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.

What actions can nurses take to advance health equity?

Answers to this question were the focus of Building Equity in Nursing and Health Care Leadership, a December 1 summit sponsored by AARP and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Sponsors included AHIP, The Leapfrog Group, UnitedHealth Group, and The Joint Commission.

Summit participants included frontline nurses; nurse managers, educators, and employers; leaders in government, business, and professional organizations; and members of the Campaign’s state Action Coalitions, who are at the forefront of advancing health equity. Their calls to action were personal, programmatic, or focused on policy. Here are a few highlights of what they said.

Nurses need a stronger voice, said Mix, who believes all nurses have a role to play in advancing health equity. In her keynote address, she said the COVID-19 pandemic had produced a shift in nurses’ sense of self-worth. “Nurses have seen how valuable we actually are,” she said. “We have to do a better job of helping people understand what it means to be a nurse and the value that [we] add.”

Another powerful call to action came from Tasheeba Mongeon, who works at a federally qualified health center in Rochester, NY. Mongeon described what she learned caring for underinsured patients, many of them Black patients.  “It’s really not fair for us to judge anyone else…because we don’t know what happened to that person. No one wakes up and says, I want to be homeless today. No one wakes up and says, I may harm myself today,” Mongeon told attendees. How does she view her job as a Black nurse concerned about health equity? “To advocate for [my patients], to provide support, to jump in there before something happens.”

Beard recalled conversations with her grandfather, a Black man who refused to seek health care despite his cancer-related pain because “they don’t treat me the way that I should be treated,” he told her. Beard called racism “the elephant in the room,” and said the time had come for institutions to decide who within their ranks will take responsibility for addressing the problem.

Diversifying the health care workforce to address disparities in care is a strategy the Campaign has long embraced, but its implementation is still a work in progress. Another summit panelist, J. Margot Brooks Carthon, PhD, RN, FAAN, Tyson Endowed Termed Chair for Gerontological Research and Associate Professor of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, proposed a related call to action. She urged nurse researchers to examine what specific skills and strategies nurses of color employ with their patients and for these effective practices to be standardized. “Are they building trustful relationships? Is it something about their communication patterns? Are they using deep, different teaching or motivational interview tactics? It’s not that they just show up in their melanated skin and they’re magic.”

How can a health system advance health equity? Luminis Health offers vivid examples.

1. It adopted a version of the National Football Association’s Rooney Rule, requiring search committees to recruit a qualified candidate with an ethnic-minority background for the finalist pool of every leadership vacancy in the health system.
2. Luminis got rid of a tardiness policy that disproportionately resulted in the termination of staffers using public transportation. Many of these employees were people of color.
3. When Luminis realized it wasn’t reaching people of color during the COVID-19 pandemic, the health system upended the prevailing policy of requiring a doctor’s appointment and referral for a COVID-19 test or vaccine. The system opened the first drive-up, walk-in test site in their community—no appointment needed. Then they went to barber shops, food distribution sites, and day-laborer gathering points “to truly meet people where they were,” Richmond said.

The health system continues to engage in rapid-cycle improvement to make its service delivery more equitable, in part through the Leaders in Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Collaborative, an initiative spearheaded by Meritus Health and Luminis Health with AARP’s support. “There is urgency,” to advancing health equity, Richmond said. “We have just gone through a pandemic, and it’s not over. And guess what? Racism is our second pandemic that we have to address as urgently as we have been addressing COVID.”

“We all have to [focus] on data, because data is what’s going to show that impact,” Jerde told summit attendees. To track where and how many United Health Group enrollees are referred to community-based services, the insurer created an ICD-10 medical code to track referrals related to social determinants of health.

Data is prioritized at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey as well. They track activities related to health equity using 33 performance metrics, 15 of which sit on a scorecard. “Executive compensation is tied to those metrics,” said DeAnna Minus-Vincent, MPA, Executive Vice President, Chief Social Justice and Accountability Officer, RWJBarnabas Health. “That’s why accountability is in my title.”

Elevating data collection and the self-reporting of demographic information is critical to advancing health equity, in the view of Rear Admiral Mix. “How can you say that you’ve had an impact on a particular population if you haven’t collected the data that actually tells that story?” she asked.

Richmond, President at Luminis, agreed but cautioned those in attendance not to become paralyzed by the search for perfect data. They should set priorities and act when the data is “good enough.”

