AAN President's Pages
The nurse as social entrepreneur: Revisiting our roots and raising our voices
My term as president of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) has nearly come to its end. I write this brief essay, the last of my presidential messages, facing a list of work that remains while reflecting on the enriching experiences of the past 4 years in office. Although there are many AAN achievements of note over the last 5 years or so, the one I think of as our signature initiative is Raise the Voice (RTV). At this point in its life cycle, RTV, like so many successes, has many “mothers.” (Recall that, by contrast, failure is generally an orphan.)Developing policy leadership in nursing: Three wishes
A few months ago I was “cold called”—via e-mail—by a BSN student from another university who asked if I would help her with a course assignment. Her instructor had asked the enrolled students to read specific sections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and interview a nurse leader regarding what s/he thought of the policy in those sections. Having “discovered” me through one of my AAN President’s columns, the student was enlisting me to assist her to complete her assignment. Although I have never designed an assignment quite like the one proposed, I have encouraged students to contact leaders in the field to interview them—generally about their professional careers—so I was inclined to participate, thinking my turn had come.The future of nursing and campaign for action: An update on the work at AAN and beyond
The release of the October 2010 Institute of Medicine report on the Future of Nursing, Leading Change, Advancing Health,1 resulted in an immediate flurry of activity focused on scope of practice. The first of the 8 recommendations in the report said, “Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.” Much of the initial press coverage of the report hyped the doctor-nurse battle over scope of practice, overlooking the more fundamental message that nursing capacity would not be fully harnessed toward improving the health of the nation if nurses were unable to bring their full range of preparation to the delivery of health care.The health of our nation and the importance of nursing
With the new congress sworn in and the State of the Union Address days away (at this writing), I have been reflecting on my hopes for that address, for the future health of the American public, and the role of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in shaping the future of health care in America.Making a difference in the health care of veterans: 9 things you should know
I began my clinical career in nursing as a staff nurse on a psychiatric ward at the Washington, DC Veterans Administration Medical Center (VA). The year was 1971 and many of those for whom we cared were soldiers recently returned from Viet Nam. I recall that the VA referred to the DC hospital as the “flagship” of the VA system, and according to their website, the distinction holds true today. The site reports, “We strive to only hire the best!” As an alumna, I take some pride in this message, even today.Making the case for nursing workforce diversity
Recently, I had the opportunity to work on a writing project with a few of my colleagues. We were interested in reviewing the arguments for diversification of the nursing workforce, including the related evidence and reports of “best practices” that would support policy changes. We were surprised at how little evidence we found reported in the literature.Setting priorities for health reform
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (Public Law No: 111-148) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, after a period of lengthy and acrimonious national debate (see full analysis on the Kaiser Family Foundation website: http://www.kff.org ).1 Long before agreement on the final language of the bill was complete, the healthcare community had conceded that the bill would address insurance reform, leaving the challenge of health reform to continue beyond the bill's passage.On interdisciplinarity and why it matters … A lesson from primary care
While attending a national meeting of nurses earlier this year, I was surprised to hear an esteemed colleague question the need for interdisciplinarity. Perhaps my current work environment, which places a high value on interdisciplinary effort, has lulled me into making assumptions about its value, but I have become a believer and find myself wondering why others are not greater advocates. To me, the case is fairly straightforward.The Grand Challenges and nursing
What are the Grand Challenges? For nearly 30 years, governments around the world have been allocating their resources to address problems known by several specific names, but generally known as the Grand Challenges. These problems were modeled after the work of David Hilbert, a mathematician, who more than 100 years ago developed a list of the unsolved problems he believed to be mathematics' most significant, known as Hilbert's Problems. The Grand Challenges are difficult problems that stretch the limits of cognitive or cooperative skills.On the importance of being policy-ready
Throughout the last decade, the leadership of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) has refined the Academy's mission and developed a series of specific, strategic plans to accomplish that mission. The mission of the AAN is to serve the public and nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge. Our stated vision is to transform health and health care policy and practice through nursing knowledge. At the AAN's November 2009 Annual Meeting, outgoing President Pamela Mitchell provided a comprehensive report of the organization's strategic accomplishments as guided by the strategic plan that is coming to a close.
