacy contributes toward reducing the impact of the nursing shortage by providing nurses with the tools necessary to untangle those difficult workplace problems that distract from patient care, frustrate the efforts of the professional nurse, and can lead to medical complications for the patient and injury for the nurse.

Without tools for solving the day-to-day nagging problems that collectively make the practice of nursing more difficult, nurses can feel powerless to improve their professional lives. On the other hand, once empowered to stimulate change, nurses are unstoppable in the effort to make the practice of nursing what they hoped it would be when choosing nursing as a career.

NHNA has produced a handbook for nurses to use in managing change in the workplace using collaborative problem solving. Copies of this handbook will be available for purchase shortly.

NHNA also maintains a library of information on workplace injury, allergy, OSHA standards, employment rights and many other topics for nurses to use in collaborative problem solving.

One of the most recent projects of the Commission on Professional Affairs has been the development of a presentation series designed to teach a step-by-step method for problem solving, and applying that method to an every day problem in nursing: Staffing. To arrange for these presentations at your facility, contact NHNA!

2007 © Copyright New Hampshire Nurses' Association . All rights are reserved