The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), has announced that six nurse-led projects will receive Nursing Innovations Fund awards of up to $25,000 each. The projects submitted by the Campaign’s state-based coalitions all serve to strengthen nursing’s role in building a Culture of Health and promoting health equity by addressing societal barriers to health and well-being, including structural racism. The projects are described below.

The winning projects are from Delaware, Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia, and were selected based on offering replicable strategies that help nurses promote health equity and well-being, while highlighting the importance of collaboration with diverse stakeholders. In fact, each of the 2021 Nursing Innovations Fund projects secured dollar-to-dollar matching funds from local and state partners as a condition of the award, which prioritizes coalition building to achieve sustainable change. As of 2020, the Campaign’s state coalitions have raised more than $93 million from community partners.

“This award’s focus on health equity has never felt more urgent,” said Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior adviser for nursing at RWJF and director of the Campaign for Action. “This pandemic has put a spotlight on the inequities in our healthcare system. People of color, with lower incomes and those living in remote communities have gotten sick and died in the greatest numbers. Nurses remain on the front lines as trusted providers of care, and they are stepping up to innovate ways to build more equity into the system.”

“It is remarkable to me that despite the unprecedented pressure nurses are under during this pandemic, they are prioritizing the critical work that is needed to create structures to make health care more equitable in every way,” said Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior vice president and director of the AARP Public Policy Institute, and chief strategist at the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and RWJF, which coordinates the Campaign for Action. “We received impressive proposals from all over the country, including some places hardest hit by COVID. I feel so much pride in our profession right now.”

“When nurses reflect the communities they serve, you see significant improvements in health and health equity,” said Eric J. Williams, DNP, RN, FAAN, interim associate dean of health sciences, nursing program director at Santa Monica College, and co-chair of the EDISC. “No one is better positioned than nurses to innovate ways to make their profession more inclusive and diverse.”

The Campaign’s Nursing Innovations Fund was created in 2018 to support work of its state Action Coalitions and allies that inform and influence policy, produce replicable strategies that place nurses in positions as essential partners in providing care, and strategically involve a diversity of stakeholders. This competition was limited to the Action Coalitions or organizations designated by Action Coalitions and required applicants to raise funds to match the award dollars. To date, Action Coalitions and their allies in 23 states have received Nursing Innovations Fund awards to build healthier communities through nursing.

The winners and an overview of each of their projects are listed below:

Delaware

Title: Nursing in the 21st Century: Exposing Middle School Students to a Career in Nursing

School nurses from Delaware’s Brandywine School District will pilot an afterschool program that aims to increase awareness of nursing career pathways among students from underrepresented communities. Working with key stakeholders, the project staff will construct and administer a program that focuses on informing middle schoolers, especially students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, low-income communities, and boys about potential career opportunities in nursing. The pilot will be administered in three district middle schools during the project year and shared with educators across the state.

Kentucky

Title: School Nurses to BARN Camp for the Mental Health and Wellness of Kentucky Youth

The Kentucky Nurses Action Coalition will partner with the University of Kentucky College of Nursing to implement a mental health and wellness training for school nurses with the goal of decreasing youth suicide in the state, which far exceeds the national average. This project expands on the Bringing Action Right Now, or BARN, initiative aimed at addressing health equity via social isolation awareness and training. Project leaders will recruit 100 school nurses to participate in the program and will work with a variety of community stakeholders, including the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Montana

Title: Coalition Catalyst: Building Health Equity in Montana

The Montana Center to Advance Health Through Nursing (MT CAHN) aims to advance health equity by involving two nurse leaders on the newly formed Montana Health Equity Task Force. This task force was created to influence policy and guide programs that will improve health equity for Montanans, and the nurse leaders will provide a nursing lens and act as a liaison for the state’s nursing community supporting local level, health equity-focused strategies. Additionally, the nurse leaders will utilize the Campaign for Action’s Health Equity Toolkit to help develop and deliver a health equity track at the MT CAHN Nursing Summit in June 2022.

