The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing offers the Leadership Field Experience trip to senior nursing students on all campuses.  Ten senior nursing students, selected from among the applicants through an essay contest and accompanied by two nursing faculty members, visited Washington, DC, during Spring Break week.  While in Washington, they participated in a leadership and policy analysis seminar at George Washington University, visited with legislative staff members on Capitol Hill, engaged in discussions with health care policy experts - both nursing and non-nursing leaders, and went on educational tours.

The purpose of the trip is to advance nursing leadership in health care by providing learning opportunities related to leadership and health care policy development and analysis.

Goals of the trip are to gain an understanding of the process of public policy development and implementation; to explore the impact of national and state health care policies on patient care and the nursing profession, to describe ways that nurses can influence policy development on the local, state, and national levels and to engage in active conversations with nursing leaders to understand their visions and strategies in determining policy direction for nursing’s future.