On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a four-year, $200 million investment to support the training of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). The move was lauded by leaders of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Center to Champion Nursing in America.

The Secretary went to Duke University’s School of Nursing to announce that the Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration program will reimburse costs associated with training APRNS (nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives and nurse specialists) at five networks of hospitals, nursing schools, and community-based clinics and health centers.  They are:  the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia; Duke University Hospital, in Durham, N.C.; Scottsdale Healthcare Medical Center, in Ariz.; Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, Ill.; and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center Hospital, in Houston, Texas.

The goal, officials said, is to help these highly skilled nurses gain the skills necessary to provide primary and preventive care for Medicare beneficiaries, including in underserved communities.

“This announcement marks a historic moment of investment in the crucial and growing role of nurses in our health care system,” RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, said. “With 8,000 baby boomers turning 65 and qualifying for Medicare daily, patients everywhere can benefit from the expertise of advanced practice nurses and the expanded access to care they potentially can provide. The decision to extend Medicare funding to nurses recognizes the urgent need to expand the workforce to care for the growing population of Medicare recipients.”

“This relatively modest investment will pay big dividends for consumers by preparing more highly skilled nurses to provide care when and where it is needed,” agreed Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president of the AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist of the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and RWJF.  “These new health professionals will improve access to crucial primary, preventive, and transitional care across a range of settings—from the hospital, to the home, to convenient care clinics,”

Half of the clinical training provided at the five demonstration sites must take place in the community, outside of hospital settings.  The aim is to ensure that APRNs have skills to provide primary, preventive and transitional care, and to help patients manage chronic conditions.  The funding is authorized under the Affordable Care Act.

Read a news release about the announcement from RWJF and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and RWJF.

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. Michelle Scott recently graduated from Rowan University and is an intern at RWJF, working with The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.

I’m 22 and uninsured. I’ve only had health insurance for the four years I went to college, and now that I’ve just graduated, I no longer have that luxury. I survived the first 18 years of my life without it, but thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I don’t have to live without it for the rest of my life.

The day I received my college health insurance card in the mail, that flimsy piece of laminated paper with my name on it, I vividly remember thinking, “Wow. I’m allowed to be sick.” During my time at college I never got sick, nor injured in a serious accident of any kind where I actually needed medical attention. There was a brief period where I thought I smashed my hip and orbital bone in a skateboard incident my senior year of college, but after sitting on the ground at the skate park for a minute, and contemplating whether my family could afford to patch me up, I decided to walk it off. From my very early childhood, that’s how I learned to treat any kind of issue: Walk it off, or rest up until you can walk it off.

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.

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 May issue:

Nursing as a 'Second Act'

A growing number of people are re-starting their careers by becoming nurses and, in so doing, helping to curb a looming nursing shortage and making valuable additions to the nursing workforce. Many second career nurses are able to enter the workforce quickly thanks to accelerated nurse education programs, which enable students to earn baccalaureate degrees in 12 to 18 months and master’s degrees in two to three years.

Nurse Leaders Join Together in "Historic" Education Initiative

Pamela Austin Thompson, MS, RN, CENP, FAAN, CEO of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), is leading a new RWJF-supported initiative called Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN). APIN represents an historic collaboration among four of the nation’s largest nursing groups to lead a nationwide effort to help new nurses earn baccalaureate and higher degrees in nursing and transition into practice.

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.

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.

Happy National Nurses Week! Today is National Nurses Day, and the beginning of a week during which we celebrate the contributions of this profession. The week fittingly ends with Florence Nightingale's birthday on Saturday, May 12. 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 the Foundation’s nursing programs. Check back each day to see what they have to say. This post is by Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, RWJF Senior Adviser for Nursing and Director, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.

Earlier this month I had the privilege of traveling to Montana to help some of the state’s health care leaders launch the Montana Cooperative to Advance Health Through Nursing. This new state-based Action Coalition is working to advance recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.

While I was there, I met with Native American nursing students and their mentors at Montana State University. They are part of the extraordinarily impressive “Caring for Our Own: A Reservation/University Partnership,” known as the CO-OP program. These students come from desperately underserved areas and, after they graduate, they will go back to their reservations to provide culturally-sensitive, urgently needed care.

At the Action Coalition gala, the recipient of the student award told her story, moving many of us to tears. When she was 17, she tried to commit suicide. It was a nurse who saved her life, and convinced her there were things to live for and gifts she had yet to share. She told the audience that the nurse had been her role model through hard times. It had taken her many years and she had overcome many more hardships, she explained, but she will soon graduate and give back in the same way that her role model had given to her.

She and her peers are the kind of strong, dedicated, caring professionals that nursing needs, our health system needs, and patients need. I came home invigorated and encouraged by all the Montanans I had met, and the promise of progress in this state.

Today is National Nurses Day, which begins the celebration of National Nurses Week. We are a diverse profession, serving patients in more ways, more roles and more settings than Florence Nightingale—whose birthday, May 12, concludes National Nurses Week—could have ever imagined.

I am proud to be a nurse, proud of my colleagues working to help patients all over the country, and proud that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has a long history of supporting nurses in many roles, from research to practice to leadership and more.

RWJF recently announced the launch of the Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) initiative, which will help state Action Coalitions in their work to advance the recommendation in the Future of Nursing report that 80 percent of the nursing workforce be prepared at the baccalaureate level by 2020.

I am an associate’s degree nurse. I started my nursing education at a community college, and at that time, I’m not sure I could even have imagined getting to where I am today.