Pennsylvania

Title: Pennsylvania Action Coalition Cohort of Exchanged Learning (PA-ACCEL) Mentorship Program

The Pennsylvania Action Coalition (PA-AC) will expand its current mentoring program that aims to equip nurses from underrepresented backgrounds with the tools they need to be successful nursing students and nursing professionals. Key components of the 2021-2022 program include mentorship matching from the PA-AC’s Nurse Diversity Council, along with exposure to public health advocacy to inspire health equity and justice. Additionally, the coalition will enhance and promote its PA-ACCEL Toolkit as a model for replication nationwide.

Utah

Title: Building Diversity and Health Equity Competence into the Pipeline of Utah’s Nursing Workforce

The Utah Action Coalition for Health, working with Holy Cross Ministries, will pursue a two-part project designed to build diversity and health equity competence in Utah’s nursing workforce pipeline. The project will increase exposure to nursing careers in predominantly Hispanic communities, and embed Certified Health Workers’ knowledge of health equity/disparities into Certified Nursing Assistant training programs. The Campaign for Action’s Health Equity Toolkit will be interwoven in the project’s implementation phase, and a steering committee composed of key partners will be created for guidance. The project will focus on two school districts initially, with the opportunity for expansion later.

West Virginia

Title: Health Equity Skill Building Multimedia Continuing Education Pilot Project

The Future of Nursing West Virginia (FONWV) will develop a Health Equity Skills Building Multimedia Continuing Education (CE) package for nurses and nursing students. It will focus on the multicultural needs of Appalachian and minority communities in rural and underserved areas of the state and cover systemic racism, implicit bias, equity in care for select populations (starting with LGBTQIA), improving culturally competent care, and building effective cross-cultural communication. The goal is to improve nurse and student nurse skills in building healthier relationships that address disparities, particularly related to stress and trauma.

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About the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action

The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action is a national initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, working to implement the National Academy of Medicine’s evidence-based recommendations on the future of nursing. The Campaign includes Action Coalitions in nearly every state and the District of Columbia and a wide range of health care professionals, consumer advocates, policy-makers, and the business, academic, and philanthropic communities. The Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and RWJF, serves as the coordinating entity for the Campaign. Learn more at www.campaignforaction.org. Follow on Twitter at @Campaign4Action and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CampaignForAction.

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NPR’s “All Things Considered” recently featured Danielle Howa Pendergrass, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, in an interview whose title says it all: “Rural Nurses on What It’s Like To Fight Pandemic Within a Smaller Health Care System.”

Pendergrass, who has helped fill the gap in women’s health care in rural Utah and is a Campaign Outreach Advocate for a Culture of Health, or COACH, talked among other things about fatigue, burnout and lack of personal protective equipment:

“Our nurses are pushed to the very brink. We have nurses out that are sick, nurses that are quarantined, nurses that have worked continuously.”

“Our nurses are pushed to the very brink,” she said. “We have nurses out that are sick, nurses that are quarantined, nurses that have worked continuously. I am very concerned. And we are in a nursing shortage. And what message are we sending to nurses or people who want to be nurses when we’re saying, oh, I’m sorry, we don’t have protection for you to protect you against COVID; now go to work?”

Pendergrass is a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of nursing experience. She owns and operates Eastern Utah Women’s Health in rural Price, Utah, which sees more than 3,500 patients and offers services to more than 20,000 women in three rural counties. Her clinic partners with federal, state, and local agencies to provide care for both the insured and uninsured, which includes working with the local health department for cancer and health screenings, suicide prevention, opioid addiction, and health-related activities; and with local university to provide health services for campus.

Listen to the NPR interview

Read more about Pendergrass

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1. Professionalism: Becoming a systems thinker, effective team member, patient advocate and valued contributor to the provision of quality health care.
2. Role development: Developing an advanced practice role within the team and practice setting. Increasing professional autonomy and expanding awareness of professional and ethical issues.
3. Patient management: Enhancing medical decision-making, clinical judgment and health promotion. Developing and refining clinical procedural skills and proficient management of complex medical and psychosocial needs.
4. Cultural competency: Developing skills necessary to work with diverse patients, families, communities and populations.

