Lieutenant governor credits her nursing background for success in politics
Though most recently known as a Wisconsin state legislator and the current lieutenant governor for the state, Sara Rodriguez is, at her heart, a nurse.
So she was among her peers Wednesday at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center as the Nursing Grand Rounds 2024 Expect Excellence Invited Speaker. The event was part of the medical center’s annual Nurses Week celebration.
“Becoming a nurse was the best decision I ever made in my entire life,” she told the group. “It was not on my bingo card to become lieutenant governor of Wisconsin.”
But Rodriguez, a registered nurse and former health care executive, made the move to politics because she was frustrated with the state Legislature during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That led to her election to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2020 and then as lieutenant governor in 2022. In those roles, she has advocated for public health policy as well as education, the environment and supporting small businesses.
She said her nursing background allows her “to look at policy more broadly.”
“You are on the ground floor, looking at our health care system, and you know it can be broken,” she told the nurses. “So coming with that perspective into a policy arena is really invaluable.”
Rodriguez encouraged the nurses to advocate for their profession and work to influence public policy. And the best way to do that is to draw on their everyday experiences, she said.
“What sways people the most are stories” of how policy directly affects patients and the nursing practice, she said. “This is a really strong and powerful way that clinicians can come into the room and say, ‘Look, I see this firsthand every day.’”
She encouraged them to reach out to their local legislators with those stories and to research where their representatives stand on the issues.
And this doesn’t apply solely to state and federal legislators, she said. Local municipal councils, school boards and other committees are just as important and often have a more direct impact in a community.
She said active participation in professional organizations is also beneficial, as these groups can offer more clout in the public arena.
She also stressed the importance of voting, in every election, saying calendar reminders are a good way to read up on the issues and then vote accordingly.
And finally, she encouraged people to do what she did — run for office.
“Such a critical and crucial aspect of the democratic process is to make sure we have folks from all walks of life, who understand things in a slightly different way,” she said. “If you’re not at the table, you’re not going to be able to … say, ‘Look, these are the things that are important.’”
Rodriguez said her nursing background prepared her for political life in a number of ways, saying nurses are used to having difficult conversations and working on teams with people they may not agree with.
Nurses are also used to advocating for their peers and their patients.
And when it comes to trying to change someone’s mind on an issue, she said peppering them with facts is not the way to go. Instead, she said empathetic questioning and listening are more effective.
“Don’t come from this top-down approach, but from an equal partner approach,” she said. “Being able to do that is really important, and nurses are really good at it.”
She noted that surveys show that nursing is the No. 1 most trusted profession. She said nurses should capitalize on that.
“It’s a way you can use your background and your education to help,” she said. “There are so many avenues that you can go down and use this skill set that you have.”