A MOMENT IN TIME: A PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE
Posted 8 months ago
Most times I write in third person for this list serve but today I take a moment of personal privilege to remember Bill Richardson and to share his role as part of our nursing's history in New Mexico.
For those not watching the news on this end of summer weekend, Bill Richardson has passed away. I learned of his death via text from 2 nursing colleagues who knew him in his role with nursing and NMNA when I did, and it is in the context that I write to all of you. You will hear many speak of his tenure as Governor of New Mexico, of his failed bid for President of the US, as UN Ambassador, as hostage negotiator. I write to remember him as a champion of nursing and nurse practitioners when he served in the US Congress.
In the early and mid-eighties then Congressman Bill Richardson moved Congress to address reimbursement issues for our fledgling nurse practitioners. In those years I was a family nurse practitioner, was one of his constituents, and was the lobbyist for NMNA. Congressman Richardson understood the value of nurses and the emerging role of nurse practitioners in primary care. It was a time that we were as yet unable to bill Medicare under our own names and credentials. This posed a huge legal issue for many of us. Thanks to Congressman Richardson, Congress acted, Medicare acted, in a very short period of time to deal with nurse practitioners and federal reimbursement. He was instantly responsive, knowledgeable and truly valued what nurses and nurse practitioners brought to the citizens of New Mexico.
It is in this light that I am saddened today but at the same time grateful to be able to remember an elected official who valued our profession, who was knowledgeable about our practices, who valued what public policy could mean for healthcare and worked on our behalf to make sure our profession was part of the movement toward quality access.
Let us all remember Bill Richardson in this moment and remember him as part of the history of nursing in, AND FOR, New Mexico.
Thank you all,
Deborah
Deborah Walker, MSN, RN
Executive Director
New Mexico Nurses Association
Advocating for Nursing Practice Since 1921