Nursing leaders participating in a workshop learned how to strengthen school mentorship programs to improve graduation and National Council Licensure Exam passage rates among underrepresented students enrolled in nursing programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN)-serving institutions.

AARP and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sponsored the Mentoring for Success with Schools of Nursing workshop Sept. 10-11, 2024, at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

While the Campaign’s mentor-training workshops have reached nursing programs at more than 100 schools, this gathering was the first time that leaders from HBCUs, HSIs, and AIAN’s met together in person. Attendees also included leaders from the Campaign’s state-based coalition, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and several national nursing organizations.

The Campaign and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health and Health Resources and Services Administration have collaborated since 2018 to improve mentorship programs among  underrepresented students.

Many students from backgrounds underrepresented in nursing face social and academic barriers that make it difficult to stay in school. The six-year graduation rates for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree-granting institution lag for Hispanic (54%), Black (40%), and American Indian/Alaska Native students (39%) compared with Asian (74%) and white students (64%).

Mentoring programs are a proven strategy to improve retention and promote academic success, thereby increasing representation in the nursing workforce and advancing health equity in rural and underserved communities.

In addition, mentoring programs can result in more students graduating and transitioning into academic and practice settings, thereby combatting persistent nursing workforce shortages undermining care.  

The First Day

The first day of the workshop covered key topics relevant to nursing schools, including NCLEX outcomes and strategies, navigating public and institutional policies, and positioning students as future faculty. Participants learned strategies for submitting effective grant proposals, explored review criteria, and discussed common application mistakes. Participants learned fundraising and grant writing skills. They developed preliminary grant applications using tips and suggestions from facilitators.

To help the schools improve their NCLEX passage rates, a representative from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing discussed the results of the Next Generation NCLEX in a panel with nursing leaders, who shared their approaches to increasing student success in preparing for and passing the exam.

Deans and faculty explored early mentoring and recruitment opportunities to develop future faculty members and prepare students for faculty careers. A nursing faculty shortage exacerbates the nursing shortage: nursing schools turned away 65,766 qualified applicants in 2023 due to a shortage of faculty available to teach them.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there are nearly 2,000 full-time faculty vacancies. Estimates project one-third of the nursing faculty workforce in baccalaureate and graduate programs would retire by 2025. As a result, participants learned strategies to tap into their current students as future faculty.

Day two of the workshop focused on providing mentoring refreshers tailored to the needs of AIAN, HBCU and HSI faculty. Each of the three breakout sessions were conducted as facilitated discussions to engage faculty in dialogues designed to meet the needs of students in their unique programs.

AIAN Breakout

The AIAN breakout session provided an overview, analysis, and assessment of the AIAN mentoring curriculum. The session highlighted successful mentoring programs and, using case studies, offered participants a framework for effective curriculum implementation. Additionally, participants explored practice partnerships that support academic success, highlighting how schools can collaborate with Indian Health Services, health systems and other partners

HBCU BREAKOUT

Thirty-nine participants represented HBCUs. Each nursing school described their student mentoring programs and shared their success stories and challenges. Following this dialogue, participants engaged in a role-play of pre-planned scenarios related to common issues students may experience. These included fostering mentoring relationships, establishing mentoring agreements, mentor-mentee matching, and dealing with students’ academic challenges. These scenarios enabled faculty to apply their understanding of successful mentoring practices to familiar situations. The session concluded with two pre-recorded videos featuring students who described how participating in mentoring programs benefited them.

HSI Breakout

The HSI breakout session consisted of four presentations about strategies for nursing students’ success: enrollment and recruitment, collaborations and partnerships, the CliftonStrengths assessment tool to help mentees discover their strengths to maximize their potential, and the circle of mentorship. The last session discussed using mentorship programs to recruit and retain faculty. Participants also discussed other strategies to recruit and retain faculty, such as ensuring schools offer competitive compensation packages, provide education and research opportunities and promote nurse well-being and work-life balance. New faculty also can apply to participate in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Diversity Leadership Institute.  

Evaluation

One hundred forty-four participants attended the meeting. Seventy-two percent completed the workshop program evaluation; 82% rated the workshop as excellent and said the objectives were achieved.

Participants rated the conference objective most highly (90% excellent): “Compare and contrast cultural frameworks that enhance the mentoring of students from underrepresented backgrounds, ensuring everyone feels included.” This rating was evidence of the success of the workshop’s focus on mentoring for the success of underrepresented students.

Respondents identified the following recommendations they would like to incorporate to improve the mentoring programs at their universities:

• More structured support: Mentees or mentors suggested that their program could benefit from clearer guidelines or more structured sessions.
• Additional resources: More resources, such as workshops, mentor training, or opportunities for mentees to connect with other participants, are needed.
• Better mentor-mentee matching: Some responses recommended refining the process for pairing mentors with mentees to ensure they are well suited in terms of personality or goals.

