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Running head: RWJF / NURSING CAMPAIGNS NYS 1
RWJF / NURSING CAMPAIGNS NYS 6
Although the health care industry is filled with health care professionals, i.e. nurses, doctors, other health care / medical professionals (occupational therapists, laboratory technologists etc.) and ancillary health care staff, it is often other non medical / health service organizations who provide the support needed to keep the health care industry going. Such an organization is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). RWJF started out in New Brunswick, New Jersey as a charitable organization with the sole objective of helping families during the Great Depression in 1936 (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2012, p.1). At the information provided at their website, the organization emphasizes that it “started small” making reference to the organization providing food, clothing, shelter and health care services to families where the head of household had loss a job with the family company, Johnson & Johnson. Over the years, the organization has grown and with it, an expansion of services along with playing a major role in the development of health care policy.
The organization was started not only to meet the basic needs of unemployed workers during the Great Depression, but also out of Robert Johnson’s interest in science. Johnson was inspired by the ideas of Fred Kilmer, his father’s chief scientist who acted as his surrogate father. Kilmer believed that protecting public health and making improvements in medical care was important to society. This idea make economic and social sense to Johnson and led to the central focus or creed used to guide the foundation. The statement“We are guided by a fundamental premise in all of our work: We are stewards of private funds that must be used in the public’s interest” is the governance statement which can also be found at the website (RWJF, 2012, p.2). The ways in which the RWJF manifests its objectives is through research, evaluation and learning (RWJF, 2012).
RWJF Committee Initiative on Future of Nursing / Institute of Medicine
RWJF has been instrumental in the movement to improve how health care is delivered. In partnership with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and many others, a report entitled Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st Century was published and released to the public in 2001. This report was ground breaking in that one of the things it provided was the six aims for improving health care. Care provided should be patient-centered, efficient, effective, timely, safe, and equitable (IOM, 2001). In 2011, with a specific focus on nursing, RWJF again in collaboration with the IOM, released the book The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health.
The work and leadership of nurses are paramount in addressing the fragmentation in the health care system according to this publication. The major emphasis of the book is to let nurses and society know that nurses are important to all of the needed changes in health care. There are key messages which are aimed at highlighting the role of nurses as innovators, and full and equal partners in the health care system which affect all aspects of nursing from education, to practice to workforce development. These key messages are as follows; nurses should practice at their full capacity, meaning education and training, nurses should achieve a higher education with support through programs and financial assistance, nurses should be full partners with physicians and other health care professionals, and a improved information infrastructure is needed in order to make workforce and policy making effective (IOM / RWJF, 2011).
This new recognition of nurses as major players in the needed transformation of the health care system for improving the delivery of services has been a major force. advocacy and more involvement in becoming active players in the political system. Much of this advocacy involve campaigns that are important to nurses. Currently, there are action campaigns taking in practically every state of the Union to help achieve the transformation in the health care system which have been initiated by nurses..
Nursing Campaigns in New York State
This writer lives in New York State. One campaign which is currently taking place is COACH: Campaign Outreach Advocate for a Culture of Health. This campaign basically involves nurses who act as public speakers, advocates, fund raisers, and do networking as they work in different communities. The Coach program was launched in 2017 and has developed what is known as Breakthrough Leaders in Nursing (COACHes) who have received training in order to deliver effective, action -oriented presentations regarding the role of nurses in developing a Culture of Health to diverse audience which include community partners, businesses as well as health care organizations. Lucia J. Alfano, RN, MA is the current COACHe from New York (Campaign for Action, n.d.)
Another campaign which was completed not to long ago in New York State is the RN Work Project which also started in 2006 and ended in 2016. The project was financed by the RWJF. “t is the only multi-state, longitudinal panel study of new nurses’ turnover rates, their intentions, and attitudes such as intent, satisfaction, organizational commitment, and preferences about work” (Campaign for Action, n.d.). All together, 26 reports were produced by the project. Although there were researchers and writers from many different states,
Christine T. Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Mathy Mezey Professor of Geriatric Nursing at the College of Nursing at New York University (NYU) and Carol S. Brewer, PhD, RN, FAAN, a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Nursing at the School of Nursing University at Buffalo, led the study (Campaign for Action, n.d.).
Conclusion
RWJF and the IOM has increased the presence of nursing in the field of health care through research, evaluation and learning. The increased presence of nursing in the field of health care has had a positive effect on nursing and the field of health care. Although there are still many problems such as the dilemma of the shortage of nursing staff which seems to be endless, it can be said with assurance that things are and will get better. Nurses are on the front line when it comes to the delivery of care. Nurses’ increased involvement in the research and policies which involves nursing can only be a benefit due to specialized knowledge and expertise.
Reference
Campaign for Action. (n.d.). COACH: Campaign Outreach Advocate for a Culture of Health Retrieved from https://campaignforaction.org/our-network/grantee-and-award- programs/coach-campaign-outreach-advocate-for-a-culture-of-health/#lucia
Campaign for Action. (n.d.). RN work project. Retrieved from https://campaignforaction.org/our-network/grantee-and-award-programs/rn-work-project/
Institutes of Medicine. (March 2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st Century. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report Files/2001/Crossing-the- Quality-Chasm/Quality Chasm 2001 report brief.pdf
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing /
Institutes of Medicine. (2011). Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National Academies Press.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2012). we started small. Retrieved from
http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/articles/articles/2012/rwjf72813
The post Although the health care industry is filled with health care professionals, i.e. nurses, doctors, other health care / medical professionals (occupational therapists, laboratory technologists etc.) and ancillary health care staff, it is often other non medical / health service organizations who provide the support needed to keep the health care industry going. appeared first on Infinite Essays.
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