Interview with TNA’s Cindy Zolnierek: Part Two

In Part Two of the DailyNurse interview with Texas Nursing Association (TNA) CEO Cindy Zolnierek, PhD, RN, CAE, we discuss the importance of including a nursing perspective when forming healthcare policies and the TNA’s goals for the coming year. (Click here to read Part One, which covers the impact of Covid-19 on the Texas healthcare system.)

DailyNurse: The TNA seems to be very committed to encouraging nurses to get involved in policy and civic action. You have an annual Nurses Day at the Capitol event, and have been instrumental in getting certain laws passed.

Zolnierek: “We’re very engaged in policy. In fact, that is that’s kind of what we believe our niche is, because there are over 100 nursing organizations in Texas. Every specialty nursing group, school nurses, nurse executives, faculty members, ER nurses, ICU nurses, they all have their own groups. The TNA is more generalist, but we are particularly involved in policy around health care, and specifically nursing. Things that affect nursing and nursing work environments, because if nurses have the right work environment, they can accomplish great things, but often they’re not in charge of their environment. So we work to establish laws and regulations that help support a healthy and positive practice environment for nurses.

That said, we’ve been very engaged. [The TNA is part of] a healthcare industry taskforce with about 14 health care organizations such as the Medical Association, the Hospital Association, US Homecare, long-term care, and other groups. We also work with representatives from the governor’s office and the commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services, John Hellerstedt, who is basically our state COVID czar.

DN: What are your current legislative priorities? Are you also working with nurse practitioners to expand their scope of practice? That would seem to be a no-brainer in Texas.

Zolnierek: [Chuckles] “Yes, we we work very closely with them. In fact, we’re part of an APRN alliance made up of CRNAs, nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, and the TNA. We all coordinate efforts around advancing nursing and removing barriers to advancement. We’re also part of a Texas coalition for health care access that is trying to remove barriers to advanced nursing practice. Again, it should be a no brainer, all the evidence is there, it’s really more of a power and philosophical issue that doesn’t really serve the public interest.

So, this legislative session, we are going to. . . Click here to read the full story on our TexasNurse page.

Visit our special TexasNurse page for live virtual visits with recruiters at Texas hospitals and nursing schools and more stories about nursing in the state!

Author
Recent Posts

Koren Thomas

Associate Editor at DailyNurse

Koren Thomas (pictured with Assistant) was the associate editor of DailyNurse from late 2019 through July, 2022—and she was not joking about the "issue postage stamps saluting US nurses" idea. Send your article ideas, submissions, Nurse of the Week suggestions, comments, and corrections to the current Editor in Chief at [email protected].