Healthcare professionals, stakeholders and community leaders are encouraged to register for this year’s virtual summit to hear speakers address the physical, mental and economic disparities that have been amplified during the pandemic. Registration FEES HAVE BEEN WAIVED for this year’s summit thanks to our lead sponsor and supporter, AARP Louisiana. This years free registration opens the doors to a larger number of people to participate in this crucial event. Additional event information and registration is available on the Louisiana Action Coalition website; https://www.louisianafutureofnursing.org/2020-coh-summit.

“The LAC hopes that everyone accepts the call to action to align our strengths to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to address the social determinates of health and health disparities that disproportionately impact Louisiana’s citizens” said Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN, director of the Louisiana Center for Nursing and Louisiana Action Coalition co-lead. “Many healthcare workers and support staff have put their lives and the lives of their families at risk to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that were stricken with COVID-19. It is for this reason that LAC felt it extremely important for us to come together virtually this year to not only recognize these Heroes, but to also continue the very important work of addressing the social determinants of health and health disparities that continue to plague our communities and have been amplified during the pandemic. A collective response to these challenges is needed to leverage Louisiana’s assets and drive the improvement of health outcomes.”

The Summit consists of two half-days on October 27^th and 28^th from 9am to 12:30pm. The agenda includes four speaker topics including “Nurses Leading Collaborative Partnerships to Build a Culture of Health through Resilience and Equity During a Global Public Health Emergency”. The agenda also includes two panel discussions including “Mental Health and the Community – Suicide, Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence”.

Learn more about the Louisiana Action Coalition at www.louisianafutureofnursing.org.

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Three outstanding registered nurses were recently inducted into the Louisiana State Nurses Association (LSNA) Hall of Fame and all three are active leaders with the Louisiana Action Coalition (LAC). During the Louisiana Nurses Foundation Nightingale Gala on April 1 in Baton Rouge, Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN; Mary Broussard, MSN, RN; and Lisa Deaton, RN, BSN were awarded this honor.

The LSNA Hall of Fame Award recognizes a registered nurse’s lifelong commitment to the profession of nursing and the subsequent impact on the health or social history of Louisiana. Those chosen for the award have practiced in Louisiana for at least 10 years and participated in LSNA, the American Nurses Association and/or other professional organizations. They have demonstrated leadership and achievement in the field of professional nursing.

Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN, began her 37-year nursing career in 1981 after graduating with her BSN from Southeastern Louisiana University. She has years of experience in nursing practice, nursing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, nursing research, project planning, grant-writing, and program evaluation. She currently serves as the director of the Louisiana Center for Nursing at the Louisiana State Board of Nursing where she is charged with collecting, analyzing, and reporting on the registered nurse (RN) and advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) workforce in Louisiana. She serves as co-lead for LAC and is a member of the LAC Core Leadership Team. She also serves as the lead for the LAC Diversity Steering Committee which is responsible for the pillar of work that focuses on increasing the diversity of Louisiana’s RN and APRN workforce. Bienemy is the immediate past president of the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, chair of Louisiana’s Nursing Supply and Demand Council and the Louisiana Health Works Commission. She is an ANA SAMSHA Ethnic Minority Fellow Alumnus and the first graduate from the only PhD in Nursing Program in Louisiana, Southern University and A& M College (2004). Bienemy serves on multiple state and national committees and work groups.

Mary O. Broussard, MSN, RN, began her 42-year nursing career in 1976 after graduating with a BSN from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She received a MSN in Community Psychosocial Nursing from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1999. For more than 36 years, her work involved caring for the indigent and uninsured at University Medical Center in Lafayette, LA. While there, she worked in multiple management level positions and retired as the nurse administrator in 2012. Subscribing to her own practice of ‘recycling’ retired nurses, she now serves at the Region IV Action Coalition co-lead for LAC. The work of Region IV includes reaching out to the area’s school system in an effort to influence males and minorities to consider nursing as a career choice. In addition, Broussard served on the board of the Woman’s Foundation for 18 years. Woman’s Foundation offers programs related to educating and empowering women and children on making healthy living choices and reducing the incidence of teen pregnancy.