The post Utah Implements APRN Fellowship Program appeared first on Campaign for Action.

The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action is excited to announce nine of its state-based Action Coalitions have each been selected to receive up to $25,000 for innovative ideas to advance nursing and build a Culture of Health. The winners were chosen based on their submission of replicable plans to continue working to implement at least one recommendation from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the future of nursing, while also contributing to building a healthier America through nursing.

The winners are:

Colorado

The Colorado Action Coalition’s project seeks to advance nursing leadership by supporting the expansion of a nurse-led health care model to federally qualified health centers in the state. Nurse leaders interested in implementing this RN-based model will be offered a two-day workshop and team-based coaching. The project is called Nurses Leading the Transformation of the Practice Environment.

Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Action Coalition’s project, Promoting Health Literacy to Influence Health and Wellness of Students in the Community, aims to develop a health literacy initiative for students in select communities. The initiative will encourage nurses to become leaders and participants in existing school wellness committees. Participating nurses will receive population health training and access to resources from partners so they can be better positioned to shape school policies concerning school nutrition, physical activity, and other student health issues.

Michigan

The Michigan Action Coalition will create a networking platform featuring social and professional networking, as well as online education opportunities.    The aim of Nurses Connect is to  increase professional development opportunities and strengthen connections among nurses to increase job satisfaction, improve retention, and promote lifelong learning. The platform will include leadership development, mentoring, and Culture of Health components.

Nebraska

The Nebraska Action Coalition will involve nurses on an interprofessional committee whose purpose is to increase access to care by promoting the involvement of community health workers on interdisciplinary teams. The Nebraska Action Coalition will also participate in events that promote the importance of nurses leading in their communities to help build a Culture of Health. Such activity includes hosting regional conferences using the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health framework and other tools to assist communities in creating their Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIP). The information gathered will contribute to the development of a national CHIP model for other communities to use as they create their own plans.

Ohio

In an effort to promote nursing leadership and address local health-related issues, the Ohio Action Coalition will partner with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to encourage nurse participation in CASA’s efforts to train volunteers to advocate in court for the interests of an abused or neglected child.

Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Action Coalition project, a podcast series titled “At the Core of Care,” is an effort to showcase the stories of patients, families, and communities, and the creative efforts of nurses and other partners to better meet their health and health care needs. These podcasts will view a health care need through the lens of the consumer and highlight the ways that nurses and other organizations are intervening and partnering to transform the health care system.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Action Coalition seeks to improve its state’s health care system by creating a nursing curriculum, competency assessment, and development program to prepare nurses to become primary care providers in high-demand communities. Additionally, the state will develop a campaign to promote interprofessional practices among diverse organizations to foster collaboration within the health care environment.

Utah

The Utah Action Coalition aims to increase diversity in nursing by implementing strategies that include outreach to middle and high school counselors. The goal is to recruit students from underrepresented communities and backgrounds for nursing schools. To support diversity in nursing students’ academic progression and leadership, the Action Coalition will implement mentoring and support programs featuring mentors who represent a diversity of racial, ethnic, age, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

West Virginia

The West Virginia Action Coalition will focus on nurse entrepreneurship, offering webinars and online training to teach skills and build a community for nurses to learn about becoming entrepreneurs. This project is based on the belief that nurses could have a large economic impact in the state and in their communities if they were more knowledgeable about business opportunities.

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This is the second in a series of profiles of leaders who are part of the

Danielle Howa Pendergrass, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, is a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of nursing experience. She owns and operates Eastern Utah Women’s Health in rural Price, Utah, which sees more than 3,500 patients and offers services to more than 20,000 women in three rural counties. Her clinic partners with federal, state, and local agencies to provide care for both the insured and uninsured, which includes working with the local health department for cancer and health screenings, suicide prevention, opioid addiction, and health-related activities; and with local university to provide health services for campus.

