Influential Nursing Leaders and Systemic Barriers

                  Influential Nursing Leaders are the foundation of inspiring progress and change not only in the field but also in social justice and advocacy. Below I have attached a video of someone who has led the way for APRN and continues to inspire me. I believe I have nurses whom I have met throughout my career who have taught me the importance of advocating for others and continuing to improve healthcare in any way we can. 

Currently, I am struggling with the barriers that I am encountering at my job working in a child/adolescent unit at UCLA's psychiatric hospital. I am Co-Chair of my Unit Practice Council (UPC) and I noticed our admission packets were severely outdated when I first started.

 I worked with an interdisciplinary of social workers, educators, occupational therapists, and seasoned nurses who work on the units to create an admission packet that addresses the initial orientation to the inpatient setting for patients and their families. I designed new rules lists, a welcome letter, and updated forms so they were accurate and easy to read. I was so proud of our work.

For the past three months, I have been trying to get the packet translated into Spanish. We have Spanish-speaking families of patients admitted to the unit every week and do not have the proper documents to provide them equitable care. As the child and granddaughter of immigrants, when I see these families not being given the proper access to basic information it causes me grief and disappointment. I have been trying to ask my leadership to send the documents out for legal translation. My unit director and manager have been supportive and have given me their seat to advocate for this but once I try to get the administration to support the process, I find myself shut out and left behind this invisible door. I feel like there is a lack of transparency and collaboration. I was told, by our HR person who normally handles payment approvals,  "People are working on this project, it will happen in a future state". This whole experience has left me dejected. I'm not sure what to do next and I find myself disappointed at the realities of the corporate healthcare landscape. I find healthcare administrators seem to make a concerted effort to create a divide and barriers to information and access to improve out practice settings. But I don't understand why.