Starting a New NSFC Chapter on your Campus
We are so excited that you are interested in starting a pro-choice nursing student club on your campus! Having done this ourselves, we know that it can take a lot of courage and work to do what you are doing. Here are some of our thoughts about how to start and maintain a club of your own. Check out these 10 easy steps!
1. Is there an active Medical Students for Choice chapter on your campus already? If you are not sure, you can check the MS4C website www.ms4c.org or go to this link http://medicalstudentsforchoice.org/index.php?page=find-start-group. It might help to at least let them know that nursing students are interested so you can join with them in activities and events they already have and invite them to the events you throw.
OR
Is there a NARAL presence on your campus? Check out www.naral.org NARAL has a strong history of supporting NSFC activities, check with your state to see how they can support you!
2. Do you need to be an “official” student club or can you just host occasional informative meetings or talks? Some schools need to be an official student group with a faculty advisor; where as other schools can function more easily out of their homes or in smaller groups. This depends on; the rules of your particular school, your personal preferences, safety and what you want to accomplish with your group. Take some time to find out if you are required to have anything special if you want to host an event, send an email or post an event notice on your campus.
For example, Jacqui started a group at her nursing school and got in trouble for sending out an email from her personal email address about an upcoming event. All she needed to do was put the email through IT at her school so they knew she wasn’t sending out spam. It is these kinds of snags that can frustrate you in the beginning, but are good to avoid. You might ask the student council at your school or the dean of students. They can be good sources of information.
3. Think about your goals for this group. Do you want to have camaraderie with other pro-choice nursing students or perhaps do you want to change curriculum on your campus or even throw a fundraising event? Whatever your goals—we here at the National NSFC support you 100%.
4. Think about your name. Nationally we are Nursing Students for Choice, but that may not be the best name for your own campus club. Depending on your audience, location, goals and student population you may need to choose a different name. We are OK with that, as long as you stick to the general mission of supporting comprehensive reproductive and sexuality education for nursing students. If you don’t feel like you can talk about at least some those issues openly, we may not be the right fit for a group on your campus, though you as an individual can definitely become a member of ours. We are here to help you work through those details.
5. Discover your leadership potential. If you want to do more than what your school allows, know that we have national committees and projects you might be interested in. Don’t worry, as former nursing students ourselves, we know you are super busy…but think of the resume building potential!
6. Brainstorm. What do you want to learn this year? What do you think is lacking in your school’s curricula? Who can you partner with in your community? Is there a specific issue that you can be an advocate or activist for? Remember that comprehensive reproductive health includes a lot of things: condom use, plan B, abortion, adoption, parenting, prenatal care, transgender and homosexual issues, sex workers, domestic violence, contraception, etc… You may not be able to start off talking about abortion care and how nurses fit in, but could you talk about options counseling or condom use? Feel out the environment to be sure you feel comfortable and safe. Once you have decided what to talk about let us know if you need more ideas or help.
7. Find allies in faculty. Not only can faculty members support you, but they have lots of sway in how they write their lesson plans and what information they share with students. Try to seek out obvious choices in allies (like maybe the public health professor or the nurse who teaches about reproduction in class). If you feel like there are no faculty you can approach, feel free to let us know and we can try to help you through our national connections. Also, if you have faculty who are invested in your cause, you can pass the group to them so they can keep it going when you graduate.
8. Think about fundraising! It is a lot easier to host events if you have a small budget for food or supplies. Bake sales, movie nights, benefit concerts, local grants, talking to a local restaurant about a prochoice benefit night, raffle tickets, button sales, asking your relatives, and talking to your student council are just some ideas of ways to earn some money. Want more? Ask us.
9. Tell us that you exist! We want a chapter of NSFC at every nursing school campus! There is a possibility one already exists at your school or at another school nearby. Please let us know that you have a group started (no matter how small) so we can network across the country. If something is not working or is bogging you down allow us to help guide you. If you want more ideas let us know. We want to encourage you and support you at all stages of your development.
10. Tell us when you are about to graduate. As a nurse working in the real world we would love to put you in contact with national organizations like Clinicians for Choice or Abortion Access Project to help you as a professional. We know being a pro-choice provider can be tricky in all sorts of situations. So tell us where you are going. Perhaps we can help find you a mentor or a group of people who will support you in your profession.