Finally, a recurring theme was how the mentoring relationship contributed to personal and professional development. Mentees shared how they felt more prepared for challenges they faced in life or work, and thanks to their mentor’s guidance, they achieved their professional or personal milestones.

Workshop Takeaways

The workshop offered participants opportunities to network, share strategies, and explore solutions. For example, nursing educators from two different schools discussed the possibility of sending qualified nursing applicants that were turned away from one school due to space constraints to the other school, which had openings. A nursing leader expressed support for a statewide initiative to create a centralized database or use the NursingCAS system to match qualified nurse applicants with available spots at schools, ensuring capacity limits do not prevent qualified candidates from enrolling in nursing school.

In addition, AARP will host a 2025 grant-writing workshop. This workshop will further AARP’s efforts to improve student outcomes, address the nursing faculty shortage and expand nursing program capacity.

The post Strengthening Nursing School Mentorship Programs appeared first on Campaign for Action.

How can we make real progress on critical health care priorities like advancing health equity, diversifying the nursing workforce, mitigating the workforce crisis through the recruitment and retention of nurses, and elevating the concept of equity-minded nurses?

“One way is to bring nurses and their champions together to brainstorm solutions to these issues — because nurses are natural problem solvers,” says Susan Reinhard, senior vice president and director, AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives.

“Then, we can help them create specific action plans to make those solutions a reality.”

That was the thinking behind the AARP Health Equity and Nursing Summit: Turning Commitments into Action, held Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at AARP in Washington, D.C. Hosted by the AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing^SM (A-CHEN) and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the event brought together leaders from around the country to create health equity action plans for their workplaces, communities and networks. More than 150 summit participants were drawn from nursing, health care delivery, business, unions, social services, social justice and consumer organizations.

The conference opened with singer-songwriter Tad Worku, FNP-BC, an emergency department nurse who brings together song and health care to inspire and heal. Worku set the tone for the conference, speaking and singing about finding his purpose in nursing and serving others. He shared his story of leaving a promising career in music, working with musicians and producers who created hits for stars like Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson, and on the brink of signing a major touring contract for his band, but feeling a lack of meaning his life. So he turned to nursing, and has since combined his two passions of serving others through nursing and singing, and never looked back.

Then attendees rolled up their sleeves and began to hone their plans in interactive workshops that included Becoming an Equity-Minded Nurse, Progressing Seamlessly in Nursing as a Career to Achieve Financial Security, Effectively Addressing the Social Determinants of Health, and the Role Nurses Can Play in Informing the Public of Important Benefits and Services.

In these workshops, participants crafted specific health equity goals, along with metrics and timetables for achieving them. Goals include addressing structural racism to achieve workforce health equity, making health equity a strategic priority within participants’ organizations, developing a loan or debt-free program for rural and/or other underserved communities, increasing the number of American Indian nurses in particular states and creating a network of change agents that connects people, practice, and community partners to achieve health equity goals.

Because few goals can be accomplished alone, workshop members brainstormed potential allies and stakeholders who could help them achieve their objectives. For example, one workshop recommended engaging Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ schools of nursing in population-based approaches to achieve health equity and dismantle structural racism. Other participants decided that forging relationships with key leaders could bring along others who share their mission to advocate for health equity. And, since obstacles can arise in route to a person’s goals, workshop leaders helped participants anticipate educational, institutional and personal barriers that might prevent them from achieving their objectives and think of how to overcome them.

Participants also considered actions they could take to make their goals a reality. Examples included bringing their workshop discussions to their boards for further action, collaborating with their local college Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) organization, implementing cultural competence, diversity and inclusion training programs and workshops for nursing faculty, and deepening expertise in health care payment models to drive economic incentives for better health.

The larger environment in which summit participants must operate to achieve their health equity goals was considered as well. In another panel, Remaining Committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, facilitated by Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEO, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, leaders from the nursing world, AARP and AARP Foundation examined how attendees could remain committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, given the current climate. They shared lessons they had gleaned from confronting racism in their own workplaces and personal lives.

Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, president and CEO of the National League for Nursing, recounted how she dealt with racism overseeing a hospital maternal child unit. Her staff shared that a senior white physician on her unit was instructing the black staff not to touch his white patients. The staff said, “You told us you would make things different, so what do you plan to do about this?”  Because the offending physician was very high-ranking, she thought carefully about how to approach him.

Malone finally decided on an indirect approach. In private, she said, “Doctor, there is an unbelievable rumor going around that you told your black staff not to touch your white patients. It is so devastating that that rumor is going around.” He responded, “Oh my goodness, no, I would never do that!” Malone said, “I didn’t think that you would.”  Following their conversation, he never did so again.

Her takeaway?

“We have to find ways to share with people. Civility is very important, but it does not keep you from telling the truth. Whatever you need to do, do it. We must find ways to help others clean up their behavior.”

Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, PhD, NNP-BC, FAAN, a neonatal nurse practitioner and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation senior nurse scholar, shared a harrowing experience she had with a close friend who experienced health issues in her second trimester of pregnancy. Her friend, an African American woman, called Darcy-Mahoney complaining of dizziness and feeling unwell after her ob-gyn had instructed her to watch and wait in the face of these concerns. Alarmed, Darcy-Mahoney told her to go to urgent care to be assessed by a clinician. She also advised her friend to introduce herself and her husband with their professional titles (both formally referred to as doctor) to ensure that she was listened to and cared for with less bias. Her friend was treated for hypertension and delivered a healthy baby. Darcy-Mahoney explained

“All the things I had been taught about racism in health care manifested in this situation. I know the system and I wanted her to be safe in that system. For me, how we, in the maternal-child space, listen to people or don’t, have powerful implications on outcomes.”

As panelist Edna Kane Williams, MA, executive vice president and chief diversity officer at AARP observed about efforts to achieve health equity in the current climate, “This work isn’t for the faint of heart. Folks have lost the ability to be civil, persistent, and loud. And to persevere. It is not time to sit on the sidelines. Our way of life is being challenged every day. It is exhausting but so necessary. Whether you are a PhD, an RN, or a DNP – everybody can play a role – yet too many of us have decided to stay quiet.”

To make meaningful progress in advancing health equity, we must also consider those populations that have been most severely affected by racial inequity in health care. That’s why the summit hosted a panel entitled, “Health Equity Across Populations,” to lift up the voices of nursing leaders from LGBTQ+, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Black communities. These leaders highlighted health disparities experienced by the historically marginalized populations they represent and suggested steps we can take to improve health equity for them.

For Kelly Haviland, PhD, FNP-BC, TGNB-C, executive committee member of the Nursing Section of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Health Equality, the biggest priority is to ensure that we gather data pertaining to LGBTQ+ people for epidemiologic research. These data are needed so that we can understand the health status and care delivery experiences of LGBTQ+ people. Yet, the US Census doesn’t collect them, nor do many other national databases.

“We need to collect data in a consistent way in our electronic health records and do so in a safe, warm and welcoming way,” she said. “Educating nurses about LGBTQ+ health disparities is important, because, if you lack the data, you lack the proof to show that LGBTQ health disparities should be priorities.”

Jing Wang, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of the Asian American Pacific Islander Nurses Association, is committed to building diversity in the nursing profession through recruitment and mentorship. In her role as Florida State University College of Nursing Dean, she says,

“I focus on recruiting leaders from diverse groups and making sure that, as a dean, they are successful in their academic careers. I’ve learned so much from these leaders in my own career and had many mentors teach me how to become a leader and a dean. I was very shy and introverted when I started out, so if I can do it, anyone can.”

Sheldon D. Fields, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of the National Black Nurses Association, is optimistic about the prospects that we can dismantle racism in nursing. He says, “As a profession, nursing has a moral and societal obligation to ensure that we are training a workforce that mirrors the society that we are and are becoming. I look at nursing and ask, how did we get here for so long with the underrepresentation of people of color within this profession? Where did all the gatekeeping to this profession start and how do we dismantle it?”

“For the rest of my career I will do everything I can to diversify the nursing profession. Nursing has a moral and ethical obligation to address this lack of diversity, and we are simply not there yet. But we have finally found the road and we are on it.”

Adrianna Nava, PhD, MPA, RN, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, envisions her organization becoming a national leader in Latino health — one that policymakers can look to for advice on Latino health issues. She is building a larger footprint in Washington and at the state and local levels. “Nurses need larger networks and leadership skill sets to be able to bring about policy change. Our organization is helping student and practicing nurses build both of those so we can impact our profession and the communities we serve,” she said.

The summit panelists are hopeful about the changes that nurses are leading to create greater health equity throughout our society. Yet, as Staci Alexander, MPA, vice president, AARP Global Thought Leadership, notes,

“Health equity remains elusive in this country more than two decades after the seminal study by the National Academy of Medicine, Unequal Treatment, was conducted. While we remain more committed than ever to achieving this goal, we need your help.”

Learn more about getting involved with the Campaign for Action.

_{^{Photo credits: Greg Kahn for AARP.}}

The post “Everyone Can Play a Role” in Advancing Health Equity appeared first on Campaign for Action.

The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is pleased to announce it is accepting applications for a new award program, co-sponsored by nursing organizations, that will recognize nurses who are helping lead the way to health equity through practice, education, research or leadership. We hope you will consider applying, nominating someone, or sharing word of the program with others who may be interested.

Five winners in separate categories will receive $1,000 each, plus paid travel to and attendance at the Campaign’s health equity summit in Washington, D.C., where awardees will be recognized at a reception. The AARP Health Equity and Nursing Summit: Turning Commitments into Action is scheduled for Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at AARP’s National Office. The conference will bring together leaders from health care delivery, nursing, unions, business, social services, social justice and consumer organizations to identify evidence-based solutions to the problems of disparities in health care delivery and access.

