Dispatch #3 from the Alabama Tornado Zone: A Tight-Knit Community, the Red Cross ‘CSI’ Unit, Public Health Nursing

Sue Hassmiller, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing, has been blogging from the area in Alabama recently devastated by tornadoes, where she’s volunteering with the Red Cross. This and all previous posts in this series are being collected on a separate page for easy reference.—JM, senior editor/blog editor

Hackleburg Is Gone!
Picture yourself in your present surroundings; take a look around at the buildings, the houses—and now try to picture them completely gone, with you standing right in the middle of it. That is what Hackleburg went through on April 27. Ninety percent of the small town is gone. You can tell that people lived there by the personal items strewn about, but you can hardly tell where the houses once stood. They have all been flattened. This is very different from the aftermath of the flood following Hurricane Katrina, when the flood-soaked houses were pretty much left standing.

Standing there in the middle of the rubble with family members, it’s hard for me to imagine how anyone survived this. But they did . . . at least most of them. This is a close-knit, church-going […]

2016-11-21T13:13:16-05:00May 9th, 2011|nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Same Boat, Different Ocean

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Since the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing report was released six months ago, we’ve heard a lot about how nurses need to have more representation on boards of health care institutions and be more active participants in decisions about redesigning health care delivery systems. (See our online resource page for a variety of information about the report.)

To me, it’s a recommendation that’s so intuitive and simple that it’s almost embarrassing—and the need for it only drives home how absurd our health care system can be. It’s mind-boggling to me that organizations feel they can plan effective health care without the input of nurses. Imagine aircraft manufacturers designing a plane without input from the primary group—pilots—who will be responsible for flying it safely.

I suppose many health care entities and boards  feel that they have this input from physicians—but really, in most hospitals physicians aren’t involved in the nitty-gritty operations details that either make or break workflow processes or can impede the delivery of safe, cost-effective care.  How many times have hospitals planned patient care units or purchased equipment without nursing, input only to find that the systems aren’t workable or create more work? […]

2016-11-21T13:13:34-05:00April 12th, 2011|health care policy, nursing perspective|12 Comments
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A Nursing Report That Deserves More Than The Usual Shrug

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN, AJN clinical editor

The IOM report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health came out this past October, causing a flurry of excitement among some in the nursing world and groans of “big deal” among others. My immediate instinct was to shrug my shoulders and wonder if yet another report will really make a difference at the bedside.

AJN addressed the report and its implications in our December 2010 and February 2011 issues—so I knew it must be very important. But, for some reason, I had assumed it was going to be a dry, unreadable bore. And I put off reading it until recently, when I needed to use it as a reference. And wow, was I in for a surprise! I especially liked the inclusion of real case studies of nurses from different backgrounds and work experience who are making a difference in health care.

It’s inspirational, and I encourage all nurses out there—and anyone with a stake in health care (that’s pretty much everybody)—to take a look. (Tip: I found downloading the PDF version didn’t take long, and it was much easier to navigate than the HTML version.) If you’d like to hear more on the report and what it means to nurses, sign up for our upcoming […]

2016-11-21T13:13:51-05:00March 14th, 2011|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|5 Comments
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‘Problems Worthy of Attack’: Takeaways from IOM Summit on Nursing’s Future

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Last week, I spent two days at the summit convened by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to launch the Campaign for Action—the strategic plan to implement the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on the future of nursing.

The days were packed with presentations from key players in health care, who offered their perspectives for implementing the recommendations (plus lots of networking, hallway “sidebars,” animated dinner conversation, and commitments from individuals and organizations to continue the momentum). Here are some quotes and snippets of conversation that stick with me as I work on a more comprehensive report:

IOM president Harvey Fineberg, in his opening remarks: “It’s our turn to act to advance nursing and health.”

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, opening the event: “We will remember that we were here on November 30 at the beginning of a new future for nursing.” And cautioning: “scope of practice is the hot button that could blow all this apart.” (A thought echoed by Jack Rowe, an IOM committee member, professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and former CEO of Aetna, who used the term “combustible.”) […]

2016-11-21T13:14:45-05:00December 6th, 2010|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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On the Road to the Future of Nursing

By Shawn Kennedy, interim editor-in-chief  

I’m writing this on the train to Washington, DC, heading to the National Summit on Advancing Health through Nursing, which is taking place November 30 and December 1. This is the next step of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Initiative on the Future of Nursing (see my October 8 blog post) and will launch the Campaign for Action—the plan for implementing the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s report, The Future of Nursing. (You’ll be able to access the webcast and a live chat of webcast users on November 30 here.)

If you haven’t read anything about this initiative, do so. If you’re a nurse and plan to be working for the next 10 years, the recommendations from this report, if implemented, will affect you in some way. Expect to see changes in the following areas, to name just a few:

  • how and where nurses practice
  • undergraduate and graduate curricula
  • licensing and certification criteria
  • reimbursement policies
     

Other nursing initiatives have come and gone, some more successful in achieving their goals than others. AJN will cover the progress of this initiative as it attempts to evolve from a written report to an active process that creates sustainable change. As a start, in the December issue, now available at ajnonline.com, AJN brings you a guest editorial by Susan Hassmiller, director of the Initiative on the Future of Nursing. There’s also a summary and analysis of the report in […]

2016-11-21T13:14:49-05:00November 29th, 2010|career|1 Comment
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