President’s message
Article Outline
- Disseminate knowledge to shape policy and practice—strategic goal number one
- Vision into action
- Action into influence—strategic goal number two
- Results
- Engage fellows and key stakeholders—strategic goal number three
- Generate evidence and accelerate integration of evidence into practice—strategic goals four and five
- Reference
- Copyright
Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN
Our mission is to transform health care policy and practice through nursing knowledge. Over the last 2 years it has been my pleasure to serve as president and to work with a phenomenal board of directors and staff to promote programs and activities in support of our mission. The actions of the board of directors, policy staff, expert panels, commissions, committees, task forces, advisory board members, and the support of staff from Executive Director Incorporated (EDI) have helped us increase our productivity, obtain financial support from foundations and individual members, and to be recognized as an organization that advocates on behalf of the public good. In my last president’s message we highlight a few of the Academy’s activities in support of our strategic goals.
Disseminate knowledge to shape policy and practice—strategic goal number one
While Academy Fellows have always played an essential role in the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge, we, as an organization, have needed to play an additional and complementary role: connecting this knowledge with the individuals and organizations responsible for creating public health policy and making resource allocation decisions. “Policy encompasses the choices that a society, segment of society, or organization makes regarding its goals and priorities and the way it allocates resources to attain those goals. Policy choices reflect the values, beliefs and attitudes of those designing the policy.”1
Vision into action
To more effectively shape policy choices, we established a national policy office in Washington, DC, in August 2006. The opening reflects a long-held vision. For years, we envisioned serving as a leader organization in public policy, making full use of nursing knowledge and research. As reflected in the strategic plan adopted by the Fellowship, we envisioned making the nursing case to national leaders, initiating dialogues that bring nursing voices to decision- and policy-making tables. Visions, however, remain abstract unless people take action—and so we did. Starting during the tenure of my presidential predecessor, Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, we conducted an extensive CEO search involving all board members in the selection process that culminated in the hiring of Patricia Ford-Roegner, MSW, RN, FAAN. We also hired policy associate Liz Parry, whose work extends the reach of the office.
Transforming health care systems to make sure they meet the needs of the American people means making policy choices. “The American Academy of Nursing prefers shaping these choices, through dissemination of knowledge and advocacy, as opposed to holding our thoughts,” says Ford-Roegner. During the past year and half, policy office staff, in tandem with Academy leaders, have shared a great deal of nursing knowledge and increased the Academy’s visibility. Both activities have helped shape policy and practice.
Action into influence—strategic goal number two
The Washington policy staff has been engaging their office neighbors, the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity staff, as well as the board, Expert Panels, Health Disparities Task Force, Workforce Commission, foundations, and our nursing organization partners in developing policy-related initiatives. After creating an impressive public affairs packet as well as timely and topical briefing papers, our CEO and other Academy leaders have been influencing the “influencers,” the highly regarded policy people that congressional leaders and their staffs consistently consult in search of fresh ideas and possible solutions for vexing health care problems.
We have held multiple conversations focusing on health care reform, chronic disease management, strategies for addressing nursing and faculty shortages, comprehensive children’s health care, support for nursing research and education and the importance of establishing health care homes. Our policy efforts are aimed at providing society in general, health professional organizations and consumer groups, as well as congressional and state staffers and legislators with nursing evidence. We encourage them to use such evidence in the creation of policies that promote the health and welfare of the public. We have worked with other nursing organizations including, but not limited to, the American Association of Colleges of Nurses, American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives, National Black Nurses Foundation, and National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nursing Organizations to address mutual concerns and issue statements in support of proposed policies. We have limited AAN meeting places to smoke-free cities, supported the re-authorization of funds for the State Child Health and Insurance Programs, Title VIII funding, and expanded funding for the National Institute for Nursing Research. We have also responded to myriad public messages regarding nurses and their preparation.