The Campaign launched an equity-minded nurse initiative in 2022 as part of its work to implement recommendations from the National Academy of Medicine report, the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. The Campaign defines equity-mindedness for nurses as so deeply understanding and embracing health equity, social justice, anti-racism, and cultural humility that these concepts emerge as normalized, automatic and default thought processes no matter the setting or the group of people they work with. In addition, AARP has launched the AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing^SM, known as A-CHEN.

Individuals can apply or nominate others for an award beginning July 17 through Aug. 18. The Campaign will convene reviewers for each award category to evaluate applications and select winners, who will be notified in September.  

The award categories are: 

• The Equity-Minded Rising Star for student or early career nurses whose contributions show promise for ongoing impact in reducing health disparities and advancing health equity. This award is co-sponsored by the National League for Nursing.

• The Equity-Minded Practice Award for a nurse whose work with patients, families and/or communities exemplifies efforts to reduce health disparities and advance health equity.

• The Equity-Minded Research Award for a nurse researcher whose scholarship advances science knowledge that advances health equity.

• The Equity-Minded Educator Award for a nurse educator whose efforts demonstrate excellence in diversifying the nursing student body, inclusive teaching/learning practices, and whose teaching and/or curriculum design includes topics that lead to the graduation of equity-minded nurses. This award is co-sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (Updated: July 27, 2023).

• The Equity-Minded Leader Award for a nurse who is a catalyst for change at the systems or organization level to address and dismantle policies and structures that contribute to disparities and inequities. This award is co-sponsored by the American Organization for Nursing Leadership.

For more information about the award program, please see the frequently asked questions on the Campaign’s website.  

We thank you for your interest and hope you will consider applying or nominating someone.

The post Launches Award Program to Recognize Equity-Minded Nurses appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Americans have identified nurses as the most trusted profession, in or out of health care, every year for the last two decades. But nurses across the country are exhausted, discouraged and leaving their roles or the profession in droves. It is time for a re-calibration. Read about ten things that some nurses said the public, patients and their friends and families can do to support nurses. These ten ideas are distilled from 75 nurses’ responses to in a recent, informal online survey, and described by Cynda Rushton PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN,  a professor and chair at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Susan Reinhard PhD, RN, FAAN, chief strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that runs the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of the same organizations.

Read their post at the AARP Public Policy Institute’s Thinking Policy blog.

The post Ten Things You Can Do to Support Nurses appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Contact: Mary Boyle, CCNA Communications Director at mboyle@aarp.org

The AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing^SM and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), have awarded nearly $700,000 to 15 projects (updated August 15, 2023) offering promising solutions aimed at eliminating structural inequities, particularly structural racism, within the nursing profession, health systems, or community, and for projects that  help improve  access to care and services for those most disproportionately impacted by  health disparities. Projects also support the advancement of one or more of the recommendations in the National Academy of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.

Structural racism is pervasive within the nation’s health and health care systems, and despite progress, still poses significant barriers to health and wellbeing for far too many. Additionally, health and wealth disparities disproportionately affect people of color, as well as older Americans, women, people with low-income, those with disabilities, those from LGBTQ communities, and those who live in isolated rural communities.

The 15 winning projects are from: California (3), District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland (2), Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin (2). (Update August 15, 2023) Read more about the projects and recipients.

“This is our first time offering this award and we received an impressive number of applications addressing a range of issues and potential solutions,” said Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president and director of the AARP Public Policy Institute, and chief strategist at the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA) and Family Caregiving Initiatives. “It’s clear to me that nursing recognizes its role and is committed to advancing health equity. It’s an exciting time for our profession, and for the Campaign and the AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing. We have work to do, and we are all in.” 

“Longer, healthier lives are not just the result of individuals making healthy choices,” said Jean Accius, PhD, senior vice president for AARP Global Thought Leadership. “Good health and longevity are simply not available to everyone in this country. There are structural barriers and biases in the health care system and how it’s funded.” He continued, “I am very proud of AARP’s commitment to supporting nurses in the fight against health disparities.”

“Nurses are everywhere in our communities – from the bedside to our schools and in board rooms,” said Beth Toner, RN, MSN, MJ, and senior communications officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). “They see firsthand the impact of the structural injustices baked into the systems that impact health. At RWJF, we understand that their expertise and innovation are absolutely essential to dismantling structural racism within our health systems and beyond,” she continued. “And for the same reasons, we are helping to fund these awards. The innovation, passion and commitment we see in all these grantees is exactly what I expect from nurses.”

The awards will be administered by the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA) at the AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing. (Read more below.)

For more information and to learn about individual projects, go to campaignforaction.org/health-equity-innovations-fund.

The AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing serves as a vehicle for change and national resource for advancing health equity.  CCNA is an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and it runs the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of the same organizations building a healthier America through nursing. Since its founding in 2007, CCNA has created national and state multi-sector networks to stimulate collaboration, innovation and spur action for better health and well-being through nursing.

