RWJF and Gallup Release Survey Data on Opinion Leaders' Perceptions of Nursing Leadership

By Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN and Brenda L. Cleary, PhD, RN, FAAN

Many of you are aware of the new Gallup survey data that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently released . For us, the findings of “Nursing Leadership from Bedside to Boardroom: Opinion Leaders’ Perceptions,” while not entirely unexpected, were a call to action.

CCNA is the consumer voice for nursing. As such, we know that better health care and health policy requires the contribution and leadership of nurses. As RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey recently wrote, nurses “are uniquely positioned to help reduce medical errors, increase access to health care, manage and improve care coordination, identify ways to contain costs, and much more.”

The RWJF/Gallup survey demonstrates that many in positions of leadership and influence do NOT perceive nurses are visible leaders in health care—and that means that we have a lot of work to do. Moreover, survey respondents indicated that nurses have little to no influence over increasing access to care. This is particularly troubling because, in fact, nurses are well-positioned to be leaders in creating effective policy to increase access to health care and to provide primary care for millions of Americans, particularly those in rural areas, with limited access.

Federal and state policies, as well as payor reimbursement policies currently restrict the care many nurses can provide, thereby limiting consumer access to care by qualified, highly skilled professionals. Americans need access to these nurses, who must, as Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell said at the event yesterday, be “free to do what they've been trained to do."

Nurses and consumers must work together to simultaneously address the systemic challenges in nursing education and capacity while demonstrating the incredible value of nursing to patients, hospital systems and communities—not just to those who we serve in direct patient care , but to those in the boardroom and in government as well. Part of the call to action rests on the shoulders of the health care consumer to demand access to quality health care and that means supporting policies that promote education and retention of highly-skilled nurses in America, while diminishing practice restrictions.

Susan C. Reinhard is Senior Vice President, AARP Public Policy Institute and CCNA Chief Strategist
Brenda L. Cleary is Director, Center to Champion Nursing in America