As one of 20 nurses named as a Breakthrough Leader in Nursing by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Danielle worked with the Utah Action Coalition to change Utah’s Medicaid policy to allow nurse practitioners to directly bill and be reimbursed by Medicaid. They went on to negotiate equal pay for equal services and now all nurse practitioners in Utah are paid at 100 percent the physician rate. Danielle is part of the Campaign Outreach Advocates for a Culture of Health program.

Why did you decide to become a nurse?   

The moment I discovered what a women’s health nurse practitioner (WHNP) was, I knew I wanted to be “that nurse.” I realized at a very early age that my community desperately needed women’s health services and I had this wild dream of opening my own practice.

Can you describe your evolution from making that decision to where you are today?

It was a long, winding road that straightened out when I read the 2010 Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing report. I began at community college; over nine years, I graduated from there and a state college and practiced as an RN before completing my WHNP at the University of Utah in 2004. The IOM’s future of nursing report re-energized me: I moved back to my hometown, started my doctoral program, opened my practice, and went to work on changing an outdated Medicaid policy that would limit access to care for my patients. A classmate who was a RWJF fellow connected me to the project coordinator of my Action Coalition, Joan Gallegos. Fortunately, she was willing to mentor me!

Of all that you have accomplished, what are you most proud of?

I am proud of the impact I have had on my community. I have encouraged cross-sector collaboration that has united my community to work together to build a Culture of Health. My clinic, Eastern Utah Women’s Health, partnered with a local behavioral health agency, which made us the first integrated behavioral and physical health clinic in Utah. It led to our collaborating with therapists, social workers, pharmacists, law enforcement, judges, attorneys, and elected officials. I am a member of our chamber of commerce and work with many local businesses to provide flu shots, health screenings, and education. I have made and will continue to make a difference in the lives of women and girls, which makes for a healthier community.

If you could change the profession in any one way, what would you change and why?

We need to reach outside of nursing and bring our unique skills and talents to the table. As nurses, we have the ability to influence and create a much richer impact but we cannot do this unless we diversify our stakeholders. It is through cross-sector collaboration that we will make a measurable impact on health, well-being, and equity.

 What is the most important action that nurses can take to lead the way to improve health and health care in America?

Start where you are, then spiral out! Take a look at your lifestyle and neighborhood through the Culture of Health lens and implement those changes you would like to see. Next, dive into your community, county, and state and start seeking out cross-sector collaboration. You may discover that there are projects you would like to join, or like-minded people or entities that would like to help you. Nothing gets accomplished alone and it is not as overwhelming as you think!

What role do you see for yourself in building a healthier America?

As a person who does not lack passion, energy, or enthusiasm, I see my role as someone who educates, inspires, and connects others to the Culture of Health work.

The post “I Knew I Wanted to Be ‘That Nurse'” appeared first on Campaign for Action.

Joan Gallegos, MSW, RN, is project coordinator of the state’s Action Coalition and a project manager at HealthInsight Utah, the coalition’s co-lead. Gallegos and Teresa Garrett, RN, DNP, APHN-BC, project director of the Utah Nursing Consortium, and many others from multiple disciplines spent the last few months gaining support for the effort and bringing on new partners. The need in Utah is enormous; businesses small and large, from home health agencies to hospital corporations, share the concern of having enough qualified RNs. As Gallegos writes, “We just got the business community on board through our chambers of commerce—after all, this is a business issue.”

The three nursing students who wrote the column are students of Garrett’s at the University of Utah College of Nursing. In their piece, they note the need: “Utah’s publicly funded nursing programs reject over 900 qualified applicants each year. This is because there is not enough funding to support faculty throughout the state.”

The post Utah Schools Join Forces to Increase Number of Nurses appeared first on Campaign for Action.

• Distribution of population by race/ethnicity
• Percentage of population living in rural versus urban areas
• Distribution of population by federal poverty level
• Areas in which there is a shortage of primary health professionals

These statistics can guide your Action Coalition’s work in shaping a nursing workforce to better meet local needs and overcoming health disparities in your state. As you integrate other Culture of Health aspects into your work, consider how demographics play a role in health equity and fostering cross-sector collaboration.

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