Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

In a piece about the growing need for advanced nursing education, Nurse.com interviewed a group of nurse leaders working to fulfill a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, which calls for doubling the number of doctorate-level nurses by 2020. Among those quoted: Christine Kovner, RN, PhD, FAAN, co-principal of RWJF’s RN Work Project; RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows alumna Jane Kirschling, RN, DNS, FAAN; and Susan Bakewell-Sachs, RN, PhD, PNP-BC, program director for the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, a program of RWJF and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Nurse.com and Infection Control Today report on an RWJF-supported study that finds hospitals that have higher percentages of nurses with baccalaureate degrees have lower rates of postsurgical mortality. The study, published in the March issue of Health Affairs, stems from the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.  Read more about the study.

“I recently traveled to Singapore, where I met with other doctors and told about being the emergency department (ED) doctor at the University of Colorado Hospital the morning of the Aurora theater shootings on July 20, 2012,” RWJF Clinical Scholars alumna Comilla Sasson, MD, MS, FACEP, writes in an op-ed for the Denver Post. “One thing dawned on me as I spoke: I had seen more gunshot wound victims in that one night than these doctors will see in their entire careers.” Read a post Sasson wrote for the RWJF Human Capital Blog about the Aurora theater shootings, and learn more about her experience talking to the national news media afterward.

For more than four decades, the grantmaking of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has advanced the nursing profession, supporting nurses in their efforts to improve care and strengthening nurses’ role in shaping the future of the nation’s health care system. The latest issue of Charting Nursing’s Future, RWJF’s periodic series of issue briefs, tracks the Foundation’s growing commitment to nursing.

The brief examines RWJF’s impact in five distinct areas:

• Expanding roles for nurses;
• Building educational capacity;
• Demonstrating nurses' contributions to quality and safety;
• Creating leaders for the 21st century; and
• Bridging gaps in research and data.

Among the two dozen past and present programs highlighted in the brief:

• Expanding roles. In the mid-1970s, RWJF played a critical role in the emergence and acceptance of nurse practitioners (NPs), supporting demonstration projects in rural areas of California, Alabama, Tennessee and New England. Subsequently, RWJF’s Nurse Faculty Fellowship Program helped create an intellectual home for primary care nursing, leading to the creation of master’s degree NP programs across the nation.

Two years after the release of the landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the nation's health care system is in the midst of dramatic change. As the largest segment of the health care workforce and the professionals who spend the most time with patients, nurses are playing a vital role in shaping that change, bringing experience and insight to efforts to improve access and quality and lower health care costs.

The IOM nursing report was a game-changer from the moment it was released. It has spurred tremendous activity across the country to implement its recommendations. Health care professionals, educators, policy-makers, consumers, and other stakeholders are joining forces in powerful and unprecedented ways to implement its recommendations – to significantly increase the number of nurses and nurse faculty, to help nurses earn higher degrees, and to promote nurse leaders in health care and public policy.  All this is in the service of making health care more patient-centered, equitable and accessible.

Much of this activity has been organized by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a joint initiative of AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Campaign has organized "Action Coalitions" that are now working in 49 states to implement recommendations from the IOM report.

CampaignforAction.org

As its third year begins and it intensifies its on-the-ground work, the Campaign for Action is launching a new website–www.CampaignforAction.org.

The website supports the Campaign's work to improve the ways nurses are educated, trained and practice. It offers continuously updated news and information on nursing and health care to visitors new to the issue. It also features:

This is part of a series in which Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, grantees and alumni offer perspectives on the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the Affordable Care Act.  Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing and Director, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. This post also appears on Off the Charts, the blog of the American Journal of Nursing.

When I heard that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, I immediately thought of my father.  He suffered mightily at the end of his life. Plagued with multiple chronic illnesses, he spent his last year in and out of hospitals.  He received good hospital care, but his health deteriorated every time he left. He simply couldn’t keep track of a growing list of prescriptions, tests and doctor visits.  My father accidentally skipped antibiotics, which led to infections, which landed him back in the hospital. He accidentally skipped blood tests, which landed him back in the hospital. It seemed that every time he came home, he’d land back in the hospital. I lived thousands of miles away and couldn’t be the advocate that he needed.

What he needed was transitional care – he needed a nurse to meet with him during a hospitalization to devise a plan for managing chronic illnesses and then follow him into his home setting. He needed a nurse to identify reasons for his instability, design a care plan that addressed them and coordinate various care providers and services. He needed a nurse to check up on him at home.  Transitional care would have eased his suffering and enabled him to live better.

By Connie Mullinix, PhD, MBA, MPH, RN, Clinical Associate Professor, East Carolina University College of Nursing, Member, Coordinating Council, North Carolina Action Coalition, Chair, Leadership Task Force on Board Involvement of Nurses

In North Carolina, we take seriously the recommendation from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to prepare nurses for leadership. This is a daunting task, if you understand the history of nursing. Traditionally, women in our society have been groomed to be unassertive and (usually male) others were looked to for ideas and directions. This was no less true, and perhaps even more true, in the field of nursing. However, for modern health care systems to address patients’ needs efficiently and well, today’s nurses must speak up to provide their insights and help lead a necessary transformation in health care.