Good luck as you start a new club on your campus,
Jacqui, Becky, and Erika
We are so excited that you are interested in starting a pro-choice nursing student club on your campus! Having done this ourselves, we know that it can take a lot of courage and work to do what you are doing. Here are some of our thoughts about how to start and maintain a club of your own. Check out these 10 easy steps!
1. Is there an active Medical Students for Choice chapter on your campus already? If you are not sure, you can check the MS4C website www.ms4c.org or go to this link http://medicalstudentsforchoice.org/index.php?page=find-start-group. It might help to at least let them know that nursing students are interested so you can join with them in activities and events they already have and invite them to the events you throw.
OR
Is there a NARAL presence on your campus? Check out www.naral.org NARAL has a strong history of supporting NSFC activities, check with your state to see how they can support you!
2. Do you need to be an “official” student club or can you just host occasional informative meetings or talks? Some schools need to be an official student group with a faculty advisor; where as other schools can function more easily out of their homes or in smaller groups. This depends on; the rules of your particular school, your personal preferences, safety and what you want to accomplish with your group. Take some time to find out if you are required to have anything special if you want to host an event, send an email or post an event notice on your campus.
For example, Jacqui started a group at her nursing school and got in trouble for sending out an email from her personal email address about an upcoming event. All she needed to do was put the email through IT at her school so they knew she wasn’t sending out spam. It is these kinds of snags that can frustrate you in the beginning, but are good to avoid. You might ask the student council at your school or the dean of students. They can be good sources of information.
3. Think about your goals for this group. Do you want to have camaraderie with other pro-choice nursing students or perhaps do you want to change curriculum on your campus or even throw a fundraising event? Whatever your goals—we here at the National NSFC support you 100%.
4. Think about your name. Nationally we are Nursing Students for Choice, but that may not be the best name for your own campus club. Depending on your audience, location, goals and student population you may need to choose a different name. We are OK with that, as long as you stick to the general mission of supporting comprehensive reproductive and sexuality education for nursing students. If you don’t feel like you can talk about at least some those issues openly, we may not be the right fit for a group on your campus, though you as an individual can definitely become a member of ours. We are here to help you work through those details.
5. Discover your leadership potential. If you want to do more than what your school allows, know that we have national committees and projects you might be interested in. Don’t worry, as former nursing students ourselves, we know you are super busy…but think of the resume building potential!
6. Brainstorm. What do you want to learn this year? What do you think is lacking in your school’s curricula? Who can you partner with in your community? Is there a specific issue that you can be an advocate or activist for? Remember that comprehensive reproductive health includes a lot of things: condom use, plan B, abortion, adoption, parenting, prenatal care, transgender and homosexual issues, sex workers, domestic violence, contraception, etc… You may not be able to start off talking about abortion care and how nurses fit in, but could you talk about options counseling or condom use? Feel out the environment to be sure you feel comfortable and safe. Once you have decided what to talk about let us know if you need more ideas or help.
7. Find allies in faculty. Not only can faculty members support you, but they have lots of sway in how they write their lesson plans and what information they share with students. Try to seek out obvious choices in allies (like maybe the public health professor or the nurse who teaches about reproduction in class). If you feel like there are no faculty you can approach, feel free to let us know and we can try to help you through our national connections. Also, if you have faculty who are invested in your cause, you can pass the group to them so they can keep it going when you graduate.
8. Think about fundraising! It is a lot easier to host events if you have a small budget for food or supplies. Bake sales, movie nights, benefit concerts, local grants, talking to a local restaurant about a prochoice benefit night, raffle tickets, button sales, asking your relatives, and talking to your student council are just some ideas of ways to earn some money. Want more? Ask us.
9. Tell us that you exist! We want a chapter of NSFC at every nursing school campus! There is a possibility one already exists at your school or at another school nearby. Please let us know that you have a group started (no matter how small) so we can network across the country. If something is not working or is bogging you down allow us to help guide you. If you want more ideas let us know. We want to encourage you and support you at all stages of your development.
10. Tell us when you are about to graduate. As a nurse working in the real world we would love to put you in contact with national organizations like Clinicians for Choice or Abortion Access Project to help you as a professional. We know being a pro-choice provider can be tricky in all sorts of situations. So tell us where you are going. Perhaps we can help find you a mentor or a group of people who will support you in your profession.
Good luck as you start a new club on your campus,
Jacqui, Becky, and Erika