Final Thoughts

As described in our action plan, we have contacted the key stake holders that we identified for this bill. Unfortunately, we have not received any feedback thus far. We are hoping to hear from the key stake holders at some point, as we feel they will have a professional understanding of how this bill will impact society. As future nurses, we strive to make a difference in the lives of our patients and their families. Therefore, it is important for us to have an understanding of current issues and bills within the communities in which we will be working.

At this point, there is nothing more we can address in this blog until we hear from our stake holders. We hope that they will visit and comment on the important issues in this blog. To our knowledge the bill has recently been passed!

Key Stakeholders and Developments

We have identified six key stakeholders that relates to this bill on childhood obesity. The main stakeholder is Virginia Senator J. Chapman Petersen. We chose him because he is the main supporter of this bill. We also decided to choose the Superintendent of Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Dr. Donald J. Ford. This decision was based upon his overall understanding of the current health within the school system he oversees. Additionally, we chose two Physical Education Department Chairs and a Physical Education teacher because they are the ones that implement the changes to the physical education programs in their schools. The first is Candace Underwood from Lord Botetourt High School in Botetourt, VA. The second is Phil Hudson from Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, VA. The PE teacher we chose is Joseph Plato from Grafton Village Elementary School in Fredericksburg, VA. The last stakeholder that we decided to contact is Jessica Dawson, Henrico County Public Schools Health Services Supervisor. We chose to contact her because we thought she would have a large knowledge base of the health issues within the Henrico County school system. We tried to incorporate all areas of Virginia, different age levels, and different professions to obtain the best information.

After reviewing the bill, we have found that there are no new developments at this time.

Our Political Action Plan

We support this bill and believe that it should be implemented into public school systems in order to help fight childhood obesity. There are many aspects of the bill that we feel should be expanded upon. For example, there should be specific guidelines as to which activities should be implemented during these sixty minutes of physical activity proposed by this bill. Also, what constitutes as "healthy nutrition?" We feel that there also should be specific guidelines regarding healthy food choices. For example, we believe the bill should state the serving sizes and specific food groups that would be available. We support this bill and its efforts to be passed. However, we think there are aspects that need to be further modified before being enacted.

Our plan is to contact key stakeholders such as Virginia Senator, J. Chapman Petersen; two public school superintendents and three physical education teachers throughout the state from different levels of education.

Time Magazine states that, "Pediatricians are diagnosing type 2 diabetes — what used to be known as adult-onset diabetes — in heavy children. And studies show that childhood obesity is significantly associated with heart disease in adulthood." The childhood obesity epidemic is compounding an already overburdened healthcare system. Although some statistics show the levels of childhood obesity are leveling off, this doesn't mean the epidemic has stopped. This problem still needs to be addressed with significant amounts of time, energy and money.
Without this, the effects of childhood obesity on the public health system will continue to grow. According to David Ludwig, an obesity researcher at Children's Hospital Boston, "The childhood obesity epidemic is a tsunami, we're beginning to see the wave hitting the shore."