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:

A study led by RWJF Health & Society Scholars alumna Emily Goard Jacobs, PhD, finds that the estrogen in hormone replacement therapy may help protect some women from Alzheimer's, when taken beginning at menopause. Health Canal and the Telegraph (United Kingdom) report on the findings. Read more about the study.

New Careers in Nursing, a program of RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, launched the Doctoral Advancement in Nursing (DAN) project to identify and encourage nurses interested in pursuing doctoral degrees, and to support doctoral nursing students in their studies. The DAN project is scheduled to issue a white paper this summer; it will offer strategies and resources to support doctoral advancement, Healthcare Traveler reports.

Ryan Masters, PhD, a Health & Society Scholar, spoke to NPR’s Shots blog about an editorial he co-authored in the Journal of the American Medical Association that points to problems in a study that found being a “little” overweight was associated with a lower risk of death. “The risk of mortality from obesity compounds and grows stronger as you age,” he said. “In light of our findings, we are… much more concerned about inappropriate denial of the epidemic's consequences for U.S. mortality.”

John H. Cawley, an alumnus and National Advisory Committee Member of the RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research program, spoke to NPR’s Morning Edition about why monetary rewards for employees to lose weight may not work. Cawley’s research finds that three-quarters of people give up on diets even when they stand to earn a monetary reward for losing weight. On the other hand, he finds, people will fight harder to shed weight if they stand to lose money should they fail.

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.

This is part of a series introducing programs in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Human Capital Portfolio.

A few years ago, Natasha Leland was a professional opera singer. John Pederzolli was in financial sales. And Blake Smith was a high school soccer coach. Today, all are nurses, thanks to support from New Careers in Nursing (NCIN), a program of RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Since 2008, NCIN has helped facilitate more than 2,700 scholarships for second career nurses entering accelerated degree programs. Thanks to resources and support from NCIN, these students—who are from groups underrepresented in nursing—are quickly entering the workforce, ready to provide high quality patient care and become leaders in the profession.

Before realizing their dreams of becoming nurses, NCIN scholars had a wide variety of professions: customer service, teacher, aviation safety professional, and even professional clown, among others. Each Scholar brings unique life and real-world experience to his or her new career. That makes them well-equipped to handle a fast-paced training program, and the demands of the profession.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Human Capital Blog published more than 350 posts in 2012. Which ones were your favorites? Today and on Monday, with the year coming to an end, we’re taking a second look at the posts on this blog that attracted the most traffic this year.

A Dream Comes True: A Single Mom with Five Kids Becomes a Nurse. Christy O’Keefe, RN, made the leap from hospital administrative staff to emergency room nurse with help from the RWJF Jobs to Careers program. In the sixth most-read post published on this blog in 2012, she shares the experience, talking about overcoming doubt and what her career means to her and her family.

New Careers in Nursing: A Whole New Direction. Karen Jennings, MS, RN, PMHNP-BC, was well on her way to earning a PhD in clinical psychology. But while working at McLean Hospital, she noticed the impact nurses had on patients, providing medical knowledge and advanced clinical skills as well as comfort and security. It was then that Jennings changed course, becoming a nurse with support from New Careers in Nursing, a program of RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Her account was the seventh most-read post published on the RWJF Human Capital Blog in 2012.

Nursing Needs All Hands on Deck, Including the Quiet Leadership of Introverts. When Jennifer Doering, PhD, RN, joined the RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program, she wondered and worried about whether an introvert could be the kind of effective nurse leader that patients, the health care system and the country need. After reading and pondering, she concluded that “introverted leadership” is not a contradiction in terms. Read more in the eighth most-read post on this blog in 2012.

Vernell DeWitty, PhD, RN, is the deputy program director for New Careers in Nursing, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Every now and then a television program gets it right, and so it is with “Call the Midwife.” This BBC-produced program aired on PBS this fall, and will be back with a new episode in December. Set in London's very pre-revitalized East End during the late 1950s, and based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, the series chronicles the adventures of a group of midwives working at the Nonnatus House, a nursing convent named for the early cesarean-surviving patron saint of childbirth.  

