Graduating nursing students advocate for their patients, their profession

Hannya Ornelas and Grace Ellison are future nurses, graduating in May 2026. They are diligent, hopeful and dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient-centered care for Idaho.

For many nurses, delivering this kind of care happens through advocacy at the bedside, when they speak up on behalf of patients' needs. But who advocates for what nurses need?

Nursing advocacy in the Capitol

In a crowded hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., two young women wait for an elevator. A man behind them notices their name badges, emblazoned with the name of the university they attend, and exclaims, "Oh my gosh, I wondered if Boise State was going to be here!"

"Usually people don't even know where Idaho is," said senior nursing student Grace Ellison, one of the women awaiting the elevator. Hannya Ornelas, the other student with her, thought the interaction was "pretty cool" because it was the first national conference she had attended where someone recognized her alma mater.

"I was like, 'Okay Boise State, get your name out there!'" Ornelas said.

Ellison and Ornelas were in D.C. in April to participate in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Student Policy Summit.

Senior nursing students Hannya Ornelas and Grace Ellison attended the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Student Policy Summit in early April.

The conference gave Ellison and Ornelas a behind-the-scenes look at this kind of advocacy in legislative work. They learned how fiscal data and framing plays into communication with legislators, and how the nation's leading professional nursing groups coalesced toward a common goal instead of lobbying on their own.

"They realized more people can make more impact," Ellison said. "There's about five million nurses in the United States, so if we all came together and brought something to the United States government, that change could happen, because there's so many of us."

Ellison and Ornelas also spoke with staff members of Idaho's congressmen about issues facing nurses, such as Title VIII funding for nursing education and House of Representatives Bill 392 that provides a tax credit for nurse preceptors as a way to incentivize more nurses to mentor students.

"I don't know what I thought it was going to be, but it was a very welcoming experience, for sure," Ornelas said. "They sat down, listened. They wanted to hear personal stories."

Ellison, Ornelas and fellow senior nursing student Isabel McGregor are research assistants in the Simulation Center.

Ornelas said that growing up in different parts of the state - her in Boise and Ellison in Coeur d'Alene - helped them share a wider perspective of Idaho as a whole.

"I do think that when it comes to issues like this, being able to speak up and be like the voice for others is very important," Ornelas said. "It was a great conversation."

While this might have been the students' first time taking meetings on Capitol Hill, it wasn't their first time advocating for nurses.

Impactful advocacy: Tell your story

Ellison and Ornelas engaged politicians face-to-face for the first time last fall. As research assistants in simulation education, they participated in Idaho legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee's tour of the College of Health Sciences Simulation Center in November 2025.

It was an eye-opening experience for both students. They discovered that realities about nursing - like a standard 12-hour shift - aren't always well-known.

"I think although they want to do the best thing for us, there is kind of a barrier for them knowing nursing in general," Ornelas said.

School of Nursing Divisional Dean Kelley Connor (left), Ellison and Ornelas spent time talking with staff of Idaho Senator Mike Crapo.

Which makes sense; it would be illogical for legislators to be subject matter experts on every piece of policy they vote on. So Ellison and Ornelas saw firsthand how citizen advocacy comes into play. It's up to the content experts - in this case, nurses and nursing students like Ellison and Ornelas - to share their knowledge so legislators can be as informed as possible when they make decisions.

When asked if they would consider getting involved in policy advocacy again, they both said yes.

"I love using your voice for change," Ornelas said.

"It's pretty easy," Ellison added. "You can be engaged just by reaching out to your senator, your congress people, and telling your story."

How Boise State shaped them to be Idaho's best and brightest

Overcoming fears and growing poised

Ellison's story starts in Northern Idaho. A self-described homebody who was "scared to leave home," she decided to follow her sister's footsteps and enroll at Boise State for college. Ellison always loved academics, but was "super shy" and "couldn't talk to people in general, when I came to school," she said.

But she thrived in the Honors College and School of Nursing. Signing up to be a research assistant launched her down on a journey of overcoming fears by doing the things that made her uncomfortable. She participated in a roundtable event, discussed nursing education with legislators and gave a podium presentation at a regional nursing conference. With each additional step, she became less scared and more poised.

"I don't think that it would've happened unless I started putting myself out there," Ellison said.

After graduation, her next steps will lead her to the telemetry unit in St. Luke's.

Turning a whole 180°

For Ornelas, her story starts in Borah High School. "My senior year I was like, 'I don't wanna go to college. I hate school,'" she said.

Ornelas didn't know she wanted to be a nurse, and though she liked her tour of campus, she wasn't even sold on Boise State. But a few semesters in changed her mind completely. "I got friends, did honors college, all of these different extracurricular activities, and I was like, 'Wait, I love it here,'" she said.

After getting into the nursing program, her life "definitely turned a whole one eighty," she said.

Along with policy advocacy and nursing research, Ornelas' transformation took her to study abroad at the University of Oxford, to work in the cardiac intensive care unit at Saint Alphonsus, and, in April, she was named a Top-Ten Scholar.

While she doesn't have immediate plans to pursue graduate school, Ornelas is certain she'll stay connected to the Bronco Nurse network.

Policy coursework sets apart Boise State nurses

A practice that began in the 1990s with professor emeritus Pam Gehrke, policy and advocacy coursework is a unique part of Boise State education.

"Pam did some amazing things to get students thinking about why nurses need to be at the table when we're putting together policies," said Jane Grassley, the Joanna "Jody" DeMeyer Endowed Chair in Nursing from 2014-2019.

She recalls one time she took students to the Western Institute of Nursing conference: they were sitting in a session with "some fairly big-gun nurse researchers" who brought up that nurses need to understand and be involved in policy-making. That's when a Boise State nursing student raised their hand and said, "We do this."

Ellison and Ornelas gave a podium presentation at the 2026 Western Institute of Nursing conference about their simulation research with clinical assistant professor Tracee Chapman (center).

"It's amazing that our students have policy [classes] as undergraduates," Grassley said. "I didn't have a policy course until I was in my Ph.D program."

Still, not every nursing student sees the value of the class.

"It's easy to be like, 'Why are we taking this class? We're not in political science. We're not going to be congress people. Why are we doing this?'" Ellison said. "But [policy] doesn't matter until it matters to you, and a problem directly affects you."

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