As an accrediting body most closely associated with efforts to improve patient safety and the quality of care, The Joint Commission’s decision to make health equity its number one strategic priority speaks volumes. “We’ve been bold enough to say, this is [about] quality and patient safety. [Health care organizations] cannot choose to address central line infections and not address disparities in health care,” McKee asserted.

In January 2023, her organization will release a set of requirements aimed at reducing health care disparities. Every health care organization will need to put leadership in place to address the disparities and collect data to demonstrate the impact of health equity initiatives. McKee said some health care entities are already engaged in these activities, others want to be engaged but don’t know what to do, and still others don’t believe they have a problem. “That’s what makes this work really challenging and interesting,” she said.

For many nurses, speaking out can be hard. “We don’t want to say anything for fear of retaliation, because if I talk up, then I might lose my job,” said Taquana Holley, DNP, MSN, RN, Clinical Educator, Critical Care for the Center for Professional Development Innovation and Research, Monmouth Medical Center. She urged other nurses to overcome that fear. “Sometimes you have to kick down the door and let them know, Hey, I’m here, and I’m telling you, I want to do this.”

Many of the participants also called on nurses to be mentors and sponsors, develop leadership pipelines, and build their own support teams. Jean Accius, PhD, Senior Vice President, Global Thought Leadership, AARP, who was instrumental in supporting the summit, urged attendees to build relationships that bridge divides. “Identify someone in our workplaces, who doesn’t look like us, who is not from our background or walk of life, and create an opportunity for mentorship and reverse mentorship. You both will benefit,” he said.

These calls to action were music to the ears of Campaign leaders.

Several panelists urged everyone in attendance to read the Future of Nursing report and to use the Campaign’s Health Equity Toolkit. Since the National Academy of Medicine released its 2021 report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, the Campaign’s state Action Coalitions and other stakeholders have been working to spur action on the report’s recommendations. To facilitate this effort, the Campaign created a Health Equity Toolkit with resources and information to help communities address the social determinants that influence people’s health and an Action Hub with additional resources. Both can provide a foundation for health equity initiatives by individuals and groups.

The health equity summit was organized by Winifred Quinn, PhD, FAANP(H), FAAN, Director, Advocacy & Consumer Affairs, Center to Champion Nursing in America (CNNA), an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that runs the Campaign for Action, and Mary Anderson, JD, Director, Advocacy, AARP Illinois. Reflecting on the gathering, Quinn observed, “This event was an important step in engaging a variety of stakeholders in the effort to improve care quality and outcomes and to advance health equity through a robust, diverse nursing workforce.”

Jazmine Cooper, MBA, CCNA’s Project Advisor for Advocacy & Consumer Affairs, who served as the event’s emcee, noted that mentoring was highlighted as a key strategy for building that workforce, and she expressed optimism about the future. “We will continue to create a safe space to have difficult conversations and explore solutions to address health disparities, racism, and improving health equity,” she said.  

Fauteux is founder and principal at Propensity, LLC, a communications firm serving educational institutions and nonprofits focused on health care, health policy, and the health professions.

Reinhard is senior vice president and director of AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives.

The post Calls to Action for Advancing Health Equity 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.

It is bittersweet for me to share with you that Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD., RN, FAAN, director of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, is leaving her roles at the Campaign and as senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on May 31, to pursue new opportunities.

An American Academy of Nursing Living Legend, a recognized change agent and role model for nurses worldwide, Sue has lived a lifetime commitment to improving the nation’s health by strengthening the nursing profession and empowering nurses. She will continue sharing her experience, knowledge and passion for improving health and well-being through new ventures, which she describes in a LinkedIn post.

As many of you know, Sue was a leader in the creation of two major RWJF-funded “future of nursing” reports by the National Academy of Medicine that have guided the Campaign since its 2010 inception: the Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and more recently, the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. She has spent countless hours dedicated to speaking, giving trainings and running programs that have inspired, excited, strengthened and transformed nursing.

While Sue may be departing, the Campaign, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, will move full steam ahead. We plan great strides in achieving health equity in the U.S. built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. Some highlights of the Campaign thus far include:

• Improving access to care in 13 states so that now 94 million people in 26 states and the District of Columbia have direct access to nurse practitioners;
• Helping to diversify the nursing workforce through mentor programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and American Indian/Alaska Native schools of nursing retain and graduate students.
• Placing 10,000-plus nurses on boards or decision-making bodies with strategic influence to improve the health of communities.
• Developing a broad network of national and state coalitions that include businesses, health organizations, hospital systems, insurers, private companies and non-profit organizations. We’ve partnered in some way with more than 2,200 organizations over the past decade.
• Raising more than $110 million in service of creating healthier communities through nursing.

