Nurses Spotlighted by RWJF for Crucial Role in Health Care Reform

"Time for Change," David Reece / via Flickr.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) takes nursing very seriously. Their latest publication, “Nursing’s Prescription for a Reformed Health Care System,” makes it clear that workable health care reform in the United States is not going to happen without a major reenvisioning of the role nurses can play at every level of health care. Put another way, it’s not just about the technology and the physicians. The new RWJF brief

“combines case studies with analysis and policy recommendations, and arrives on the desks of lawmakers and health care reformers just as Congress and the President begin to piece together what promises to be the most significant overhaul of the nation’s health care system since the creation of Medicare. . . .‘Nurses have created model programs in acute care, primary care and public health settings that are improving the health status of individuals and communities,’ the brief declares. ‘These initiatives are expanding access, improving quality and driving down costs.’”

 These initiatives include
• “comprehensive, community-based care for the elderly”
• “nurse-managed health centers and retail clinics”
• initiatives such as TCAB (Transforming Care at the Bedside) aimed at supporting quality and patient safety in the workplace

-Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:32:30-05:00April 28th, 2009|health care policy|0 Comments
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Public Health in Azerbaijan: On the Road with AJN Contributing Editor Jane Salvage

Jane Salvage in Baku, Azerbaijan

We recently received the following account of a visit to Azerbaijan from AJN contributing editor Jane Salvage, MSc, BA, RGN. At the time of writing, Salvage was a consultant for the noncommunicable diseases programme, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. She now works as the policy lead in the support team for the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England, and fears that seeing Baku in the springtime will have to wait a year or two. This post is fairly long, but we feel the range of local detail included by Salvage gives a fascinating glimpse into what it’s really like to work in the field of international public health policy. (Note: we’ve retained some UK-style spellings.)

Did I pack the toilet rolls, diarrhoea pills, and dollar bills? These are essential survival items for my trips to Russia and other former Eastern Bloc countries. I’ve added many things to my travel checklist since my first visits in the 1980s—gadgets like the computer and phone charger—but the core kit stays the same. I never know quite […]
2016-11-21T13:36:18-05:00April 6th, 2009|Nursing, Public health|2 Comments
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Marketing Osteoporosis: How a Risk Factor Becomes a Disease—and Health Care Costs Continue to Rise

Photo by kyz / Stuart Caie via Flickr.

“In the name of prevention, millions of Americans have accepted the idea that it’s reasonable to treat a risk factor such as bone loss or high cholesterol as if it were a disease,” writes Maryann Napoli, associate director of the Center for Medical Consumers, in her April AJN article, “Marketing Osteoporosis.” […]

2016-11-21T13:36:27-05:00April 3rd, 2009|health care policy, nursing research|0 Comments
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President Obama: Where Are the Nurses?

I was delighted to see President Obama nominate nurse Mary Wakefield to head up the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) (see my posting about this on  February 20th at www.disruptivewomen.net).  I was expecting him to understand the value of having the nursing perspective represented in meetings focused on health care reform. So I am quite disappointed to be told by colleagues that there will only be a token nurse at today’s Health Care Reform Summit. Lots of physicians and insurers are there, but only the president of the American Nurses Association will represent nursing. (While I expect that Wakefield will be there, she will not be there to represent nursing.) My message to the president and those he has charged to lead health care reform: You can’t reform health care without nurses. And nurses have a lot of solutions to our ailing health care system. For examples of these solutions, look at the American Academy of Nursing’s Raise the Voice Campaign.

–Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, Editor-in-Chief

2009-03-26T21:19:13-04:00March 5th, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Obama’s Reversal of Conscience Rule

Last Friday, the Obama administration took a first step to reverse one of the most disconcerting policy changes made by the Bush administration during its 11th hour on a topic that I’m sure will be controversial among nurses, as it has been in society—the so-called “conscience rule.” There is a 30-day public comment period before the rule can be rescinded. […]

2016-11-21T13:38:37-05:00March 3rd, 2009|career, health care policy|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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