Nurse matters: assuming your role in advocacy.

I hope others will consider joining those of us in nursing who have taken the leap into public policy. Being involved in the public policy process is an integral role to nursing and a mechanism for excellence. Our public policy role is just as important as serving as a clinician, researcher, or educator.

Nursing and public policy: a tool for excellence in education, practice, and research.

Complex social and health policy issues face our nation and profession, and proactive participation in the public policy arena is a key to excellence in clinical practice, scholarship, and education for nursing. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the value of the nursing profession's public policy involvement. Specifically, a case example of the author's experiences as a nurse-legislator at the state level is provided.

Using the Omaha System to document the wellness needs of the elderly.

Capturing health promotion, education, and disease prevention outreach service data and outcomes is difficult. The rapid pace of health fairs that offer free health services challenges record keeping. To address this issue, the University of Delaware Nursing Center developed short, efficient survey tools using the Omaha System of documentation.

Partners in action: a public health program for baccalaureate nursing students.

Because of the current state of health systems changes and bioterrorist threats, the time is ripe for expanded community-based partnerships. The project described in this article, titled Partners in Action: University of Delaware and Delaware Division of Public Health, created a replicable academic-public health partnership. This new partnership developed undergraduate public health nursing clinical experiences and addressed the documented public health resource and service needs across the state of Delaware.