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Recent changes in the reform of health care in the United States will largely depend on the way the medical profession redefines the role of nursing, especially if we want to be successful at making those changes.
Such were the words that brought electricity into a room of more than 150 nurses and other health care professionals who gathered on June 13 to hear former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala speak on the future of nursing. Her remarks served as the theme for the 27th Annual Duncan W. Clark Lecture at NYAM.
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| Donna Shalala with NYAM President Jo Ivey Boufford, MD |
Dr. Shalala’s observations were borne out of a report by the Institute of Medicine in 2010 on the role of nursing, particularly around the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress last year.
Dr. Shalala, who served as a member of the IOM panel that developed the report and its critical recommendations, said the key was developing a structure that would capitalize on the strength and wisdom of the entire nursing profession, including environments that foster greater leadership and educational opportunities.
Moreover, Dr. Shalala said that nurses, who represent the largest sector of health care professionals (there are some three million nurses in the US) need to be in the middle of the conversation that focuses on improving patient care while working to decrease the cost of health care.
“I think we are about to enter the ‘golden age’ of nursing in large part because of health care reform and because health care itself has evolved to the point where we need to take advantage of every single member of the health care profession and put them together as teams,” Dr. Shalala said. “The fact that [the report] crashed the computers at the IOM when it was released and is still a best-selling publication at the Institutes of Medicine says something about nursing and about health care and about where we are at this time in our history.”
In her remarks, Dr. Shalala focused on four key recommendations: the improvement of nursing education, encouraging nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training, creating avenues of leadership for nurses with the expectation that they become full
partners in health care redesign and improvement efforts, and improving data collection for workforce planning and policy making.
A full copy of the report can be found here. To view a video copy of the lecture, please click the following links: Part 1 Part 2.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, President Shalala received her AB degree in history from Western College for Women. One of the country’s first Peace Corp Volunteers, she served in Iran from 1962 to 1964 She earned her PhD degree from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She has held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as President of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1980 to 1987 and as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993.
In 1993 President Clinton appointed her U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history. At the beginning of her tenure, HHS had a budget of nearly $600 billion, which included a wide variety of programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Child Care and Head Start, Welfare, the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The annual Duncan W. Clark Lecture is named for former Academy President (1983 to 1984) and Trustee (1985 to 1989) Duncan W. Clark, MD. Dr. Clark, an honored physician, teacher and mentor had a distinguished record of achievement in teaching, research and advocacy to ultimately improve the practice of medicine. Each year an award is given for major contributions with regard to the social aspects of medicine.
Posted on June 14, 2011
Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org
Reporters: to arrange interviews with NYAM medical and urban health experts, contact
Andrew J. Martin, Director of Communications
212-822-7285 / amartin@nyam.org
The 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture - The Affordable Care Act: An Insider’s View
Featured Speaker: Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
November 19, 2012 - The NYAM Section on Health Care Delivery welcomes Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who will deliver the 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture on "The Affordable Care Act: An Insider's View."
Learn more »
The New York Academy of Medicine with support from the New York State Heath Foundation released a new report, Federal Health Care Reform in New York State: A Population Health Perspective.
This report identifies opportunities that build on both the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and New York’s ongoing efforts toward improving the health of its 19 million residents.
Read press release
Read report