Lisa Deaton, BSN, RN, has been a registered nurse for more than 40 years. After receiving a BSN from Southeastern Louisiana University, she began her nursing career at Earl K. Long Hospital in 1976. There she held several leadership positions and was a staff trainer, where she fulfilled a key role in educating countless RNs. In 1988 she transferred to the Licensing and Certification Division within the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) where she retired in 2007.  She served in a variety of positions there including director of DHH State Survey Agency. Deaton is co-founder and a board member of Louisiana Enhancing Aging with Dignity through Empowerment and Respect (LEADER), an organization aimed at championing person-centered communities where aging adults and their partners are valued, respected and honored. LEADER works with providers, consumers, regulators and policy makers to help ensure person-centered care for elderly Louisiana citizens across all healthcare settings. Deaton also has served as the Health Policy Chairman for LSNA and currently serves as the chair of LA Nurses Political Action Committee (LANPAC). She serves on the LAC Core Leadership Team and its Executive Committee and leads the work of the Regional Action Coalitions.

The Louisiana State Nurses Association began inducting nurses into its Hall of Fame in 2004. To date, 56 nurses have received this recognition. The award is limited to three honorees each year.

Photo: From left, Mary O. Broussard, MSN, RN; Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN; and Lisa Deaton, BSN, RN.

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A diverse group of healthcare professionals, business, governmental and community leaders and other interested stakeholders from across the state gathered on April 5 in Baton Rouge to gain insight about the state of health of Louisianans and discuss ways to address major health disparities and promote health equity in the state.

“Where we live matters to our health,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, PhD, RN, FAAN. Willems Van Dijk is Deputy Director for the Robert Wood Johnson-funded County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (www.countyhealthrankings.org). The annual County Health Rankings are based on health outcome measures related to length of life (50%) and quality of life (50%) and measures of health factors related to health behaviors (30%), clinical care (20%), social and economic factors (40%), and physical environment (10%). The findings are published each year and are used by organizations and communities across the country to devise ways to help close the health gaps between those with the most and least opportunities for good health.

Ashley Stewart, MPH, is Director of Programs for The Rapides Foundation. She attended the Summit and said, “All of the initiatives and programs developed by The Rapides Foundation are grounded in data about the region we serve, whether the program is to increase educational attainment or improve access to cancer screenings. We ask our grantees to justify the needs outlined in their proposals by providing data specific to their area and identifying evidence-based strategies for implementation. The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps website provides community members with a wealth of tools and resources that can help them address both of those areas.”

Prior to Willems Van Dijk’s presentation, Parham Jaberi, MD, MPH, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public Health (OPH) at the Louisiana Department of Health, spoke to the group about OPH’s strategic priorities which included increasing immunization coverage amongst children and tackling the state’s high sexually transmitted infection and HIV rates.

Stephen F. Wright, Senior Vice President of Group Operations for CHRISTUS Health, addressed issues related to diversity and inclusion in our current healthcare system and shared strategies used within the CHRISTUS Health System to promote health equity. David Zuckerman, MPP, Director of the Healthcare Engagement Democracy Collaborative, presented community wealth building as a way to address health inequities.

Chaquetta Johnson, DNP, MPH, APRN, WHNP-BC, served on a four-person panel which discussed innovative programs in Louisiana that are aimed at building a culture of health. She said, “The 2018 Culture of Health Summit was outstanding! Last year’s event highlighted the challenges we face in our efforts to build a culture of health in our state and introduced community partners who were striving to overcome those barriers through partnership and collaboration. This year’s Summit went a step further to showcase healthcare champions who have developed programs that are moving us in the right direction. The diversity represented among the presenters, and in the audience, demonstrates how important building a culture of health is to improving the health and well-being of all citizens across the state.”

Other panel members included Jared Hymowitz, director of the Mayor’s Healthy BR initiative; Jeanne Solis, CCO with the Terrebonne Chamber of Health Leadership Alliance; and Charlotte Parent, BSN, RN, MHCM, Assistant Vice President, Community Affairs/Network Navigation, LCMC Health, BUILD Health Challenge.