The post Recipients of Health Equity Innovations Fund Awards appeared first on Campaign for Action.

In the wake of a national inflection point after the highly publicized killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, nurses have become even more activated to leverage the potential of the nursing profession to advance health equity. In May 2021, the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine released the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Health Equity. In it they stated, “A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone — no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make — can live the healthiest possible life. And helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses…. Nurses, then, have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity” (p 3-4).

Health equity is an aspirational vision of what population health can be. To achieve health equity, we must address and solve health inequities which can be defined as the systemic, avoidable, and unjust social and economic policies and practices that create barriers to health (Braveman & Gruskin, 2003).  Health equity can only be achieved by a collective approach which embraces the wisdom of all healthcare disciplines, including nursing. At four million strong, the nursing profession has the potential to influence policy on the systems, structures, and communities in which they work. However, as Nikitas, Emmons, and Ackerman-Barger noted, “For far too long, nursing and nurses have observed the negative impact of health inequities and disparate outcomes without seeing themselves as drivers of change” (2022, p. 7). By adopting the concept of “equity-minded nurses” we can rewrite this script for ourselves and become central to constructing the health outcomes that align with our professional and personal values.

Equity-minded nurses are those with the knowledge, skills, and desire to advance health equity. Equity-minded nurses recognize themselves as informed and capable drivers of change who are uniquely poised to inform healthcare practice, policies, research, and educational standards. The term ‘equity-minded’ was coined by the Center for Urban Education and “refers to the mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who are willing to assess their own racialized assumptions, to acknowledge their lack of knowledge in the history of race and racism, to take responsibility for the success of historically underserved and minoritized student groups, and to critically assess racialization in the their own practices as educators and/or administrators” (McNair, Bensimon, Malcolm-Piqueux, 2020, p. 20).  Translated into nursing practice we might say that equity-minded nurses are

… those who are willing to assess their own racialized assumptions and recognize how these assumptions can impact their clinical decision making, to acknowledge the history of race and racism and how this history impacts current health outcomes, to take responsibility for the optimizing the health and wellness of historically underserved and minoritized individual patients, communities, and populations, and to critically assess racialization in their own practices as nurses, policy-makers, educators, researchers and/or leaders. 

Equity-minded nurses so deeply understand and embrace health equity, social justice, anti-racism, and cultural humility that these concepts emerge as normalized, automatic and default thought processes no matter the setting or the group of people they work with.

This is an exciting time in our development as a profession. The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,  has given us a call to action: “Achieving health equity will require serious reflection on our identities and responsibilities as nurses, nurse champions and contributing members of society. Then we will need the willpower to turn that reflection into action.”

Through blogs, webinars, and events, the Campaign will spend the next 12-months highlighting examples of how equity-minded nurses practice, innovate, collaborate, and most importantly, positively impact the health of individuals, families, and communities. We hope you will join us on this journey and exploration.

References

Braveman P., & Gruskin S. (2003). Defining equity in health. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 57, 254-258.

Campaign for Action (2022). Improving Health Equity. Retrieved from /issue/improving-health-equity/

Mcnair, T.B., Bensimon, E.M, and Malcolm-Piqueux, L. (2020). From equity talk to equity walk: Expanding practitioner knowledge for racial justice in higher education. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine. (2021).  Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Health Equity. Washington DC: National Academy of Medicine.

Nickitas D.M., Emmons, K.R., Ackerman-Barger, K. (2022, accepted, in press). A policy pathway: Nursing’s role in advancing diversity and health equity. Nursing Outlook.

The post The Rise of Equity-Minded Nurses appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Maleka Robinson, MSN, BSN, RN, and her daughter Marcella Garner, DNP, CCRN, RN, made New Jersey history earlier this year when they opened the first Black-owned mother-daughter, nurse-led clinic in the state.

Robinson, who has lived in East Orange, N.J., for 24 years, wanted to bring a medical clinic to her community, which has a shortage of health providers and health accessibility.

“Demand for services outweighs access, and some people often do not trust the medical system,” she said.  “We know our community and want to bridge that gap.”

Robinson renovated the first floor of her two-family home into a medical facility, and MGM Medical Center opened its doors in June. MGM stands for Marcella Garner and Monica, the names of Robinson’s two daughters.

Because Robinson and her daughter both work full-time in hospital settings, they keep the clinic open four-and-a-half days a week, each of them working there during their days off from the hospital. 

Robinson is an acute care hospitalist at Morristown Medical Center, and Garner is a family nurse practitioner at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Saint Barnabas Medical Center.

Their experiences caring for hospitalized patients inspired them to open a clinic focused on primary care and prevention.