The series is blunt about the medical practices of the day and the state of birth control and female empowerment at the time. But the strange pull of this series is its humanity, not its horrors.

It is easy to think that women were always tended to during pregnancy, childbirth and delivery; however, this is not the case. We tend to forget the number of women who died in childbirth and the high rate of infant mortality due to lack of proper care not that many years ago.

But with the appearance of the nurse mid-wife, we realized significant decreases in maternal and infant mortality. Indeed, nurse midwives were the forerunners of the advanced practice nurse practitioners of today.

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:

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the Foundation’s 40th anniversary celebration last week, as well as some of its most notable accomplishments during its first four decades. Learn more about RWJF’s anniversary, and about the “Force Multipliers” it is saluting this year.  The Foundation also announced ten winners of its first-ever RWJF Young Leader awards last week.

RWJF Physician Faculty Scholar Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, gave comments to Reuters about a study that finds babies are less likely to get eczema if their mothers take probiotics during pregnancy. Gupta, who was not involved in the research, calls the findings “fascinating.” Read a post Gupta wrote for the RWJF Human Capital Blog about her professional and personal experience with children’s food allergies.

Kristy Nichols, MS, an RWJF Community Health Leader, spoke to the Associated Press about cuts to Louisiana State University’s (LSU) hospital health care system, and proposed changes to the state’s graduate medical education training program.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provides grants for people and projects in the United States and U.S. territories that advance the Foundation’s mission to improve the health and health care of all Americans. The following are the current funding opportunities from RWJF’s Human Capital portfolio:

RWJF Health Policy Fellows
The RWJF Health Policy Fellows program provides the nation’s most comprehensive fellowship experience at the nexus of health science, policy and politics in Washington, D.C. It is an outstanding opportunity for exceptional midcareer health professionals and behavioral and social scientists with an interest in health and health care policy. Up to six grants will be awarded in 2013 to fellows who will participate in the policy process at the federal level and use that leadership experience to improve health, health care and health policy. Exceptional candidates from academic faculties and nonprofit health care organizations are encouraged to apply. Applicants may have backgrounds in the following disciplines: allied health professions; biomedical sciences; dentistry; economics or other social sciences; health services organization and administration; medicine; nursing; public health; social and behavioral health or health law. The deadline for applications is November 14, 2012. Learn more.

New Careers in Nursing
New Careers in Nursing, a program of RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, is a scholarship program to help alleviate the nursing shortage and increase the diversity of nursing professionals. Through grants to schools of nursing, the program will provide scholarships to college graduates without nursing degrees who are enrolled in accelerated baccalaureate and master’s nursing programs. A school of nursing may apply for between five and 30 scholarships per year to be awarded to students from groups underrepresented in nursing or who are economically disadvantaged. The deadline for applications and supporting documents is January 9, 2013. Learn more.

RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows
The RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program is a three-year advanced leadership program for nurses who aspire to lead and shape health care locally and nationally. Fellows strengthen and improve their leadership abilities related to improving health and health care. Awards are open to registered nurses who hold senior leadership positions in health services, scientific and academic organizations, public health and community-based organizations or systems, or national professional, governmental and policy organizations. Up to 20 fellowships will be awarded for the 2013 cohort. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2013. Learn more.

See all the current calls for proposals from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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:

Zachary Goldberger, MD, an RWJF Clinical Scholar, spoke to the New York Times about a study he led that examined the ideal amount of time to continue cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on patients in cardiac arrest. “The study found that patients have a better chance of surviving in hospitals that persist with CPR for just nine minutes longer, on average, than hospitals where efforts are halted earlier,” the story reports.  First published in The Lancet, the study is one of the first to link the duration of CPR efforts with survival rates.  It is expected to prompt hospitals to reconsider their protocols.

RWJF Health & Society Scholar Jason Houle, PhD, continues to receive media coverage for his study that finds students from middle-income families leave school with an average of $6,000 more in student loan debt than their lower-income peers. The students were also more likely to have more student loan debt than their higher-income peers. Among the outlets to report on the findings: United Press International, Bloomberg Business Week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Wisconsin State Journal.