Our work continues to build a nursing workforce that reflects the communities it serves; we just celebrated New York and Kansas becoming the 25^th and 26^th states respectively, along with the District of Columbia, to achieve full practice authority for nurse practitioners and look forward to continuing collaboration with AARP state offices and nursing organizations to modernize laws in additional states so consumers have better access to care. We continue to elevate nurse leadership and foster nurses’ role as leaders and advocates; we are creating new resources and collateral to help our Action Coalitions and stakeholders talk about nursing’s role in achieving health equity and ending systemic racism.

I could not be more grateful for the privilege of working closely with Sue for the past two decades. I and my team at the Center to Champion Nursing in America, also an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, which runs the Campaign, wish Sue much success in her new chapter and hope our paths continue to cross.

The post A Farewell appeared first on Campaign for Action.

The last few weeks have seen record surges in COVID-19 infections in most of the country, in large part due to the arrival of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Nursing homes are also seeing a rapid surge in cases among both staff and residents, according to weekly data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are now more COVID-19 cases in nursing homes than ever before, and deaths are rising as well. Nursing home residents were among the first to be fully vaccinated last year, and the message from recent data is clear: nursing home residents and staff need booster shots now. AARP is calling on nursing homes to require COVID-19 booster shots for residents and staff.

Rapid Surge in Cases

We first see any evidence of the Omicron surge in the nursing home data for the week ending 12/26/2021. Only one week later, there were 42,000 new staff cases, more than any previous week of the pandemic. Over the two most recent weeks of data ending 1/16/2022 there were more than 120,000 new staff cases, as many as the entire month of December 2020, during the previous peak.

Resident cases show the same pattern. Approximately 80,000 new resident cases were reported across the two most recent weeks ending 1/16/2022. These are the two weeks with the most cases of the entire pandemic, surpassing the previous high during last winter’s peak, in which over 40,000 residents died in just two months.

In addition, despite deaths typically lagging behind other indicators, the resident death rate has already begun rising. Deaths remain far below last winter’s rate, but the number of residents dying from COVID-19 has doubled in the last two weeks.

Get Boosted!

One of the most important tools to protect nursing home residents and staff is vaccination. According to the AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard, about seven out of eight nursing home residents were fully vaccinated as of mid-December, and about half had also received a booster dose. More than four in five health care staff in nursing homes were fully vaccinated, but only one in five had received a booster shot[1].

Booster shots are absolutely critical to maximize protection against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. Most residents were vaccinated in early 2021 and are due for a booster dose if they have not already received one. While being fully vaccinated without a booster still provides protection against severe illness and death, it is no longer adequate for nursing home residents; a booster is necessary to remain protected. The rate of new infections in nursing home residents who have received a booster dose is more than 90 percent lower than the rate among residents who are not fully vaccinated, or who are vaccinated without an additional booster dose, according to CDC data for the week ending 1/9/2022. AARP is calling on nursing homes to require COVID-19 booster shots for residents and staff: the time is now to get shots in arms.

Delivering booster doses to nursing home residents who need them, and direct care staff who are eligible, should be of highest priority. This means considering a key issue: there is considerable variation in rates of booster uptake by state. As of mid-December, more than three-quarters of nursing home residents were boosted in North Dakota and South Dakota, compared to less than one-third in Arizona and Florida. The rate of staff booster uptake ranged from a low of 11 percent in Indiana to a high of 42 percent in Hawaii. Especially where vaccination and booster uptake are lagging, states must tackle this matter with urgency. Anyone working or living in a nursing home who is eligible for a booster but has not had one should do so as soon as possible.

[1] These numbers are somewhat lower than is reported in other places.  We report the percentage of all residents and all staff who have been boosted; CDC and others typically report the percentage of fully vaccinated individuals that have received a booster dose.  In areas or groups where the vaccination rate is less than 100%, this could appear to overstate the percentage of the total population that is fully protected.

AUTHORS

 

Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Senior Vice President and Director of the AARP Public Policy Institute.  She leads the LTSS Choices project and serves as the Chief Strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives. She is the leader of the LTSS State Scorecard and LTSS Choices Initiative to promote the transformation of long-term care. Her areas of expertise include bridging research, policy, and practice in family caregiving; long-term services and supports; and the health care workforce. Read her full biography.

