Made for This Moment Advocacy Toolkit

When you meet with a lawmaker or participate in a media interview, do you:

• Remember what you want to say?
• Convey messages concisely and effectively?
• Feel in control of the questions and the topics?
• Make your messages resonate?

If you find any of this challenging, join us for a complimentary session of ASA’s Leadership Spokesperson Training Program (LSTP) while you are in San Francisco for ANESTHESIOLOGY^® 2023.

LSTP gives you the tools and opportunity to develop skills in mock meetings with lawmakers and interviews with the media. Even if you’ve attended an LSTP session in the past, we guarantee you’ll learn something new. Many participants return each year to practice during the interactive training session.

During the session, which includes videotaped exercises, attendees will:

• Learn effective techniques for conducting successful meetings with lawmakers or media interviews.
• Learn key messages related to ASA’s Made for This Moment public and professional awareness campaign and how to incorporate these messages in discussions with lawmakers, reporters, C-suite execs, patients, and the public.
• Engage in exercises to help craft and tell compelling stories to advance the specialty.
• Practice simulated lawmaker meetings/media interviews on camera and receive your recording following the session for self-learning.
• Deliver ASA messages about key issues such as the No Surprises Act, patient-centered, physician-led care, and Medicare payment to lawmakers, the media, and patients.

LSTP is open to active ASA member anesthesiologists, residents, and certified anesthesiologist assistants.

To attend this complimentary two-hour training, please RSVP with your preferred training date and time to [email protected]. But hurry, seats are limited and placed on a first-come, first-served basis.

LSTP at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2023 Dates and Times:

Saturday, October 14

• 8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  (Session Full)

Sunday, October 15

• 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
• 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, October 16

• 8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
• 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

RSVP today

Thank you in advance for your participation and willingness to help us spread our messages among key audiences.

The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) has changed its name to the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology. The change was announced at the AANA 2021 Annual Congress (August 13–17). AANA has also encouraged nurse anesthetists to adopt the title “nurse anesthesiologist.” This title misappropriation is misleading and is just the most recent example of efforts that will have the effect of advancing nurses’ scope of practice beyond their education and training.

To combat these efforts, the American Society of Anesthesiologists is ramping up its efforts to promote the Anesthesia Care Team model and reject title misappropriation. Click here to learn more.

You have an important role to play in advocating for the specialty and protecting the anesthesiologist title during this critical time. The resources below are designed to support your component society in reinforcing ASA’s positions on these issues.

Social Media Assets
Download the graphics and the sample copy below and post them on your state society’s social media accounts. Posts should focus on the AANA name change—whether you talk about protecting the specialty, promoting the care-team model, or calling out the title misappropriation and how it confuses patients.

• Downloadable social media graphics [Downloadable file]
• Sample copy for social media posts [Downloadable Word document]

You can also share and engage with social media posts about the AANA name change on ASA’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.

Additional Materials
These additional resources can be used to reinforce ASA’s position on this issue.

• Medical Title Misappropriation and Misrepresentation Facts and Background [Downloadable PDF]: Learn more about AANA’s history of misrepresentation, and see a breakdown of its misleading claims.
• Talking Points and Q&A for ASA Members To Use With Nurse Anesthetist Colleagues [Downloadable PDF]: Use this resource to guide your conversations with nurse anesthetist colleagues about ASA’s opposition to the ongoing title misappropriation by AANA.
• Open Letter to Nurse Anesthetist Colleagues: Read ASA’s open letter to nurse anesthetist colleagues reminding them how we work together in upholding the proven strength of the Anesthesia Care Team in the best interests of the patient.
• ASA News Release: Read ASA’s position on AANA’s name change. 

Made for This Moment Branding Guidelines [Downloadable PDF]
Use these MFTM branding guidelines for the development of all materials. Adherence to these guidelines will help maintain consistency in tone, imagery, and style across all state component societies’ communications and the larger MFTM campaign.

