Champion Nursing Coalition Addresses the Future of Nursing as a Lynchpin to Health Care Reform

More than 50 national leadership organizations representing consumers, purchasers and providers of health care shared their important perspectives on the role of nurses as a critical element for health reform implementation and a sustainable health delivery system at a Champion Nursing Coalition forum held at AARP on July 28. This meeting on health care and the future of nursing drew a full house of existing and potential Coalition members concerned with forging solutions to build a 21st century nursing workforce.

AARP’s Executive Vice President John Rother identified four areas where transformation must occur in order to create a system that takes a holistic patient view: coordinated care; a higher priority for wellness and prevention; communications among clinicians; and increased support for patients and caregivers.

“Nurses,” he said, “are central to achieving that mission.”

Attendees pointed to multiple chronic diseases, an aging boomer generation, a growing frail population, the need to integrate care with wellness and prevention and a burdened health care workforce as demands for a pivotal role for the trusted nurse professionals to enhance quality, access and minimize cost in the health care system.
 
In an unprecedented effort, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have joined forces to establish the RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the IOM .

At Wednesday’s meeting, Sue Hassmiller, the Foundation’s Senior Advisor for Nursing and director of the Initiative on the Future of Nursing, underscored the need for recruitment and retention of diverse nurses; increased nursing education capacity; use of new technologies and enhanced skills for the future; nursing leadership influence in health care decision making; interdisciplinary workforce teams; and revisiting laws on scope of practice. As part of the Initiative, the IOM convened a committee and will unveil a transformational report on the future of nursing in early October. University of Miami President Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services, chairs the Initiative.

Calling on Coalition members to rally to the cause, Linda Burnes Bolton, committee Vice Chair, noted, “No one single discipline can (transform) how we deliver care in America today by itself. Health care is a team sport.”

Founded in 2008, the Coalition is coordinated by the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.