Themed Blog #3

Themed Blog #3

            An interest group, as defined by our textbook, Texas Politics, is a “number of people who are organized to defend an interest they share or wish to promote; the interest can be narrow (rice growers, for example) or broad (consumers, for example)” (Newell, p. 526).  There are interest groups for almost everything you can think of.  When I was thinking about my life, it was obvious to think about what type of interest group I should research.  I am going into nursing, and there are so many medical interest groups, it was difficult to pick just one, so I randomly looked into several, and looked and their standpoint on issues.  The interest group that I would be interested in joining would be the American Public Health Association.  When I looked at the 23 new policies that they adopted at their 2011 Annual Meeting, I agreed with many of them, which made me think that if I were to join any interest group, this would be the one.  In my personal opinion, I do not think that there would be a group that it would be possible for me to agree on their standpoint 100%, so if I agree on a majority of their views, that would be good.  For example, the American Public Health Association (AMPA) supports the reduction and supervision for prescription medications.  This is called the LB-11-03 Policy Reducing Prescription drug overdoses (American Public Health Association, 2012).  I especially agree with this because way too often do patients who are prescribed painkillers not only get medication from one doctor but from multiple doctors.  I used to work for a primary care physician, and patients would come to see our doctor, and I would often have to call specialists and have to check if the patients were receiving pain medication before the doctor would prescribe more pain medication.  If we had a more controlled system, I believe that less prescribed drug abuse would occur. 

            I also agree that over-the-counter contraceptive should be available as well.  This is outlined in P olicy 20111 (American Public Health Association, 2012).  In my opinion, if a woman wants to have access to contraception, she should be allowed to.  Some states, etc do not allow contraception to be freely allowed to women, which causes the thought that women will do what is necessary to either get contraception, or get an abortion if they get pregnant.  In my opinion, it is much better to provide contraception freely and over the counter to women so the latter option is not needed, because that opens up a whole new bag of worms.

Based on just two policies, I feel very strongly that this interest group would be one that I would join.

Bibliography

"American Public Health Association Adopted 23 New Policies at 2011 Annual Meeting." APHA: American Public Health Association. 2012. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://www.apha.org/about/news/pressreleases/2012/2011aphapoliciesrelease.htm>.

Newell, Prindle, Riddlesperger.  Texas Politics, 11th edition.  Wadsworth  Cengage  Learning.  2011.