Stakeholders Map Out Strategies for Breaking Down Barriers to Nursing Practice
Washington, DC—Four short months after pledging commitment to help implement the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendations on the Future of Nursing, diverse stakeholders from around the country regrouped to tackle barriers to nursing practice at federal and state levels. The goal for this effort is a health care system where nurses are essential and recognized as critical partners in a collaborative team of providers, a lynchpin to high quality, patient-centered care.
“The transformation of the health care system is dependent upon that occurring,” said Sheila Burke, chair of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action Strategic Advisory Committee, addressing members of the Champion Nursing Coalition and Champion Nursing Council at the three-hour session convened by the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
But the road ahead is not without challenges. Among the hurdles, noted RWJF Senior Advisor for Nursing, Sue Hassmiller, is the fragmentation and lack of integration among providers in a system that rewards volume over value. The system faces health care disparities, an aging and sicker population, and a shortage of primary care professionals to serve the needs of rural areas as well as the incoming wave of newly insured.
Burke called on panelists Peter Reinecke, consultant to CCNA/AARP; Cheryl Rising, RN, MS, FNP, President of the North Dakota Nurse Practitioner Association; and Cheryl Phillips, Senior Vice President for Advocacy at Leading Age, to set the stage, help articulate the argument for legislators and share insights on strategies for removing practice barriers.
Image on right is of Cheryl Rising via webcast.
Panelists advised stakeholders to:
- Organize effectively through ready-to-activate communications around legislative issues.
- Avoid engaging in head on battles with organized medicine. Instead, invite them to the table for discussion.
- Build a coalition, robust in diversity and multiple backgrounds.
- Look at a variety of care settings, from pediatrics to geriatrics, for unique opportunities to practice at peak levels.
- Avoid generalizations and bring messages home to resonate with thought leaders.
Phillips, who served as Chief Medical Officer of On Lok Lifeways and developed a positive 15-year collaboration with a nurse practice partner, encouraged stakeholders to cultivate “champions” among physicians. “There is so much for us to do in the world of aging services,” said Phillips, a recent past chair of the American Geriatrics Society. “It is ultimately a team sport.”
The estimated 50 stakeholders comprised of nursing and non-nursing groups from major consumer, provider and payer leadership organizations, broke into small groups and discussed challenges in their markets and, more importantly, solution-driven strategies.
The discussion moderator, Diana Mason, a Rudin Professor of Nursing, Hunter College and Senior Advisor to the Campaign for Action, concluded the meeting by advising attendees to take the strategies learned to move the IOM recommendations into action.
Susan Reinhard, CCNA’s Chief Strategist and Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute 
added this model will be replicated to advance the IOM recommendations related to leadership, education and interdisciplinary collaboration. “Today, working with experts from across nursing and non-nursing fields to agree on what it takes to deliver quality care is just the beginning of CCNA’s commitment to implementing the IOM recommendations.”
May 26, 2011
The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action is a collaboration created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the AARP Foundation to ensure that all Americans have access to high quality, patient-centered care in a health care system where nurses contribute as essential partners.
Learn more by visiting: http://thefutureofnursing.org/ and http://championnursing.org/.
