Students from universities across the state met today to talk about improving the working conditions for registered nurses in California.

The eighth Registered Nursing Lobby Days, hosted by Sacramento State, brought registered nursing majors and faculty together with professionals to help spread the word about legislative advocacy.

Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez opened the conference and stressed the importance of advocacy, saying that if nurses want to change working conditions, they would have to make their voices heard and propose change through bills.

“From the administrative point nurses are doing well, but politically they could be playing an important role,” Gonzalez said.

Some problems that were addressed were employee shortages on nursing staffs and the overall lack of nurses entering the work field.

Senior nursing major Glynda Washington felt she needed to learn how to get her voice heard at work to improve these issues.

“I want to learn how to change the laws of nursing,” Washington said. “There is usually low staffing where I work and I have realized that this is a common problem for many facilities.”

Louise Timmer, president of the American Nurses Association California, wanted the prospective nurses at the event to know that being nurses is not just about helping others, but also about helping themselves.

“I want them to understand that our government is a participatory democracy and want them to learn how to be advocates for nursing and education,” Timmer said.

The two-day event will continue tomorrow as conference participants visit the Capitol to meet with legislators.

Vanessa Johnson can be reached at [email protected].