Parent said, “The 2018 Culture of Health Summit provided a wonderful opportunity for nursing leaders to discuss the ways they are leading the charge for health equity and the limitless potential of partnerships to change the paradigm of health. The Louisiana Action Coalition provides the space for nurses to demonstrate how nursing can lead the charge.”

Building a Culture of Health is a movement led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and shared with others to take on one of the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving the health and well-being of every one in America. A Culture of Health places well-being at the center of every aspect of life, so that all communities can flourish and all individuals thrive, regardless of race, creed, income, or location. It’s built on the premise that everyone deserves to live the healthiest life possible.

Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN, Director for the Louisiana Center for Nursing and LAC co-lead, was lead planner for the Summit. “We were very pleased with the attendance at the Summit and the engagement of the attendees,” she said. “The presenters challenged the audience to think beyond the clinical indicators of health and to focus more on the social determinants of health which tend to have a greater impact on health outcomes. If we are to address the disproportionate prevalence of healthcare disparities amongst those that are economically disadvantaged in our state we must change our way of thinking and doing.”

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A group of 48 registered nurses from across the state and from diverse areas of practice attended the fourth Louisiana Action Coalition (LAC) Nurse Leader Institute (NLI). Held in Baton Rouge, Jan. 8-12, the NLI offered five days of intense leadership training for emerging nurse leaders.

In its efforts to advance Recommendation 7 of the 2010 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, LAC developed and launched the Nurse Leader Institute in 2015. The report serves as the foundation for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. Recommendation 7 states: Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health.

“Developing nurse leaders is a leading objective for the Louisiana Action Coalition,” said Barbara Morvant, MN, RN, project director for the Nurse Leader Institute and LAC Core Leadership Team member. “This year’s group of participants was by far the largest and most diverse we’ve had, and I believe that shows the nursing community shares this objective.”

Faculty for the 2018 NLI included experts in the fields of budgeting, communication, recruitment and retention, staff performance, quality improvement and personal leadership skills. “Having knowledgeable presenters who are able to relate to the participants is key to the success of the program,” said Morvant.

Caroline G. Marceaux MS, RN, serves as a faculty member for the NLI. Marceaux, chief nursing officer at Acadia General Hospital, leads a segment about employee engagement.  She said, “I believe that developing people is the single best way to create great results, so investing in our growing nurse leaders transforms the roles they will take on in the future of healthcare.”

Charmaine Power, APRN and NLI participant, said, “The NLI was a tremendous opportunity to learn from important, impactful leaders in healthcare. The content was current, was communicated effectively and will be very useful to emerging leaders. As a new graduate of an MSN program in Executive Leadership, I was impressed with how relevant the content was for developing leadership expertise.”

Nurses who complete the NLI are encouraged to take the next step in their leadership journeys by participating in LAC’s Nurse Leader Mentorship Program, a nine-month program during which each is matched with an experienced nurse leader in his or her area of practice/interest. Those nurse leaders successfully completing both the Nurse Leader Institute and the Nurse Leader Mentorship Program are recognized by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation, Inc. as Nurse Leader Institute Fellows.

“What an amazing journey the week was for each of us individually and as a newly created team,” said Power. “I kept thinking about all of the nursing professionals I would recommend this program to next year!”

LAC plans to offer the NLI once each year in January. LAC leadership currently is considering ways to expand the program by offering segments separately in a variety of locations.

“Well over 130 nurses have attended the Nurse Leader Institute in the past three years, said Morvant. “The momentum related to nurse leadership development is building in our state, and we are proud to be contributing to that momentum.”

Marceaux said, “I still keep in touch with growing leaders from each and every cohort, and it’s always inspiring to learn something new from them that I can incorporate into my work.”

Development of the Nurse Leader Institute was funded by donations from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Gifted Healthcare LLC and the Great 100 Nurses Foundation.

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While working as an obstetric nurse, Parent had developed an acute awareness of the effects of social determinants of health, including air quality. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, she saw harm fall disproportionately on families that lacked the resources to prepare for the storm. “This was a very poor population who basically lived paycheck to paycheck. Most of these people didn’t have extra to put away,” Parent says.

