[PHNURSES] Fwd: Advance article update re National Nurse: Support continues.

[SusanSPHN at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: SusanS PHN 

Below is a recent article updating information on the National Nurse  
initiative. Support is mounting...especially at the grassroots level.

United State of Nursing
Quest continues to establish an  Office of the National Nurse.


By Shelby Evans 




 
It all started in May 2005 with an Op-Ed piece that appeared in The New  York 
Times. 

Teri Mills, MS, RN, ANP, CNE, a nursing faculty member  at Portland Community 
College in Oregon, posed the question: "Who better to  educate Americans on 
how to take better care of themselves than nurses?"  
With that simple concept in mind, she argued, the best figure to lead the  
charge in applying preventive strategies to improve our citizens' health and  
lower our country's healthcare costs would occupy a newly created post - that  
of a National Nurse.  
"We're seeing a rise in chronic conditions that are preventable, and it's  
just been a travesty as a nurse to witness that, as well as the climb of  
obesity in our country," Mills explained. "I believe nurses are in the best  
position to do something about it.  
"We have a Surgeon General, why not a National Nurse to lead the country  
into a culture of prevention?"  
Mills set about to launch a campaign, the National Nursing Networking  
Organization, to garner support, elicit feedback and ideas, and hone her idea  into 
an actionable goal. 

The concept has evolved in the 3 years since  - for example, stemming from 
the original idea to create a wholly new entity,  Mills realized an 
infrastructure exists that can be buttressed and expanded to  fulfill her vision. 

Today, the campaign seeks to begin with the  closest thing the U.S. now has 
to a National Nurse - the chief nursing officer  of the U.S. Public Health 
Service (USPHS) - and adapt it into the Office of  the National Nurse. The program 
also would utilize another existing entity,  the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), 
to accomplish the new office's goals on a  local level. 

By strengthening existing resources and networks, and  unifying them under 
one national office of nursing leadership, Mills believes  the initiative would 
usher in a new era of healthcare - one that hinges on  prevention.  
A Broad Vision  
The mission for the proposed office is to establish symbolic national  
leadership by elevating the current USPHS post to a level of high visibility  to the 
nursing profession and the public, to complement the work of the U.S.  
Surgeon General, to promote involvement in the MRC to improve the health and  safety 
of the community, and to incorporate proven evidence-based public  health 
education in implementing prevention strategies.  
In a similar way that Smokey the Bear is synonymous with preventing forest  
fires, and McGruff is linked to crime prevention in the public consciousness,  
Mills believes a central, visible nursing figure could bring to the forefront  
the importance of disease prevention and wellness.  
Creating the office, Mills explained, would not only elevate the status of  
the nursing profession, but also provide a stronger conduit among localized  
efforts to problem-solve on a community level - essentially optimizing the  
impact of multiple small efforts through coordinated resource management.  
"We know using best practices to deliver a message of prevention requires  
multiple components," she said. "In addition to a National Nurse stating what  
the message would be, it needs to be reinforced in a way the public can  
understand. That's why what we're asking for is to utilize what we have now,  which 
is a Medical Reserve Corps, and to integrate the component of national  nurse 
teams and other disciplines."  
The MRC would provide a foundation for building a network of volunteer  
nurses and other health professionals to promote, encourage and support  nationwide 
efforts that focus on wellness and disease prevention. 
 
A Local Focus  
Though the proposed office is a national one, the strategies it would  
promote are local ones, tailored to the needs of individual communities and  
implemented by individual nurses. The concept, Mills said, is one of  empowerment.  
"What we're proposing is having every nurse afforded the opportunity to  
participate in her own community in prevention-oriented efforts, whether it be  
immunization clinics or healthy living fairs," she explained.  
"It would probably look different in every community because every  
community's needs are different."  
The Office of the National Nurse would provide the leadership that could  
propel grassroots community efforts around the country. Mills cited some  common 
messages among candidates over the course of the current presidential  
campaign, such as urging Americans to step up to the plate and see how they  can 
contribute to making the country a better place, as evidence her vision is  one 
whose time has come.  
"Certainly nurses want to be a part of that. If you look at the American  
Nurses Association's Code of Ethics, it says the nurse's primary commitment is  
to the patient - whether that be an individual, a family, a group or a  
community, and that we are to advocate for and strive to protect those  people's 
health and safety and well-being.  
"That's why most of us went into nursing to begin with, to help keep people  
well," she continued. "Nurses are really concerned about the demise of our  
healthcare system. We're tired of being ranked so poorly in terms of  
preventable deaths compared to other countries, and dead last in  industrialized 
countries in infant mortality."  
Uniting an Image  
Mills emphasized that elevating the status of a nurse to a high level of  
prominence on a national stage would be a boon to the profession as a whole.  "To 
be at that top position at the policy table would be so important and so  
valuable for nursing," she said. "And to be able to portray nursing accurately  
to the public is a pretty big deal as we face this ever-looming nursing  
shortage.  
"We believe having a national leader to inspire others to enter the  
profession would be a big deal."  
The importance of the prestige implicit in the concept of a National Nurse  
is part of the reason the campaign seeks to grow the office from the current  
USPHS chief nursing officer role. The position already is aligned to work  
directly with the office of the Surgeon General and is reputable among public  
health nursing leadership.  
"We want to elevate that stature and bring about cooperation, not  
competition, and work together on common goals," Mills said. "We do need to do  
something differently, and it is a paradigm shift in some regards - and yet  not 
really. All the pieces have been in play for years, we just have to put  them 
together."  
The fragmentation of the nursing profession in recent years, due to  emphasis 
on specialty, education level and other factors, is something that  could be 
improved through national nurse leadership, Mills believes, and  uniting in 
common goals is crucial.  
"There's just too much work to be done to be pulled apart; we need to come  
together."  
For more information about the campaign, visit 
_http://www.nationalnurse.org/_ (http://www.nationalnurse.org/) .   
Shelby Evans is associate editor at ADVANCE.  



_Copyright ©2008_ (http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Copyright.aspx)  Merion 
Publications
2900  Horizon Drive, King of Prussia, PA 19406 • 800-355-5627
Publishers of  ADVANCE Newsmagazines
_www.advanceweb.com_ (http://www.advanceweb.com/)   




 
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