Statewide political activism for California academic nursing leaders

The California Association of Colleges of Nursing (CACN) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan nursing organization whose members are the universities’ Schools of Nursing that offer baccalaureate and graduate degree programs in California. The nursing deans and directors are the individuals who attend scheduled statewide meetings and actualize the mission, vision, and governance of this organization. Starting in 2011, CACN began a journey toward greater political activism that was initiated by strategic planning. During the Spring 2017 meeting, forty-four California nursing deans/directors advanced their advocacy by attending prescheduled visits with California legislators. The goals for meetings with California policy makers included: 1. Inform them about CACN as an organization and its sphere of influence and 2. Educate them about CACN's perspective on current bills in the California legislature. This manuscript details a process to assist other state organizations to move toward political activism in support of the nursing profession from the academic nursing leadership perspective.