“We see people at the end of the train and catch them at their lowest point,” Garner said. “We wanted to see patients earlier on, when we can encourage them to get routine physicals and lab work, and to eat right and exercise.  We want to educate patients and make them knowledgeable of how to take care of their hypertension, diabetes or asthma, so it doesn’t lead to worse conditions or hospitalizations.”

Ericia Williams, who lives in nearby Harrison, N.J., believes Robinson and Garner saved her life.  She suffers from anemia, which caused her hands to be cold and turn yellow. Iron pills, a common treatment, made her ill.  As a Black woman originally from the Caribbean, she wanted a provider who understood Black women’s health. She discovered MGM Medical on ZocDoc.com.

Williams went for her physical and completed lab testing. Garner called her the next morning at 6:00 a.m. to tell her that her hemoglobin was dangerously low and to go to the emergency room for a blood transfusion — and stayed on the phone with her until she got there.

The blood transfusion was successful, and Williams has since completed three of five iron infusions to bring her hemoglobin up to normal levels. She is working with Garner and Robinson to eat more iron-rich foods to maintain her iron levels.

Robinson and Garner “are caring, and they really listened,” Williams said. “They never rushed me, and they explained everything. I’ve told everyone from Brooklyn, where I grew up, you have got to check them out!”

Dea Turner, a chemist from Parsippany, N.J., similarly sought out a provider who understood her and her background after negative experiences with non-Black clinicians who criticized her weight based on unrealistic standards for her body type; her BMI is within the normal range.

“I get nervous going to a doctor, and they put me at ease,” Turner said. “They listened, they were attentive, and they let me say what I needed to say. [Garner] did encourage me to exercise more and to make sure I’m eating healthy, but she didn’t make me feel bad about it. She could relate to me and my background.”

Turner appreciates how the East Orange community can see Garner and Robinson and “imagine entering the medical field, too. It’s a good image for young people to see these women.”

Both Williams and Turner emphasized the importance of having a provider who looks like them, given the widespread health disparities affecting Black women. Research shows that Black nurses increase access to care and improve the quality of care Black patients receive.

The mother-daughter health team wants to address the disparities in care head on. Their initial goals are to make the East Orange community aware of the clinic, as well as to provide education on disease prevention and to refer patients, as needed, to services that address the many social determinants of health.

Their long-term goals are to hire an obstetrics/gynecology provider and nutritionist.  They want to provide exercise and nutrition classes and make the clinic a place people visit to stay healthy. They also want to encourage more people in their community to seek medical care.

“From growing up in East Orange and speaking to other people, we realized there was a mistrust of health care professionals,” Garner said. “We let people know we treat everyone with love and respect. If we build trust, patients start to ask us questions about their health.”

The clinic, which is transit accessible, accepts most insurance carriers, Medicare and Medicaid patients, and charges an $80.00 flat fee for patients without insurance.  Approximately 10 percent of patients self-pay, and 20 percent are on Medicaid ─ a number Robinson expects to increase.  It also partners with LabCorp, Quest and Acureference to offer patients without insurance a discount on lab tests.

Mervin Nelson, who lives in Newark and lacks insurance, sought out the clinic when he had a stomach infection and learned MGM Medical takes uninsured patients.

“They treated me right, and they made me feel welcome,” he said.  “A lot of places turn their back on you without insurance.”

Robinson’s and Garner’s impactful careers illustrate the power of nurses modeling and mentoring for each other and their communities. Robinson decided to become a licensed-practical nurse (LPN) after she saw an LPN helping a disabled woman grocery shop.  A young single mom, Robinson worked as an LPN, then returned to school for her RN, BSN, and then MSN to “be able to make a bigger impact,” she said. Robinson has also been a part of medical mission teams, including in Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic for over 12 years.

Garner fell in love with nursing after working in a nursing home as part of a health class elective she took in high school.

“Whether it was just chatting with a patient or getting them coffee, the patients were so appreciative, and it gave me great joy,” recalled Garner, who had intended to become a lawyer before taking the elective. “I told my Mom, ‘I get it. I understand why you’re a nurse, and I want to be one, too.’”

Garner was content with her bachelor’s degree and working in an ICU, but her mother told her she could make a larger impact by helping more patients to stay well with a doctorate of nursing degree.

“I trusted her, so I did it,” Garner recalled.  “We love our jobs.  We love helping our patients.”

The post Mother-Daughter Nurse-Led Clinic appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Nurses have been working with public schools to serve children for generations. In Massachusetts, nurses and school leaders used funding from the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action to improve the well-being of students, especially those living in communities with low health rankings. The Campaign is an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Since 2010, Massachusetts has required every public school to have a wellness committee that addresses topics of nutrition, physical activity, and any other issue that might affect student well-being. The Campaign’s Massachusetts Action Coalition leveraged its first Nursing Innovations Fund award to increase nurse leadership on these school wellness committees, focusing on communities that received low rankings in the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project.