Encouraging leadership has been chosen as a key recommendation of the IOM’s recent report—The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health—and one that is most likely to result in positive change in health care in the coming years. The North Carolina Action Coalition is focusing on three aspects of leadership support: preparing nurses for participation on boards of directors; mentoring nurse leaders; and defining the competencies of nurse leaders. The Coalition has assembled three task forces to address each of these issues.

Michelle Scott recently graduated from Rowan University and is an intern at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), working with The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.

I had the privilege of attending the Pennsylvania Action Coalition conference in Philadelphia in early June. It was hosted by Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Afaf Meleis, PhD, DrPS (hon), FAAN, and the co-leads of the Pennsylvania Action Coalition, Betsy Snook, MEd, MSN, RN, and Christine Alichnie, PhD, RN

The conference was held to educate Pennsylvanians about how nurses and other leaders can prepare themselves for these monumental changes in health care as recommended in the Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The audience included nurses and other health professionals, business employees, educators and students. It is this diversity that drives the campaign. We need resources to ensure the many campaign supporters can advance its agenda.

The following Q&A was conducted by Michelle Scott, a recent graduate of Rowan University who is an intern at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), working with The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. Scott recently attended a conference to launch the Pennsylvania Action Coalition, and interviewed some students who also participated. Read Scott’s reflections on the conference here.

Question: What do you feel your role as a rising physician will be in the plan to bring nurses and doctors together to work toward improving patient care?

Paul Shay: In health care, there has been a historical hierarchy that places the infallible physician above all other health care providers; however, recent literature has shown that collaborative health care is the best health care. It turns out that doctors aren’t infallible, and every team member, from social worker to nurse to physician, is equally valuable in patient care.

As a rising physician, I would be foolish not to embrace this collaboration in my future practice. I will make a concerted effort to let all of my non-physician colleagues know and feel that they are equal members in our team. Furthermore, it is equally, or arguably more, important that I advocate for other physicians to do the same. And outside of our own practices, we need to support the efforts of nursing organizations such as the Pennsylvania Action Coalition and the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA).

By Lisa Wright Eichelberger, DSN, RN, dean, College of Health, Clayton State University and co-lead, Georgia Action Coalition

I know I am not in Oz but, I must tell you, Georgia does seem like a different place since the release of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on the future of nursing. I have worked as a nurse in Georgia for the past 16 years, but in the past 18 months I have seen things happen that I never thought would. As I told this year’s graduating class at Clayton State University, I truly believe this is the most exciting time to be a nurse. One of the reasons is the release of the IOM’s nursing report and the support for nursing from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and AARP.

Make no mistake, when the IOM and RWJF speak, people listen.

In the past few months, I have had the honor and privilege to use the “Future” report to initiate conversations with former Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, and Louis Sullivan, MD, former secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. I also had the opportunity to talk to former Ambassador Andrew Young, BS, BDiv, about the report during a recent lunch. All three of these leaders were familiar with the IOM and RWJF.

On Monday, June 4, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) will hold a webinar on preparing the nursing workforce to assume leadership positions to make change to advance health. The webinar is the next in INQRI’s series exploring recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.

“The Future of Nurse-Led Care, a Disruptive Innovation” will be presented by National Nursing Centers Consortium CEO Tine Hansen-Turton, MGA, JD, FCPP, FAAN. It will take place from 1:30-2:30 pm EST.

Register for the webinar.

Lean more about the RWJF Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative.

Have you signed up to receive Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge? The monthly Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) e-newsletter will keep you up to date on the latest nursing news, research and trends. Here are descriptions of some of the stories in the April issue:

Men Slowly Change the Face of Nursing Education

Though men comprise a small percentage of the nursing workforce, and an even smaller percentage of nurse faculty, men are enrolling in nursing programs at higher rates than in the past. Still, the nursing profession needs to do more to speed up the gender diversification and inclusion of the workforce, experts say. More visible and powerful male nurse educators can serve as recruiters and role models.

RWJF Fellow Works to Push Public Health Nursing Forward

Read a profile of RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow Shirley Orr, MHS, ARNP, NEA-BC, a leader in the field of public health nursing. During her tenure at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Orr co-founded the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute, which aims to support public health leaders and bring officials from health care organizations, academic institutions and other settings together to improve population health.

From Intuition to Evidence: Interdisciplinary Inquiry into Nursing's Role in Improving Patient Care

The RWJF Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) held its annual conference in April, celebrating seven successful years and 40 landmark research projects conducted by INQRI-funded interdisciplinary research teams. At the conference, members of those teams and others who have worked with the program discussed how far interdisciplinary research has come since INQRI began and the benefits of this approach for health care research, for health professionals, and for patients.

Missouri Nurse Leaders Stand Up for APRNs, Health Care Consumers

The Missouri Action Coalition is working to advance the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The Coalition has already made progress in allowing nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training, making it easier for associate degree-prepared nurses to move into baccalaureate programs through a seamless articulation agreement, and working to establish a state nursing workforce center to collect nursing data.

See the entire April issue here. Sign up to receive Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge here.