While I believe the best approach would be to have an in-person meeting face to face with my legislator that unfortunately is not going to be feasible. I plan to have a phone conversation with my legislator. For an in person meeting to take place I would need to drive two hours to see her and ensure it is on a day where she has time and I would be off of work. I understand that a phone conversation is not ideal and am hoping that it won’t negatively impact my project. I have already sent out an email to my legislator and have made initial contact already regarding our future conversation. I do feel that in my current role as a clinical nurse leader I have developed my communication skills greatly since starting this role. Many crucial conversations have had to take place with our staff, many of these talks occurring with nurses who have worked there much longer than I and who have trained me! Good mentoring from past leaders and directors have helped me develop my communication skills.
Guttman, 2014 lists the following as high- performance communication, clarity, authenticity, accuracy, efficiency, completeness, timeliness, focus, openness, action orientation and depersonalization. I can expect that the phone conversation I will have with my legislator will be a short and sweet one, realizing that her time is very limited. It will be important for me to be clear in my communication and message so that she will understand what I am proposing as well as understand the importance of it. Knowing the background of the of issue of the nursing shortage in our country will be beneficial for me to be able to speak to it, as well as what has already been worked on so that we do not repeat the past. I have been told it is important to keep emotions out of certain types of conversations. I am still unsure if this would hold true for proposing this policy.
Part of me feels that I may need to keep a piece of this to the conversation as it is something that I am very passionate about and is an issue that affects me personally and professionally as it will many others. I am anxious for this conversation to take place. It is important to me that I sound professional, organized and well educated. One thing that I am taking away from this week’s reading is to be familiar with my legislator’s background. I also found it helpful to know what to do in case my legislator would not necessarily be supportive, which would be to ask what further can be done in order to help change their mind and to not end the conversation until the next steps are agreed upon.
References
Guttman, H. (2014). Communicating Effectively: Lessons from High-Performing Organizations. Mworld, 13(1), 10-14.
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