“This project aligned with a national movement to seek new leadership roles for nurses,” said Patricia Crombie, MSN, RN, project director with the Massachusetts Action Coalition. That movement included the Nurses on Boards Coalition filling more than 10,000 board seats or decision-making bodies with nurses whose strategic influence will improve the health of communities, plus additional focus by the Campaign and others to elevate nurse leaders.

“There has been a focus for several years among nurses developing leadership roles beyond the usual medical spaces,” Crombie said. “We were also developing relationships with many school nurses and public health nurses, so it all kind of came together when we saw an opportunity from the Campaign to help nurses pursue those leadership roles.”

Crucial to the success of the project was a partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. This group was represented on the team by Joseph Baeta, Ed.D, superintendent of Norton Public Schools and Paul Vieira, Ed.D, superintendent of Douglas Public Schools.

Baeta said it had always bothered him that health was treated as an afterthought in school curricula. He explained that his district has taken the unusual step of instituting a year-long health class in freshman year conveying the message that it is as fundamental a subject as English or math.

Vieira agreed that the past few years have showed the state just how much nurses can do for schools. “They’re doing more than just Band-Aids and checking blood sugar,” he said. “They’re in classrooms. They’re educating staff. They’re developing curricula. They’re in planning meetings with teachers. They’re doing so many things behind the scenes to strengthen the school.”

The Massachusetts Action Coalition used its second Nursing Innovations Fund award one year later to focus on developing interventions to help school wellness committees address vaping, a top concern for school administrators.

The Action Coalition collaborated with partner organizations and school wellness committees to create a structure and process for vaping curriculum development. Its members then worked with representatives from partner organizations to create evidence-based, adaptive and developmentally appropriate curriculum based on existing state and national resources. The outcome was an Anti-Vaping Curriculum Resource Guide, which was evaluated and disseminated to school systems throughout the state.

Though the focus on the issue lessened somewhat because of the pandemic, Baeta said he anticipates that school administrators will have a much greater need for the curricula as they see their students are no less addicted than they were before COVID-19 lockdowns.

“It’s back full throttle,” he said.

In The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, the National Academy of Medicine highlighted schools as essential sites for addressing social determinants of health. The Massachusetts project shows that with the right partnerships in place, nurses and school leaders can effectively meet the diverse needs of schools throughout the state.

Forming those kinds of partnerships takes curiosity and humility, according to Maureen Sroczynski, DNP, RN, who served on the Norton Public Schools wellness committee with Baeta.

“Instead of going in and telling people what they should do, it’s more reaching out to the community and saying, how can we help you? How can we support what you are already doing?” she said.

Baeta believes that by boosting the visibility of school nurses, this program is deepening the community’s respect for their expertise and for the many different ways they can contribute to the well-being of students. To learn more about the Massachusetts Action Coalition’s project, visit the Nursing Innovations Fund webpage.

The post Take On Vaping and Improve Student Well-being appeared first on Campaign for Action.

What kind of initiative brings together a beef council, a local theater group, and a state’s largest university? A Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action-supported program where nurses take on the problem of suicide in innovative ways. The Campaign is an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Kentucky Action Coalition’s “Kentucky Partners to the BARN (Bringing Awareness Right Now)” initiative first received funding from the Campaign’s Nursing Innovations Fund in 2020. In its initial phase, the project focused on the epidemic of farmer suicide. Action Coalitions are the Campaign’s state-based coalitions.

As the program’s leaders explained in an essay, while anyone can experience mental health issues, including suicidal thoughts, certain professions are more vulnerable because of several additional factors.

“Farmers are more susceptible to suicide because of unique stressors and suicide exposures associated with agriculture production, which include social isolation, relationship problems, and unpredictable forces such as crop and livestock loss, machinery breakdown, and commodity market fluctuations,” the team wrote.

The BARN program addresses these problems through the “Farmer Dinner Theater” approach first developed by Deborah Reed, PhD, RN, FAAN. Through dramatic presentations featuring actors as well as the farmers themselves, these gatherings help farm families discuss health issues facing their communities.

In the Action Coalition’s version of the program, more than 30 students who had an interest in agricultural careers were recruited through local 4-H clubs. They were then trained in suicide prevention skills as well as theater skills in order to produce the skits for the dinner theater.

In the end, 255 people attended the dinners, far exceeding organizers’ initial estimate of 100 attendees. Participants are exposed to a variety of proven mental health interventions, from breathing techniques to basic suicide intervention resources. But all the information is grounded in re-enactments of real situations that farm families may have faced.

“It is real, it is raw, it is powerful,” said Janie Heath, PhD, APRN, FAAN, dean of the University of Kentucky’s College of Nursing and one of the program’s organizers. “I have never seen a more engaged group of people in my life.”

Reflecting on the development of the program, Heath credits advice from the Campaign that prompted her and her colleagues to better engage with the community and its needs. That idea put them on the path to partnerships with groups like 4-H, the Kentucky Beef Council, and the Actors Theater of Louisville. The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food & Environment and the Kentucky Future Farmers of America Association are also partners in this effort.

