Capitol Hill Day
As advocates for children, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) hosts a Capitol Hill Day in odd years, typically in the fall. Members from across the country are invited to join us in Washington, D.C., to learn about priority issues in child health and advanced practice nursing and how to best engage with members of Congress to educate them on the issues.Â
Thank you to our 62 members who joined us for our 2023 Capitol Hill Day. Our advocates attended 100 meetings with Congressional offices to raise awareness about key issues such as securing immunization funding, investing in the pediatric mental health workforce, eliminating federal farriers to patients’ access to advanced nursing care and providing essential funding for pediatric advanced practice nurse education.
Advocacy Scholars Program
For more than a decade, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners has been fostering policy leadership skills for pediatric nurse practitioners and family nurse practitioners with our Advocacy Scholars Program. Participating in the program allows members to better understand the legislative process, develop advanced practice nursing and child health policy advocacy skills, apply these new skills when visiting members of Congress and translate these skills into their professional lives to benefit practices and patients.
Although the program is conducted at the federal level, newly acquired skills and knowledge are transferable to scholars’ advocacy efforts at the state and local levels.
Becoming an Advocacy Scholar
We encourage current NAPNAP members, including students, to apply. Preference is given to members already active in advocacy or policy efforts.
Our current application period is closed.
The application requires:
- statements about your professional and advocacy experience
- a statement explaining how you plan to apply your newly acquired advocacy skills and Hill visit experience to make a difference in child health or NP professional advocacy at the state or national level
- curriculum vitae (CV) or resume listing your education background, involvement in professional organization(s) and any legislative, advocacy or health policy experience
Note: The online application allows you to create a user account so you can log on multiple times to update your application before the deadline. Use the same link on subsequent visits.
The 2023 application season will be Aug. 14 – Sept. 4, 2023. Applicants will be notified of results by approximately Sept. 25
Each selected scholar will receive a financial award to help offset lodging, transportation and related travel costs. However, scholars may need to pay some fees/expenses out of pocket. Scholarship checks will be mailed by mid October.
In addition, we recognize recipients as Advocacy Scholars on our website and in Inside the Beltway.
NAPNAP was fortunate to receive an advocacy-focused grant to support this year’s Advocacy Scholars program. However due to the funder’s compliance rules, we may not be able to offer CE contact hours for Hill Day or the pre-event sessions.Â
Scholars are required to attend the national policy conference and Hill visits as well as the NAPNAP pre-event child health policy orientation webinar. Scholars must register for the Capitol Hill Day event by Sept. 30
After the event, we expect scholars to share information gained from the program with fellow NAPNAP chapter leaders and members. In addition, we expect scholars to contribute to NAPNAP’s collective knowledge in other ways. For example:
- lead a training for your chapter
- write an article for the Inside the Beltway or the Journal of Pediatric Health Care
- actively participate in the Child Health Policy Learning Collaborative, perhaps leading a conversation
- present at chapter’s educational conference
- submit an abstract for a national conference/symposium in 2024
Former Advocacy Scholars Program winners are not eligible to apply.