A study supported by the RWJF Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) finds that “when nurses take steps to intervene in the medication process, they are more likely to catch would-be errors before they reach the patient,” Fierce Healthcare reports. The findings also indicate that a supportive practice environment is associated with a higher quality of nursing care. Read more about the study.

By Adam Pike, BSN, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) scholar and recent graduate of the Donna and Allan Lansing School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. Read more about second career nurses like Pike in the latest issue of Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge.

I had blown off graduate school for a semester and moved in with a friend living in northern Honduras, ostensibly to spend time developing my Spanish language skills. We occupied a small one—room, key—lime concrete block, completely permeable for a variety of local fauna. A coconut tree was visible from our small stoop on which I sat during many afternoons while rain rattled the metal roof like a snare drum. We washed our laundry with a washboard and cistern in the company of chickens, dogs owned by no one, and playful, kind neighbors who regarded us as a kind of novelty. It was the perfect environment in which to pull back from familiar routine and plunge into academics and artistry. I carried out this mission somewhat anonymously in our austere apartment, with the exception of trips for fruit to the ancient wooden cart at the corner, or perhaps to the pharmacy to remedy the inevitable abdominal maladies that occur for foreigners.

Of the many bouts of illness we fought, only one was potent enough to warrant a hospital stay. On this occasion, as I stood in the dilapidated public ER, looking down at my sick friend in his hospital bed, I saw a young Honduran woman wheeled through the entrance of the ER and immediately placed in a vacant bed adjacent to my friend. In this open room, filled with patients suffering from dengue fever, dehydration, and physical trauma, it was immediately clear this pale, sweating woman, desperately gasping, was far more ill than the rest. As she disappeared in an impromptu room the staff conjured from panels of spare drape, I saw patches of dark bruises climbing her forearms.

As the evening passed, my friend napped, and I ventured behind the white curtains to offer anything I could—really, nothing—to the young woman breathing through a mask and her mother, her only company. For what followed, nothing could have prepared me. We conversed, traded stories, said prayers.

Happy National Nurses Week! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has a proud history of supporting nurses and nurse leadership, so this week, the RWJF Human Capital Blog will feature posts by nurses, including leaders from some of our nursing programs. Check back each day to see what they have to say.

Every month, New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) asks its scholars to submit personal stories about their decisions to pursue careers in nursing. These students—who have undergraduate degrees in other subjects and have chosen to become second career nurses—have unique life experiences and views on the importance of the profession. The topics of their essays range from how their NCIN scholarships have enabled them to pursue careers in nursing, to events that may have shaped their decisions to become nurses, to their unique perspectives on their career choices.

Below are excerpts from the most recent winners of the “This I Believe About Nursing” essay contest.

Angelo Llanes: For the first two decades of my life, I definitely did not want to do it.

“Until my senior year at Rutgers University, I had never aspired to be a nurse. Quite conversely, as a Filipino I attached a stigma to the nursing field considering it the ‘easy’ or ‘expected route’ when I wanted to find ‘my own route’… My experience at the internship became a life changing event. I began to feel that I couldn’t continue pursuing a career in business… To me, nursing had almost come like a calling. When I recognized it, there was nothing left to do but follow it.”

Inetra Langley: Nurses help save lives, make a true difference and inspire those around them.

“For me, there was no question that my calling in life is to be a nurse. Unfortunately, life had another plan for me… While completing my undergraduate degree, I worked in the Emergency Department (ED) for three years. I shared with the nurses my plans of one day following in their footsteps. Without hesitation, many of them took me under their wings and taught me all about quality patient care in the role of a nurse. That invaluable experience has been my motivation for pursuing a nursing career for many years.”

Gregory Curry: Nurses can help their patients muster inner strength in times of need.

“As I scanned the faces of my classmates I saw individuals not much older than my oldest son. I felt an inner gnawing of fear; did I really belong here in nursing school, at my age? …Then I centered my mind on a conversation my younger sons and I had at bed time; both had been discussing the fears they have during the night, and as I walked in, simultaneously they asked, ‘Dad, what are you afraid of?’ I kissed them each on the forehead while tucking them in bed and answered, ‘Nothing, boys. Your dad is afraid of nothing.’”

Learn more about the “This I Believe About Nursing” essay contest and see all of the winners.