Munoz Looks to be Defined as Nurse not as Widow

Anyone spending any time with Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Summit) comes away with one clear impression, she is a nurse as well as a state legislator.

She speaks often about her time as a nurse, talks about wanting to use her position in the Assembly to help the nursing profession and at times carries herself more as a nurse than a politician. Actually, being a nurse is what in the end brought her to elective office in the first place. She met her husband, Eric, when she was an emergency room nurse and he was a trauma surgeon. After his sudden death in March she succeeded him in office, becoming the first widow in state history to directly succeed her husband in the State Legislature.

Many elective officials talk about how the skill set they developed in another line of work helps them in elective office. Business people talk about bringing a business sense to government, lawyers talk about knowing how to develop laws and journalists talk about research and writing abilities, to name a few of the common career paths of politicians. Munoz thinks her work as a nurse has been a major help to her work in the Assembly.

"Being a nurse you are used to dealing with the general public," she said. "You have compassion. To be a nurse you need to have compassion."

Munoz says both skills come in handy in a job which involves attending numerous community events in Union, Essex, Morris and Somerset counties. One area she has tried to work on in Trenton has been taking up her husband's role as an advocate for the underprivileged, including serving on the human services committee.

With so much of politics and the legislative process being dealing with others, including the touchy egos of 79 other Assembly members, Munoz notes she needs to bring her skills as a nurse to play.

"Being a people person helps as a nurse and that helps in the Legislature," she said.

Munoz also is looking to apply the practical knowledge she gained as a nurse, including her master's degree in nursing. She is the only nurse on the health committee, where she is using her background to help shape public health policy in a variety of areas.

One area Munoz points to as an example of her nursing background impacting her policy-making is the bills she has written to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors and to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes indoors. She says she developed the bills after reading a newspaper article about the devices and the chemicals contained in them. Combining this with her nursing background, she started teaming with other Assembly members to develop the bill. The bill banning the sale to minors has passed the Assembly and is being considered by the Senate today.

At the same time, Munoz is looking to promote the nursing profession in her new role. With the national nursing shortage continuing, she is looking to craft legislation to bring more nurses into the profession and focus her health committee colleagues on the impact the nursing shortage is having on New Jersey.

While she wants to bring more nurses into the profession she also wants to be able to talk about changing the standards for nurse education in the Garden State. Currently registered nurses in New Jersey who graduated with an associate's degree or graduated from a nursing school do not have to receive a bachelor's degree in nursing. In other states, including New York, nurses need to receive a bachelor's degree in nursing within a time frame after receiving an associates or diploma from a nursing school.

Munoz is promoting what she is calling the "BSN in 10" bill, which would require registered nurses with associates degrees and nursing school diplomas to receive a bachelor of science degree in nursing within 10 years to remain in the profession in New Jersey. She said it is needed to enhance the quality of nurses in New Jersey's hospitals.

"Nurses in a bachelor's degree program learn how to research and how to interpet research," she said.

In addition to enhancing nursing education, Munoz noted another push of hers is to bring more advanced nurse practitioners forward statewide to help handle patient care. She said that while she does not want to hurt doctors—she is, after all, the widow of a doctor—she believes this will help overall patient care in the state.

Munoz talks about not wanting to be defined solely by her history-making status as the first widow to directly succeed her husband in the State Legislature. It could be possible that using her role as one of the few nurses to ever serve in the Legislature is a way of finding a niche for herself. In the end though, it is an area she speaks about with passion.

"We have a nursing shortage in this state and country and we need to educate them," she said.

Editor's Note: This is the second in a three part series on Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz.