Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Future of Nursing Initiative Front and Center at Penn

To the School of Nursing Community,

I am writing to alert you to a very important upcoming event for our School. On Thursday, October 14, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. we will host the Pennsylvania launching of the Future of Nursing report here in our School. You may know that the Future of Nursing Initiative, which is co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine and led by President Donna Shalala, was established with a goal of examining the capacity of the nursing workforce to meet the demands of a reformed health care and public health system.

This initiative, which was launched in 2008, addresses the future of nursing and the need to transform the nursing profession and is structured in three parts: development of the recommendations and a framework for action that will emerge from the 18 month consensus study, a national conference to be held in early December, 2010 that will bring together stakeholders to develop strategies for how the report recommendations can be implemented, and an implementation phase.

The findings and recommendations of the Future of Nursing Committee will be formally and publicly launched on October 5th, 2010 in Washington, DC. Our event, which will be based on this report, will include a presentation by Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a panel presentation that will include Dr. George Thibault, President and CEO of the Macy Foundation and our own Dr. Julie Fairman, who has worked closely with the Future of Nursing Committee, and Dr. Julie Sochalski, who was (in 2009-2010) the AAN-AARP Senior Policy Fellow in Washington, DC working on health care reform “from the front row.” Governor Rendell has also been invited as our special guest.

This initiative comes at a critical time during the health care reform debate, and will provide a blueprint for the nursing profession to proactively meet the demands of a reformed health care system that will offer greater access, higher quality, and more cost-effective care to the American public. To move towards these goals, the nursing profession will have to work with various stakeholders at the national, regional and local levels to set in motion some of the changes that will be needed in health policy, public and private funding, education programs, practice environments, and payment mechanisms. Nurses, physicians, and other health professionals, state and local officials, insurers, health profession educators and other groups all have a stake in how the recommendations are implemented. Part of the purpose of our symposium will be to bring together Philadelphia area stakeholders to learn first-hand about the specific report recommendations and its implications, as well as to begin a dialogue about how we might work together to move them forward to implementation. We see this symposium as the beginning of a process to maximize our collective efforts to improve health care for the citizens of our region.

As members of this community, we all must play a part in and take responsibility for successful health care reform and the findings of this initiative will be a critical component as we move forward. With this in mind, we invite each member of our community to join us on Wednesday, October 14, at 3:00 pm here in Claire M. Fagin Hall to learn more about this important initiative and to participate in these critical dialogues.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Dr. Sullivan-Marx selected as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Dr. Eileen Sullivan-Marx, our Associate Dean for Practice and Community Affairs, has been selected as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow for 2010-11. The goal of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship is to create a cadre of professional leaders who will serve as positive change agents in health and aging policy, helping to shape a healthy and productive future for older Americans. Supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and administered by Columbia University, this national program seeks to provide professions in health and aging with the experience and skills necessary to make a positive contribution to the development and implementation of health policies that affect older Americans.

In this role, Dr. Sullivan-Marx will focus on policymaking at the state and national levels particularly related to financing, dissemination, and quality of community based long term care for older adults. Building on her leadership in clinical practice, scholarship in improving outcomes of care for frail older adults, and education of nurses, advanced practice nurses and health professionals in the field of aging and interprofessional care, she will participate in policy making activities related to community based long term care in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Aging, Office of Long Term Living, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to learn how policy is implemented. And, if there is any further doubt about the role of our School in shaping health care policy in this country, particularly for frail older adults, it should be completely dispelled with this incredible and timely fellowship.

We are extremely proud of Eileen and her selection as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow. Her wisdom and expertise will be a tremendous resource for the State and she will bring great visibility to our School and to Nursing.

Congratulations Eileen!