Ari Houser, MA, is a senior methods advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute. His areas of expertise include research methods and statistics, long-term services and supports, demographics, and family caregiving. Read his full biography.

This was originally posted on AARP’s Thinking Policy blog. 

The post Omicron is Hitting Nursing Homes appeared first on Campaign for Action.

AUTHORS

Susan Reinhard

Susan C. Reinhard, RN, PhD, FAAN, is Senior Vice President and Director of the AARP Public Policy Institute.  She leads the LTSS Choices project and serves as the Chief Strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives. She is the leader of the LTSS State Scorecard and LTSS Choices Initiative to promote the transformation of long-term care. Her areas of expertise include bridging research, policy, and practice in family caregiving; long-term services and supports; and the health care workforce. Read her full biography.

 

Brendan Flinn

Brendan Flinn, MPH, is a senior policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute. His areas of expertise include long-term services and supports issues, including policy affecting home and community-based services and nursing homes. Read his full biography.

The post Build Back Better Act Strengthen Staffing appeared first on Campaign for Action.

The weeks before and after Thanksgiving are usually filled with grace and gratefulness. And so it is even this year, a year of highs and lows. Through it all, you, our great network of allies and friends, have shown remarkable strength. Today, we write simply to say thanks. Thank you for putting your lives on the line, and thank you, too, for taking steps to create a powerful future.

You—all of you reading this—are helping the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action reach our ultimate goal of a more equitable America, one in which more people have more choices for better health. For your dedication, we are grateful.

We thank for the ways you are making the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report your own. You were inspired and inspiring at our two Campaign summits, in June and September: In all, nearly 100 organizations have taken a stand to achieve health equity, committing to implement at least one recommendation from the National Academy of Medicine’s long-awaited report. You are taking purposeful steps to diversify the nursing workforce, address systemic racism, support nurse well-being, and more.

We thank all of you who participated in our Health Equity Action Forum series, and our mentoring programs supporting nursing schools that serve populations underrepresented in our profession.

And we’re glad, too, for ongoing progress that represents a significant victory for the public: With Delaware just months ago lifting restrictions on nurses, some 83 million people in 24 states and the District of Columbia now have direct access to nurse practitioners who can provide full care.

We are thrilled that, despite the pandemic’s pressures, many of you chose to focus on the critical work needed to create structures to make health care more equitable in every way, by applying for our Nursing Innovations Fund awards. We look forward to watching the progress of the six coalitions that earned funds, along with our many past-year awardees.

You are part of a huge group of good-hearted, hard-working people fighting to bring better health to this country. There is greatness in numbers, and your strength and determination are sources of joy and great hope. Thank you for many hundreds of reasons to give thanks!

Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN
Senior Adviser for Nursing, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation;
Director, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action

Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN
Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute;
Chief Strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives

The post Giving Thanks appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Earlier today, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released its eagerly awaited report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. The report’s dedication to “nurses around the world who paid the ultimate price of caring for people during the COVID-19 crisis” strikes an appropriately solemn note given what has transpired, but the report itself lays out an optimistic and ambitious vision of the future. The authors see nurses taking on “expanded roles…in new settings in innovative ways” and contributing to ushering in “a new era of promoting health equity and well-being for all.”

Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN,

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the report examines nurses’ role in achieving health equity—the ability of everyone to attain their full health potential—and in bridging the health and social needs of individuals, families, and communities. “This is a transformational time for the field of nursing,” said Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN, visiting professor at Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, who co-chaired the NAM study committee that wrote the report. “Policymakers and health system leaders must seize this moment to strengthen nurse education and training, integrate health equity into nursing practice, and protect nurses’ physical, emotional, and mental well-being, so they can provide the best care possible.”

All of us at the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and RWJF, will be delving more deeply into the report in the coming weeks, and I encourage you to take a look for yourself. For now, here are a few key take-aways:

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

 Nursing is an overwhelmingly white and female profession. To be effective in promoting health equity, nurses need to diversify their ranks. Whether in schools or the workplace, identifying, recruiting, and supporting nurses who reflect the diversity of the U.S. population and enabling them to take on leadership roles is critical to advancing equity. The report emphasizes the need to build partnerships with colleges that serve communities underrepresented in the nursing profession. I’m pleased to note that the Campaign is already engaged in this work, and we know we have more work to do. Noting the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, the report also includes a detailed discussion of racism as a social determinant of health and calls on nurses to acknowledge and dismantle racist structures within the profession.