In fact, witnessing the effects of Katrina inspired her transition to public health. As an obstetric nurse, she could influence the life of one family at a time. In public health, she had an opportunity to affect the social conditions that limited the lives of so many people in New Orleans.

But when the idea of improving indoor air quality in New Orleans was first floated, city residents were not ready to go smoke-free.

Charlotte Parent, RN, MHCM, served as the director of the New Orleans Health Department from 2014 through 2016. She is currently the assistant vice president of community affairs/network navigation for LCMC Health, and is a strategic advisor to the Campaign for Action.

“We got pushback from businesses and the community,” says Parent, who now serves as assistant vice president of community affairs/network navigation for LCMC Health. Business owners were concerned the ban would cost them business; citizens worried about individual rights. “We pushed back a little bit, but were not getting the traction we needed,” Parent recalls.

So the administration and Health Department dropped the idea.

Three years later, a non-smoking ordinance was again a topic of public discussion, thanks to the efforts of a city council member who positioned the ban as a way to protect the health and well-being of New Orleans’ workers. Parent was still ready to encourage the shift, and now so was the community.

“Things had started to change culturally,” Parent says. “More people were standing up to say, yes, we need to do this.”

Finally, in 2015, New Orleans joined the approximately 700 smoke-free cities nationwide.  Six months after the ordinance took effect, the city’s air quality drastically improved. Fine particle indoor air pollution dropped 96 to 99 percent in the city’s bars and casinos, and 8 out of 10 voters voiced support for the ordinance. Additionally, calls from Orleans Parish to the Louisiana Tobacco Quitline increased by 20 percent.

New Orleans transitioned from “anything goes” to smoke-free because the city was ready to change.

“It had to come from the bottom up,” says Parent, who also serves on the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action’s Strategic Advisory Committee. “The Health Department spewing data was not going to help the problem. People were saying, we just don’t want smoking in our community any more. It does not help us.”

How Nurses Support Healthy Change

Just as nurses provide information and support to individuals ready to engage in healthy change, the New Orleans Health Department facilitated the community’s efforts by providing local businesses the information, support, and education necessary to thrive under the ordinance.

“We literally went out to businesses,” Parent says. The Health Department created a Smoke-Free Ordinance Business Toolkit that included an implementation checklist, a model “no smoking or vaping” sign, and positive messaging that business owners and employees could use to talk to patrons.

“If you give communities and citizens information in an open and transparent way, they will respond to it,” Parent says. “When the ban finally did go into effect, the rollout was pretty seamless.” To date, the city of New Orleans has only had to issue two fines for noncompliance.

“Nurses have the ability to educate, to empathize, and to navigate people toward what they need to make a change,” Parent says.  “That is a strength and key characteristic of nursing.”

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On April 27 in Kenner, LA, the Louisiana Action Coalition (LAC) hosted more than 130 healthcare professionals, business and community leaders and interested parties from across the state to discuss Louisiana’s healthcare challenges, explore partnerships and learn about collaborative projects that are building a culture of health in Louisiana.

Building a Culture of Health is a movement led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and shared with others to take on one of the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving the health and well-being of every one in America. A Culture of Health places well-being at the center of every aspect of life, so that all communities can flourish and all individuals thrive, regardless of race, creed, income, or location. It’s built on the premise that everyone deserves to live the healthiest life possible.

“LAC recognizes that we are stronger together and that the health of current and future generations depends on the ability of diverse leaders to create a shared value for health in Louisiana,” said Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN, director of the Louisiana Center for Nursing and Louisiana Action Coalition co-lead. “Today’s goal is to join committed health professionals and health care allies in a one-day summit to foster connections and build collective capacity to improve conditions for every Louisiana resident to have the opportunity to achieve physical, mental and social health.”

As the largest group of health care workers, nurses will play a key role in building a culture of health.

