Policy and Practice

History and experience show that nurses raising their voices shape health policy. From advancing the profession to advocating for patients, nurses are well-positioned to articulate and champion the changes and legislation needed for better health, care, and access.

In this episode we take a closer look at civic health and learn from nurses Jeanne Ayers RN, MPH, Lisa Schavrien RN, BSN and Erin Ainslie Smith MS, BSN, CPST how healthcare professionals and systems are making and achieving civic engagement a national and local health goal; and the creative and innovative approaches to removing barriers to voting that improve the health and wellbeing of patients, colleagues, communities -- and democracy itself.

March 2024 marks two years since President Biden signed into law the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act. This landmark, first-of-its-kind legislation has funded more than $100 million in grants to implement strategies to reduce and prevent burnout, stress and suicide, sustain well-being, and build workplace cultures and practices so our healthcare workforce can thrive!

In this episode, we meet nurse Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, RN, executive director of The Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, a new institute working to redesign the US healthcare system with the goal of shifting policy and practice to more preventive, value-based and whole-person care.

In recognition of the vital link between health and voting and a reminder to verify your voter registration and help others to do the same, we’re having another listen to an earlier episode with public health nurse and Delaware Lt Governor Bethany Hall-Long, where we discover how clinical practice, nursing expertise and research, and voting are critical drivers of influencing, passing, and enacting legislation to keep citizens, our environment, and our economy healthy.

In this episode, recorded live at Aspen Ideas: Health, an expert panel led by nurse economist Shawna Butler, RN, MBA, vividly describes how many of our health workplaces and practices are exhausting, overly burdensome, and causing moral distress and early career departures of our talented, dedicated, and overworked healthcare professionals.

In this episode, we explore with Kimberly Gordon, DNP, CRNA, co-founder of the nonpartisan non-profit Healing Politics, why nurses and midwives need to get politically engaged, run for elected office up and down the ballot, what campaign training sounds like, and how to build a culture of civic engagement within the nursing professions

In this conversation, hear from nurse Gretchen Berlin, RN, and McKinsey's Thomas London, MBA, Robin Roark, MD, MBA, and Senthu Arumugam, MBA, about the findings from a McKinsey survey to explore why nurses are considering leaving their roles, what energizes them to keep going, and how nurses around the world are eager to innovate and deliver care in different and better ways to solve what has become a consequential global problem.

In this lively panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas: Health conference, led by physician and former NYC Health commissioner Dave Chokshi, MD, seasoned clinicians Sandra Lindsay, RN, MBA, Adrian Billings, MD and Siobhan Wescott, MD MPH speak candidly about the exhaustion, debt, and moral injury plaguing the healthcare workforce; the political, financial, and workforce solutions they advocate for; and in spite of—or because of—the numerous system-level challenges, why working in healthcare remains a rewarding and promising career choice.

This summer, SEE YOU NOW is on the road meeting new ideas and people and sharing stories about what we’ve experienced in a wide range of healthcare encounters. We’re taking you with us to the Aspen Ideas: Health conference to be part of a special evening of stories told from The Point of Care and introduce change makers Vanessa Broadhurst, Erica Plybea, Jabraan Pasha, Ivelyse Andino, Ashlee Wisdom, Erin Athey, and AJ Johnson who deepen our understanding that what powers complex health systems and transforms lives are the humans, relationships, and moments of listening and share how entrepreneurs and innovators are making a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to quality healthcare.

International Nurses Day is an important opportunity to check the pulse of nurses around the world, especially in 2022. Nurses have given their all in the response to pandemics, natural disasters, and in war zones, in leading mass COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts, and in completely redesigning how and where care is delivered. The value of nurses has never been more clear. Nor could it be any clearer that not enough is being done to protect nurses and other health workers, tragically underscored by the more than 180,000 health worker deaths due to COVID-19 and the alarming increase of mental health conditions and concerns nurses report.

We checked in with school nurse Liz Pray, MSN-Ed, RN, NCSN in Washington State to learn about the role of a school nurse during a pandemic, how she is experiencing this moment, learning from and gaining strength from the support of her national school nursing community, and why school nurses are more important and essential than ever.

In this episode we meet Jennifer and Corey Feist, co-founders of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation, US Senator Tim Kaine, co-sponsor of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, and nurse and researcher Christopher Friese, a national authority on the nursing workforce and healthcare workplace safety to learn about ending the culture of fear regarding seeking mental health support within healthcare, the urgent need for healthcare organizations to build cultures that protect our healers, the importance of making sure that our workforces feels valued and supported at work, and the need to take care of each other and the vulnerabilities that we all have.

In this first of a multi episode series, we center on the Accelerating Nursing, Transforming Healthcare Report and how it coincides with the National Academy of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Reports, and The Future Today Institute’s Tech Trends Report to serve as relevant, actionable playbooks for reducing uncertainty, managing complexity, and building on the momentum of positive change emerging from the COVID pandemic to accelerate nursing and transform healthcare.

In this episode, as part of the growing Civic Health movement and its nationwide effort to expand and normalize healthcare settings as community touchpoints for voter access and engagement, we’re taking a closer listen to the experiences and insights of three civic health innovators who provide compelling evidence and data for why healthcare settings and healthcare professionals are particularly effective messengers and catalysts for voter engagement. Together, they have collectively created and built NursesWhoVote, Democracy at Discharge, Vot-ER, and the Healthy Democracy Kit.

In this episode, we dive deep into the science of vaccines with Christine Grady, MSN, PhD; Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN; Jaquelin P Dudley, PhD; and Lori Boyle, MSN, AGPCNP. Together we discuss the ethics and details of clinical trials and vaccine distribution, and the role that nurses specifically play in developing vaccine confidence and innovating to rapidly and safely achieve mass COVID-19 vaccination.

Flattening the curve. Testing and contact tracing. Social distancing. Not only have these practices become part of our daily routines, but they are also the primary tools of the public health emergency response to COVID-19. In this episode, we meet Kathleen Blaney, MPH, RN, Director of Disease Control Emergency Preparedness at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Kathleen recounts the story of building the NYC Test & Trace Corps, a public health initiative to fight the threat of COVID-19 and one of the largest contact tracing endeavors in modern history, which in a matter of weeks trained and onboarded over 3,000 new contact tracers—remotely. She shares how the highly personal nature of contact tracing can strengthen science literacy and vaccine confidence, reduce health disparities, and even help build trust in both public institutions and each other amid the pandemic and beyond.

Around the globe, nurses are actively innovating to improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of citizens, environments, and entire communities in settings that some might not have considered—our state legislatures. The link between nursing, politics, and innovation might not seem obvious, but for the nurses who have ushered in meaningful legislation—the relationship is a natural one. In this wide-ranging conversation with Delaware Lt.Gov, Bethany Hall-Long, we discover how nurses involved with legislation at the local, state, and federal level is innovation.

Every day nurses face difficult decisions and ethical dilemmas. They know how to deal with suffering, are accustomed to participating in life and death decisions, and advocating for human rights. COVID-19 presented circumstances that no one was prepared for including weighing personal risk against an obligation to render care. In this episode, Liz Stokes, JD, MA, RN, Director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights provides insight into the ethical and moral dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a digitally-driven world where information and misinformation are both readily available, it can be hard to know what sources to trust--particularly when it comes to health decisions about communicable and vaccine-preventable diseases. In this episode, Melody Butler, BSN, RN, CIC, founder of Nurses Who Vaccinate, discusses how and why she's built a global advocacy network, coalition, and movement of nurses to meet people where they are, and ensure they are well-informed with science-based facts to inform their health decisions.