Kelsey MarcAurele ’22 (NUR) looks back on her influential experience of internship in Washington, DC last summer while preparing for graduation in May. MarcAurele worked at the office of Congressman Joe Courtney in the United States with a focus on health policy legislation. According to her, this experience of her will never be forgotten and will be brought into her future career.
“Many of the people I talked to didn’t understand why I was pursuing this internship,” says Marc Aulle. “But we believe we need a nurse in public policy and I wanted to get into the job.”
The various interests of Marc Aulle, a member of the UConn Honors Program and a cheerleader team, also include nursing innovation. She transferred to UConn in her second year and was fascinated by her rich research and her innovative environment. In her first year at Her Stows, Kelsey partnered with Ellen Quintana ’21 (NUR) at ReduSeal, her patented glove waste reduction technology.
MarcAurele states that when a mother studied public policy at college, her interest in health and public policy came from her childhood. Politics and current affairs have always been the topic of discussion at her home, which taught Marcuorele to be open and thoughtful about policy.
“My mother taught me that you should find a policy that interests you and read it directly from the text, rather than asking about it in the news,” she says. .. “You have to create your own idea.”
MarcAurele says that policies sometimes come up in nursing classes, but noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted public attention to healthcare politics.
“The pandemic has shown me how much we need nurses in our policies because our legislators are not directly involved in providing medical care,” says Marc Auurele. “I happened to see Congressman Courtney’s internship opportunity. We chose it because our policy requires healthcare professionals. It was really inspired by COVID.”
After being offered a parliamentary internship, Marc Aulle moved to Washington, DC for six weeks. Her daily work in the legislator’s office included talking to the legislator, taking notes for legislation, and supporting Courtney by supporting other needs in the office.
Policy memos are documents written by representative staff explaining legislative, district-affecting issues, or new and relevant information regarding co-sponsorship recommendations. If representatives co-sponsor the bill, it means they agree with the content of the bill.
During MarcAurele’s internship, she had the opportunity to work on a project related to Stafford Law.
“Staffford law defines how the federal government responds to emergencies,” she says. “When the president declares an emergency or catastrophe, it refers to Stafford law.”
The State of Emergency and the State of Emergency are two separate events under the Stafford Act. Large-scale disasters allow governments to provide more federal aid and resources than a state of emergency.
“The current problem is that the definition of a catastrophe does not include public health outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Marc Aulle.
At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, former President Donald Trump announced a major disaster declaration. However, Stafford’s law does clearly indicate which situations could be declared catastrophe, such as hurricanes or terrorist attacks. Public health emergencies are not included in this list of possible situations, and there are claims that pandemics do not meet the criteria for catastrophes.
Therefore, Marc Aulle’s proposal focused on expanding the criteria for major disaster declarations.
“My suggestion was to add a public health emergency to the law and make it a future option,” says Marc Aulle. “If this happens again, we can respond more quickly and have more control over the situation.”
She says Courtney’s office is very understanding and supportive of her work, and her experience last summer shaped her forever. She also had the opportunity to meet her registered nurse, US Congressman Cori Bush.
“I’m glad I met a government nurse,” says Marc Aulle. “We talked about being the voice of another nurse. It was a moment I always remember.”
While she enjoyed her internship with Courtney, Marc Aurele also wants to pursue clinical nursing in pediatric medicine after graduating in May this year. Her honor student program research project is studying the effects of pain on the consequences of neural behavior in preterm infants.
“This allows Kelsey to work with an interdisciplinary research team to see how the research is done,” said Xiaomei Cong, a faculty member at the UConn School of Nursing, Marc Aurele’s Honor Student Advisor. I am. “Kelsey is diligent and enjoys immersing herself in her work.”
“Health policy will be part of me wherever I go, whether it’s nursing policy or hospital policy,” says Marc Aulle. “Now I’ve been working on policymaking, but I don’t think it leaves my mind. I’ll always be involved in health policy, even if it’s not at the federal level.”
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