“Nurses are an important partner in this movement,” said keynote speaker Susan Hassmiller, PHD, RN, FAAN, Senior Nurse Advisor for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Lead for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. “Nurses are repeatedly ranked the most trusted health professional, and they make up the largest segment of the health and health care workforce. They spend the most time with people, families and communities.  Nurses promote prevention and wellness and provide population-focused services to entire communities.”

The day’s agenda included a five-member panel discussion, Integrating the Social Determinants of Health into Building a Culture of Health in Louisiana, and tabletop networking sessions during which attendees were able to spend time learning about a variety organizations and projects that work in different ways to build a culture of health in Louisiana.

“It was encouraging to hear that the Louisiana Department of Health and its Department of Public Health Services are heavily focused on building a healthy Louisiana,” said Barbara Morvant, MN, RN, LAC Core Leadership Team member. “The summit brought together government, corporate and nonprofit organizations essential to building a culture of health for our next generation of Louisianans. I believe some key connections were made at the summit and partnerships identified to move initiatives.”

Bienemy closed the day with a challenge. She said, “I charge all of you to move forward with what you have learned here today. Make connections and collaborate with those whose work complements your efforts in building a culture of health in your community. The only way that we will achieve the goal of building healthy communities in Louisiana is if we learn to appreciate the fact that this work must be done through a multidisciplinary effort; there is no one discipline or entity that can do this work in isolation. We can only achieve a culture of health in Louisiana if we work together.”

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Holle was busy even before the disaster hit. Last Thursday, she earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree at MGH Institute of Health Professions; the next day the American Red Cross Disaster Health Services approved her for a two-week stint volunteering. Holle also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Connecticut Nursing Collaborative-Action Coalition.

What does a nurse do when helping hundreds who have lost their homes and everything inside? Whatever is needed that day—or to be exact, that minute.

Notes that Holle has scribbled during long days reflect bursts of action on many fronts. The main weapon she and the others wield is the ability to solve problems. The disaster relief workers have access to walkers, wheelchairs, and over-the-counter medicines, and can help people get refills for prescriptions and transportation to pick up those medicines. Trying to fill in those gaps left in people’s lives is only part of the story. Everyone has a different need, and such a flood hits people in unexpected ways. On learning that someone living in the shelter in which Holle worked had returned to his apartment only to find his possessions tattered and in the street—he retrieved only a family photo—Holle did what she could. She held his hand; she said, “I’m sorry. I’m thankful you survived, I’m honored to be here with you.”

Disaster Relief Fund for Louisiana Nurses

Louisiana nurses, of course, are on the front lines providing care to those in need, much as they did during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even as many have been directly hit by the most recent flood to ravage the state, they are sacrificing their personal needs to look after the health of others. Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN, director of the Louisiana Nursing Center, and co-lead of the Louisiana Action Coalition, says that Louisiana is deeply grateful to Holle and others who are helping. To those who want to help but cannot fly in, Bienemy suggests the disaster relief fund for Louisiana nurses, established by the Louisiana State Nurses Association and the Louisiana Nurses Foundation, whose monies will go to nurses and their families who face the same needs their neighbors do.

Adds Bienemy: “Everyone is helping everyone, truly a beautiful sight in the midst of such tragedy.”

The storm, in a way, led Holle in the direction her studies had already taken her. For more than a year before she flew south, Holle has been on the Population Health Work Group run by the Connecticut Nursing Collaborative-Action Coalition. The work group is expanding ways nurses and others think of health, and creating courses that can be completed online that cover new ways to create healthy communities. That means that Holle spent months considering what constitutes “good health” besides not being sick, and figuring out ways to teach others those concepts. Now she and others answering the call from the American Red Cross are putting those concepts into practice amid people seeking basics such as food and shelter.

As Holle put it in one of her notes: “This type of nursing is unique. Or perhaps, very old and foundational. We assess, plan, and treat.”

And when needed, work with National Guardsman, physicians, psychologists, social workers, religious leaders, disaster relief specialists, housing experts, and even comfort dogs to do what’s best for those in need.

Above: Holle with Noah, a comfort dog, during relief efforts in Baton Rouge. Holle says what nurses and others perform–and see around them–are “random acts of kindness and thoughtfulness.”

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