Education

The report calls on education programs to prepare nurses to advance health equity. Historically, nursing education programs have focused heavily on preparing nurses to work in hospitals. That’s not sufficient if we want nurses to address social determinants of health, among them access to stable housing and adequate food, income, and education. Nursing schools will need to increase community-based learning experiences such as those captured by the Campaign in a 2018 survey of nursing educators. The report also urges schools to teach students to use telehealth and analyze data, skills that can assist them in addressing population health.

Nurses’ Health and Well-Being

The report calls on a range of stakeholders to immediately initiate efforts to promote nurses’ health and well-being, to address current concerns and prepare for future natural disasters and public health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic has left nurses feeling burnt out and unprotected as a result of their experiences in the workplace and incidents of hate and discrimination, particularly against nurses of Asian descent. Nurse leaders and employers have central roles to play in creating healthier work environments and policies that support nurses, but individual nurses, their associations, and policymakers can take steps to promote nurses’ health and well-being as well. The report also notes the potential for increased strain when nurses take on the emotionally taxing work of addressing health inequities and social justice issues, with the burden falling most heavily on nurses from underrepresented groups.

Paying for Nursing

The report stresses the need to reform the ways government and private insurers pay for nursing care so that nurses can devote more attention to disease prevention and other public and community health activities. The report gives a special shout-out to school nurses for the vital role they play in serving children with complex health and social needs. The study’s authors call on state and local governments to identify dedicated funding to ensure all children have access to a nurse while in school, which is sadly far from the case today.

Consonant with its sister report, 2010’s The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, this new report also calls for more nurses to earn PhDs, for all nurses to lead in developing policy, and for the removal of barriers that prevent nurses from practicing to the full extent of their education and training. Not surprisingly, the report also urges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government entities to take a number of concrete steps to reinforce nurses’ ability to respond to future public health emergencies.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson

Among the other challenges that nurses will face in the next decade, the report notes the care needs of the nation’s aging population. As director of AARP’s Public Policy Institute, these words resonated strongly with me and my colleague Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of AARP Foundation. “AARP and AARP Foundation began investing in nursing back in 2007 because we knew nurses were essential to advancing health for all Americans. That’s still the case, as the NAM report makes clear, and not just at the bedside,” Ryerson said. “Nurses are powerful allies in AARP’s effort to advocate for vulnerable older populations and communities.”

Edna Kane Williams

Edna Kane Williams, AARP executive vice president and chief diversity officer, also enthusiastically reviewed the report. “The pandemic revealed and exacerbated a range of disparities and injustices for people of color and for older Americans. All people—regardless of age, race, or income—should have access to affordable, patient-centered, quality care,” said Williams.  “The NAM report affirms AARP’s work to diversify the nursing workforce, move towards health equity, and transform the health care system.”

I agree. As we review the report in the coming weeks, we’ll be posting more on its contents and what nurses can do to engage in the effort to advance health equity. I hope you’ll join us!

Reinhard is senior vice president and director of the AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America, also an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, which runs the Campaign for Action, and caregiving initiatives.

The post NAM Study Sees a Bright Future for Nursing appeared first on Campaign for Action.

First, a heartfelt thank you. Thank you for the contributions that we know you have made to your family, your community, the profession, and more, during a year of enormous challenges that include sickness in our ranks, burnout, grief, and worse. The pandemic has tested the world, and nursing as a whole. Even as we help others—as we always do—we also hurt.

Bearing witness to the pain and loss and the frailty of our systems continues to be hard. As the new year brings the hope of widespread availability and use of vaccines, we know that we still need to fight to heal ourselves, our fellow nurses and their families—all who continue to sacrifice.

In these earliest days of 2021, we would like to pause to look back—and forward—at nursing and the role the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), plays in the nation’s well-being.

It was the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, chosen to honor—200 years after her birth—the founder of modern nursing. But COVID-19 ravaged the world, which means that Florence Nightingale’s name is also now part of another sort of homage: The Nightingale Tribute names the nurses who have given their lives helping others during the worst pandemic in a century.

While the health disaster has highlighted the courage of nurses, it has also highlighted the disparities in health and health care. Then with the killing of George Floyd came a public reckoning of the effects of structural inequities, and the nation’s recognition of the need to right historical wrongs. As we affirmed at the time: Racism and injustice have no place in our country today. Our pathway to equity is to help build better health through nursing.

