Featured Nurse Leader
Terri Roberts, J.D., R.N.
Advocating for change
Terri Roberts, J.D., R.N. brings passion and a wealth of experience in
public policy and advocacy to her work. With degrees in both Nursing and
Law, she is in an ideal position to bring about tobacco control policy
change. Currently, she is the executive director of the Kansas State Nurses
Association, where she represents professional nurses within her state
and is responsible for implementing the programs and standards developed
by KSNA. Before assuming the position of KSNA Executive Director in 1985,
Terri worked for the special committee on aging and later as a legislative
intern for Senator Bob Dole on Capitol Hill. The bulk of her tobacco control
work started about seven years ago when she joined the Tobacco Free Kansas
Coalition as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Smokeless
State Initiative. She served as policy chair for the coalition for four
years and was president of the coalition when it played a key role in
the passage of a cigarette excise tax increase in Kansas. She has been
part of key regulatory achievements in tobacco control in the state of
Kansas; from toughening of youth access laws (e.g. elimination of cigarette
vending machines from public areas and harsher penalty for illegal sale
to minors) to getting the Medicaid division to fund cessation for pregnant
women. She also took the lead in successfully fighting a state preemption
efforts related to smokefree laws in Kansas. Preemption is a battle that
the tobacco industry is waging at the state level that prohibits local
governmental authorities from making stronger smokefree ordinances than
what exists at the state level.
As a former cardiovascular nurse, Terri Roberts understands that nurses
face competing priorities. She asserts, however, that nurses have an integral
role to play in tobacco control because “nurses bring their credibility
to the plate and patients trust them.” She further stresses that;
“there is need for a critical mass of nurses to become involved
in tobacco control.” She believes that nurses can be effective at
reducing cigarette consumption and encouraging cessation by playing a
role in reinforcing health effects of tobacco usage to the public. As
an example she points out that, “we (nurses) are still not implementing
the 5 A’s (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange). We need to ensure
that a critical mass of nurses routinely implement the 5 A’s, and
conduct best practices for tobacco cessation.” She supports efforts
to educate nurses about how to provide smoking cessation counseling but
sees a gap in the process. According to her, “directors of nursing
and other people in hospital management can mandate that their nurses
be competent in the implementation of the five A's” but these executives
are often not a target of efforts to educate nurses about tobacco control.
Consequently, she is embarking on projects to put tobacco control on the
radar screen for nurse executives. She attended a meeting of the Kansas
state nurse executives and presented on the issue of smoking cessation.
She is also alerting nurse executives to the existence of the AHRQ pocket
guide for nurses.
Despite her remarkable achievements, Terri Roberts still has her eyes
set on further tobacco control goals. She is working to increase the number
of smoke-free communities in Kansas. She has also embarked on a project
to conduct regional education workshops for maternal and child health
nurses in Kansas on the issue of smoking cessation. Although she is an
example of what a single nurse can achieve in tobacco control, she stresses
that one “cannot emphasize enough the power of a critical mass of
nurses.” Tobacco Free Nurses agrees, if every nurse helped one person
to quit each year the number of quitters in the U.S. would triple to 3
1/2 million!
View Previous Featured Nurse Leaders
- Gregory Howard, LPN
- Mila C. Velasquez, MN, RN, CS, APRN, BC
- Terri Roberts, J.D., R.N.
- Cynthia Hornberger, RN, MBA, PhD
- Josie Howard-Ruben, RN, MS, AOCN, CHPN
- Janie Heath PhD, APRN-BC, ANP, ACNP
- Mary Ellen Wewers, RN, PhD, MPH, FAAN
- Linda Sarna, RN, DNSc, FAAN
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