We have successfully engaged partners who value and help disseminate our policy work including the AARP, which has graciously agreed to support a policy scholar in aging. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has assisted the Academy in its quest to place nurses in positions where they can provide knowledge on critical policy issues at the public, social, and health levels. Through the efforts of the Foundation and Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, we have a funded scholar—Ellen Kurtzman, RN, MPH—who is assisting us with moving our quality work forward. Ms. Kurtzman will work with our CEO, Pat Ford-Roegner, MSW, RN, FAAN, to produce a paper that discusses the effect of nursing knowledge on quality and performance standards dissemination. We have reached out to the National Quality Forum, Institute of Medicine, Agency for Health Care Quality and Research, National Leadership Council, and the broader nursing community, emphasizing the role nursing plays in improving the quality of patient care.
Results
Engage fellows and key stakeholders—strategic goal number three
The Health Disparities Task Force, with the support of a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has engaged Fellows and 8 community health centers across the country in the planning phase of an exciting project aimed at decreasing health disparities for children and individuals with diabetes and asthma. Under the leadership of Task Force Co-Chairs Divina Grossman, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Catherine Alicia Georges, EdD, RN, FAAN, the centers and numerous Fellows have begun to forge partnerships designed to build health homes, promote self-management, and increase access to primary care, thereby decreasing the use of costly emergency department and other rescue efforts. The Academy will soon submit a phase 2, implementation grant to fund the work of this unique partnership.
The John A. Hartford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Mayday Fund and Evercare worked with the Academy to support efforts to improve the care of elderly in acute, long-term and nursing home settings. Patricia Archbold, DNSc, RN, FAAN, Patty Franklin and the Expert Panel on Aging have been instrumental in facilitating our work for improving the care of elderly persons.
We are working with the Expert Panel and other stakeholders to develop competencies at the undergraduate and graduate levels for the preparation of nurses at associate degree, baccalaureate degree, and graduate degree levels. While the Academy continues to promote the need to prepare nurses at baccalaureate degree level as the minimal standard for entry into practice, we must continue to develop evidence-based practice improvements for the largest segment of the nursing workforce—associate degree-prepared nurses.
The Nursing Workforce Commission successfully engaged the hospital and technology industries in efforts to identify actions they should adopt that can improve the practice environment in acute care settings. The education committee of our Workforce Commission has produced a manuscript focused on strategies for addressing the nursing shortage. The committee calls for increasing the pool of nurses who could assume faculty positions by linking the primary production of nurses that currently occurs in associate degree programs with universities and colleges offering baccalaureate and graduate degrees. We are hopeful that the manuscript will be published in a policy journal.
Generate evidence and accelerate integration of evidence into practice—strategic goals four and five
The productivity of the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science has facilitated the Academy’s efforts to generate practice recommendations and integrate the best evidence into practice. Under the leadership of Marilyn Sommers, PhD, RN, FAAN, and past president Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Council produced an outstanding conference and framework to move our science forward as the basis for effective policy and practice.
Our Institute of Medicine (IOM) Fellow and a past president Ada Sue Hinshaw, PhD, RN, FAAN, led efforts to include nursing in a new IOM health professional manuscript on closing the gap that continues to exist between knowledge and utilization of evidence for clinical practice. The lead author, Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, FAAN, assisted us in creating a document on the changes in nursing education, service, and in policy required to increase the utilization of evidence that can influence practice and policy in nursing. The Expert Panels on Cultural Competence, Global and International Health, Transcultural Nursing, Quality, Acute Care and Aging produced papers with specific recommendations for clinicians, educators, and scientists based on the synthesis of knowledge in their fields.
The Academy has increased its visibility and received recognition from the society at large, health professionals, and policy, social, and health care groups as an organization that is of use to society. In view of our increased productivity to improve practice and health policy, the board of directors approved the consolidation of our policy and operations functions. Effective January 1, 2008, the Academy will operate out of our Washington, DC, office under the leadership of Patricia Ford-Roegner, MSW, RN, FAAN, and Chief Executive Officer of the Academy. We are confident that the consolidation of our organizational structures into one office will serve as a catalyst to engage others in support of our mission, strategic plan and goals.
It has been my privilege to serve as a thought leader and catalyst for this leg of our journey. As I pass the leadership baton to Pamela Mitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN, and her board, I am confident that the Academy will continue to progress in its quest to be an organization that simultaneously benefits the public and advances nursing science and its contribution to the health and well-being of our nation.
Reference
PII: S0029-6554(07)00241-2
doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2007.09.006
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