“Some of the best advice we received from the Campaign was to reach out to non-nurses to help us think about our strategy and next steps,” she said.

This evolution in thinking was part of a larger turn toward health equity in nursing, said Julie Marfell, DNP, APRN, a University of Kentucky professor and another leader of the project.

Since receiving their first innovation award in 2020, the Kentucky Action Coalition has greatly expanded its impact. Another innovation award in 2021 helped the group expand the BARN program to address the issues of mental health and suicide among young people, recruiting 100 school nurses to participate.

The same training and tools will also be used to address nurses’ well-being, an urgent priority identified by National Academy of Medicine’s The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.

“It’s all about getting nurses involved in this work and trained in this work, and it all goes back to that first funding from the Campaign,” Heath said.

But the increase in impact goes beyond any one program. Heath said the new strategies and connections developed over the past few years have helped Kentucky’s nurses become more influential on policy matters. For example, the state recently moved to require continuing education in suicide prevention for nurses.

“We’re working with state government. We’re working with city councils. We’ve got street cred now and everyone understands that we’re not going away,” she said.

The Kentucky Action Coalition also has big plans to share what they have learned with other states. Working with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the College of Nursing is developing a toolkit to reproduce their successes with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The toolkit will include a planning guide, curricula, facilitators’ guide, and “train the trainer” lessons. Organizers plan to share the toolkit throughout the southern region of the United States.

To learn more about how you can implement programs like the one in Kentucky, visit the Nursing Innovations Fund page on the project.

The post Reducing Suicide Among Kentucky Farmers appeared first on Campaign for Action.

The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action is pleased to announce that it will implement a new three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to continue its work disrupting structural barriers to health equity by tapping the full potential of a diverse nursing work force and increasing access to care. The Campaign, a national initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, is run by the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA), an initiative of the same organizations. CCNA is led by Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president and director of AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist of CCNA and the Institute’s family caregiving initiatives.

Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN

“We could not be more excited to continue the Campaign’s critical work of building a healthier America through nursing,” said Reinhard. “We plan great strides in achieving health equity in the U.S. built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise.”

The $3.8 million grant is part of an 18-year RWJF investment in CCNA, which was established in 2007 with the goal of ensuring all Americans have access to a highly skilled nurse when and where they need one.

In 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the country’s largest philanthropy devoted to health and health equity, joined AARP Foundation and AARP, the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people to choose how they live as they age, to found the Campaign for Action. CCNA would coordinate the Campaign, guided by a 2010 report by the Institute of Medicine, the Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.

Twelve years later, RWJF turned to the same partnership, this time to implement what is known as the second future of nursing report, released in 2021 by the National Academy of Medicine, with a focus on nurses leading in advancing health equity and disrupting structural racism.  

“We believe this three-year investment in the Campaign for Action is the natural next step in ensuring that the important recommendations in The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity are moved forward,”  said Don Schwarz, senior vice president of program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “and implementing those recommendations will ensure nurses have the tools they need to heal and to advance health equity for everyone.”

AARP Foundation has been a partner in the work since the beginning.

“AARP Foundation is proud to be on this extraordinary journey with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP and the Center to Champion Nursing in America/Campaign for Action to advance health equity and well-being through nursing so everyone can live longer, healthier lives,” said Emily Allen, interim president and senior vice president for programs at AARP Foundation. “With RWJF’s support, we have strengthened the nursing profession, which is now better able to advance the cause of health equity in our nation. AARP Foundation shares nursing’s commitment to fighting health disparities. Our mission is to create a world without senior poverty, where no older adult feels vulnerable.  We invest in and create effective solutions that help tackle the root causes of senior poverty and emphasize equitable outcomes for populations that have faced systemic discrimination.”  

The Campaign plans to leverage, strengthen and engage its robust, multi-sector national network to implement the NAM’s 2020-2030 recommendations. That network includes national, state and local coalitions, as well as more than 2,000 businesses, health organizations, hospital systems, insurers, private companies and non-profit organizations, as well as nurses.  

Guided by a vision that everyone in America can live a healthier life, advanced by equity-minded nurses as essential and valued partners in providing care and promoting health and well-being, the Campaign’s focus through May 2025 will be:

• Fostering and unleashing the power of equity-minded nurses to lead and advocate for health equity and disrupt structural racism,
• Increasing equitable access to care and services by nurses, and
• Strengthening, growing and diversifying nursing at all levels.

Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, is co-leader of the Campaign’s Strategic Advisory Committee. She said the Campaign’s work to advance health equity has never been more urgent given numerous conditions that have brought social and racial injustice and disparities to the forefront of public health. “Equity, diversity, and inclusion are essential core values of nursing and what’s needed to build a healthy United States of America,” Villarruel said.

Learn more about the Campaign.

The post Campaign Moving Forward to Build Health Equity appeared first on Campaign for Action.