Social Media Best Practices
Social media is a critical part of any modern-day communications and advocacy operation. Users follow organizations because they value the content. State component societies should develop social media content that highlights the value of their members, reinforces physician anesthesiologists’ leadership, drives advocacy efforts, and engages members and other audiences with news and topics relevant to their state.

Messaging: Message consistency and quality in social media are crucial. Brand and campaign messaging should be aligned across all platforms and share the tone of the national campaign. Social media content should have a clear voice and strong identity that allow users to recognize and engage with your brand.

Frequency: State component societies should establish a regular post frequency across social media platforms. Frequency is not the same for all organizations or platforms. You want your audience to see your messages frequently enough to remember and act on them without feeling overwhelmed with posts. Frequency is important, but it is even more important that posts provide quality content.

We suggest the following post frequencies for the main social media platforms.

Twitter: 5–6 posts per week
Facebook: 4–5 posts per week
Instagram: 1–2 posts per week

Channels: ASA recommends that state component societies prioritize posting on Twitter and Facebook. Instagram is also widely used by ASA members, but it requires posting consistently high-quality photographs and visuals for success. State component societies should only consider launching an Instagram account if they are able to consistently source high-quality visual content.

Engagement: State societies should track and maximize user engagement based on likes, favorites, comments, shares, retweets, etc., depending on the platform. Tracking engagement helps reveal whether content is relevant to your followers. When your posts have consistently high rates of engagement, social media platforms will elevate your content in more of your followers’ news feeds, helping you expand your reach. For that reason, you should try to post content that frequently gets high rates of engagement.

There are many ways to engage followers, such as:

• Including a measurable call to action that encourages followers to interact with the post or click through to your website.
• Asking questions and encouraging response. Try polls and other post formats.
• Commenting on and responding to followers’ posts that mention your society, if appropriate. (Caution: Don’t engage with trolls.)
• Sharing and retweeting your members’ posts to encourage conversations on relevant topics.
• Creating posts on current events or news related to anesthesia that will interest your followers and spur them to learn more.

Paid Media Best Practices
Paid media is a component of digital marketing that involves purchasing social media, display, search, and other ads to drive website traffic or content visibility on various platforms. Paid media content is created and controlled by the buyer but appears on channels that the buyer doesn’t own or control.

Paid media allows organizations to expand their reach to those who are not actively searching for their content, to target certain groups online, and to generate awareness or interest around a topic. For example, state component societies have set up paid media campaigns when battling state legislation that would remove requirements for physician-led anesthesiology care. Such ads have driven policymakers and their staffs to webpages with more information about the dangers of the legislation and asked members of the public to send letters to their legislators opposing the bills.

State component societies are often the ones to flag proposed legislation that could harm the physician anesthesiologist specialty. When these issues come up, your society should answer several questions in setting up a paid media advocacy campaign.

• Goals and objectives: What do you want to achieve and measure with your paid media? What are you asking policymakers, members, and the public to do? Where are you driving people to go online? What does success look like?
• Messages: What are the key messages? How can you capture those messages in paid media content that must be concise and quickly resonate with users who spend only seconds viewing a paid ad?
• Audiences: Who are your audiences? What are their priorities?
• Time frame: What is the timeline for your advocacy campaign? Is there a specific date, such as a scheduled vote, to work toward? How far in advance do you need to mobilize your audiences, who will likely need to see your messages more than once before acting?
• Budget: What is the budget for your campaign? How can you measure and maximize return on investment?
• Landing page: Do you have or need to create a landing page for the campaign? What information and resources will your audiences need to find there?

You can download these paid media templates and sample content to guide your materials development:

• Paid Media Template
  • Customizable Paid Media Template [Downloadable PPT]: Open the PowerPoint file with the graphic you wish to customize and insert your state component society's information. Click “Save As” and save the file as a PNG or JPEG. Save and click “All Slides” when exporting.
  • Standard Paid Media Post [Downloadable PNG]: State component societies can use this standard paid media asset in the PNG format. This can be posted directly to your website and social media accounts.
• Sample Social Media Content [Downloadable Word document]

If your society is interested in enlisting ASA’s digital marketing vendor for support, please contact Theresa Hill ([email protected]).