In ways large and small, we made strides in 2020 to do just that. Progress includes:

Access to Care

States: Through the Center to Champion Nursing in America, the Campaign’s operating arm, also an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, we hosted monthly sessions to guide others on how to work with state policymakers to lift—at least during the pandemic—legal restrictions on nurses. Participants included Action Coalitions, AARP state offices, and community groups. Successes in Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin expanded access to care for nearly 59 million people.

Florida, California, and Massachusetts also saw changes in laws that improve consumer’s access to care.

Federal: Nursing organizations including the Campaign, through AARP, helped pass the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, providing consumers easier access to care at home.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Among contributions toward building a more diverse nursing workforce, the Campaign’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Steering Committee has created a mentoring program and a health equity toolkit for use by nursing schools. The mentorship program, designed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health and historically black colleges and universities, includes mentor-training workshops and a learning collaborative. Postponed last year, but back on track, are similar programs for students at schools that serve largely Hispanic populations, and those that serve American Indians.

Population Health in Nursing

The Campaign, with a grant from RWJF, completed a series of reports exploring promising models of nursing education related to improving population health. The Population Health in Nursing (PHIN) project, found here, also examines how nurses should be prepared for new roles in population health practice.

National Academy of Medicine report

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) delayed to late spring 2021 its much-anticipated report on the future of nursing 2020-2030, expanded to include nursing’s role in responding to the public health crisis. Many reading this letter have contributed to the committee’s broad outreach and research, including during an August 2020 webinar.

Coming Up: Virtual Gatherings to Plan Action

The focus of each is important, so we’ll list in chronological order brief notes on the meetings we have in store for early 2021.

• On January 12, we held the first of our Health Equity Action Forums, focusing on the value of diversifying the nursing workforce to achieve health equity. It was the first of several such virtual meetings. The second, slated for February 3, will cover the topic of nursing as a career ladder for establishing financial well-being for underrepresented communities.
• February 24, we will honor the work that so many have carried out based on the 2010 Future of Nursing report. We’ll also look ahead to the next NAM report.
• In May, we expect the release of the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report.
• June 3–4, we’ll gather Action Coalitions and other Campaign members, allies, and stakeholders to plan how to implement the new report recommendations.

Nursing Innovations Fund

Wrapping up our yearly note is a spotlight on an inspiring set of projects past and future: the Nursing Innovations Fund Awards. In October, we announced 10 ambitious projects designed to address health disparities that each earned $25,000 awards. And look for news in May about a similar funding opportunity, for projects that address structural inequities.

Again, we want to thank you for all that you have done. Nursing, long the most trusted profession, has never been more important. You have pushed through and persevered. For all you’ve endured and the grace you have shown, thank you.

Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN Senior Adviser for Nursing, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Director, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action

Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute; Chief Strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America

The post A Heartfelt Thank You appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Four leading nursing organizations are among 10 major health care groups appealing to governors and state health care leaders to agree to crisis standards of care based on individual assessment, not categories including age and disability, when it comes to allocating treatment as the country’s hospitals reach capacity with COVID-19 patients.

The letter recognizes concerns shared by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as other organizations, including AARP, that without effective and protective standards, the rationing of care can disproportionately hit those with less income and power.

In a letter posted on the website of the National Academy of Medicine, the nursing organizations, including the American Nurses Association, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and National League for Nursing, make clear their commitment to protecting the most vulnerable.

“We have reached a point in the crisis at which critical decisions must be made in order to do the most good possible for the largest number of people with limited resources. These decisions effectively signal a shift from conventional to crisis standards of care,” the letter said. “This means making unprecedented and agonizing decisions about how resources are used, stretching many resources well beyond conventional limits.”

The health care leaders signing the letter urge that allocation of resources be based on assessment of individuals, not based on categories such as disability, age, “judgments as to long-term life expectancy” or “evaluations of the relative worth of life.”

“Health departments, along with health care coalitions, should be coordinating care across jurisdictions, and hospitals should be working closely with their clinicians to not only adjust processes and procedures to maximize capacity, but also implement processes to make fair and ethical decisions if these adjustments fail and there is not enough of an essential resource.”

Not all states have crisis standards of care, which are emergency plans the National Institutes of Health defines as “a substantial change in usual healthcare operations and the level of care it is possible to deliver, which is made necessary by a pervasive (e.g., pandemic influenza) or catastrophic (e.g., earthquake, hurricane) disaster.”

Read the letter

Susan C. Reinhard is senior vice president and director, AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives

The post Urging Caution in Crisis Care appeared first on Campaign for Action.