Earned Media Tips and Engagement [Downloadable Word document]
Free media coverage may sound like an easy way to gain exposure for your campaign, but garnering coverage requires planning, time, and effort. Download these media outreach tips to learn more about how to write letters to the editor and opinion pieces that increase your state society’s ability to leverage earned media.

Customizable Digital Assets
Download and customize posts and graphics for your preferred digital platform, including Facebook and Twitter cover photos and the state component society web banner for websites and social media. Use the following instructions:

• Customizable Assets: Open the PowerPoint file with the graphic you wish to customize and insert your state component society's information. Click “Save As” and save the file as a PNG or JPEG. Save and click “All Slides” when exporting.
• Customizable Digital Assets [Downloadable file]
• Customizable Web Banner [Downloadable file]
• PNG: State component societies can use these standard digital assets in the PNG format. These include a web banner, social media cover photos, and social media graphics.
• Standard Digital Assets [Downloadable file]

Member Sizzle Reel
This member sizzle reel provides a quick and engaging overview of how physician anesthesiologists are “made for this moment.” Share it via your state component society’s social media, newsletters, and website.

Newsletter Blurb
Use this newsletter blurb about the MFTM campaign to encourage member participation and engagement.

The [insert state component society name] is proud to participate in ASA’s public and professional awareness communications and advocacy campaign, Made for This Moment (MFTM). This multiyear campaign aims to safeguard the specialty from present and future threats by promoting the unparalleled expertise of physician anesthesiologists among key stakeholder audiences, including patients, policymakers, and health care executives.

The MFTM campaign was developed in response to member expectations and environmental demands. We developed specific messaging based on comprehensive stakeholder research in collaboration with ASA leadership and the Committee on Communications.

Here are three simple ways for you to get involved:

• Share the campaign on your personal social media accounts and engage (like, comment, share) with ASA content.
• Work with your state component society to share your personal story through policymaker and media outreach.
• Visit the members-only campaign landing page (login required) for a full overview of the strategy and to view sample ads, read the guiding research, and learn how to participate directly via social media.

Thank you for your support of this communications and advocacy initiative.

MFTM Website Blurb
Add the paragraph below to your state component society’s webpage to show your support and encourage visitors to learn more. Don’t forget to include the hyperlinks to the website!

The Made for This Moment website educates patients about the specialty by highlighting the work that physician anesthesiologists do every day to provide high-quality care across all anesthesiology subspecialties. You can share a variety of resources with patients or policymakers — whether you are managing pain, preparing women for labor, helping children prepare for surgery, leading the Anesthesia Care Team during heart surgery or brain surgery, or working in critical and ambulatory care on a wide range of procedures.

PowerPoint Template [Downloadable PowerPoint]
Download this designed and customizable PowerPoint template for use in policymaker outreach or member engagement.

Editable Branded Letterhead [Downloadable Word doc]
Download this designed and customizable letterhead for use in internal and external outreach.

Outreach Materials

• Policymaker Brochure [Downloadable PDF]: Learn why no other member of the Anesthesia Care Team can match a physician anesthesiologist’s ability to navigate life-and-death moments in patient care. Read physician anesthesiologists’ firsthand accounts of ensuring patient safety.
• Education and Training Infographic [Downloadable PDF]: The infographic shows the differences between the training and education of physician anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists.
• Research Summary [Downloadable PDF]: The summary provides an overview of available research, including outcomes studies showing that physician anesthesiologists’ care decreases a patient’s risk of death and complications; analyses finding that patients don’t benefit when states opt out of physician-led anesthesia care; and cost studies reviewing how physician-led anesthesia care reduces costs.
• Health Care Executive Talking Points [Downloadable PDF]: Use these talking points and tips to talk about the specialty with health care executives. Nothing is as effective as one-on-one, personal contact and sharing the real-life examples that you can provide.