NONPF on the Move

NONPF members are busy people.  In addition to their teaching duties, any clinical duties they have, and their "real life", our members will represent NONPF at meetings.  This section highlights those members and their activities.

American Academy of Nursing hosts "Solutions to Scale:  Proven Health Care Models for Primetime"

NONPF member, Melissa Hladek (The Catholic University of America) volunteered to attend the June 30, 2010 "Raise the Voice" event, sponsored by the American Academy of Nursing.  Below is her account of the meeting.  Thank you, Melissa.

On Wednesday, June 30, 2010, the American Academy of Nursing hosted a program entitled, “Solutions to Scale: Proven Health Care Models for Primetime” at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC.   This program is a part of the “Raise the Voice” Campaign aimed at increasing public awareness about the positive role the nursing profession can play in healthcare policy and practice.  The event consisted of two panels.  With the first panel, each member explained their innovative practice models.  Some of the presentation topics included:  care of the elderly, prenatal, labor, delivery and post-natal care, convenient care clinics, hospital payment bundling (which involves one single payment to the hospital to be paid out accordingly to the various specialists), and Indian Health Service rural training and education courses.  Each program demonstrated positive, evidenced based outcomes while decreasing cost and could be translated and applied in larger contexts.  Interestingly, the barriers identified by each of the speakers were relatively similar.  The top three barriers included: federal and state language excluding Nurse Practitioners (NPs) from performing certain tasks or ordering certain items (like durable medical equipment), certified nurse midwives without hospital admitting priviledges and 48% of insurance companies currently not credentialing NPs or other APRNs.

The second panel consisted of members of the public (AARP representative), insurance (Aetna representative) and government (HRSA representative) responding to the models discussed in the first presentation.  The issue was raised that insurance companies will shortly no longer be able to deny coverage to certain populations and, therefore, must change their service delivery model to one of “Accountable Care Organizations” that look more closely at outcomes per dollar spent, making preventative care more attractive.  The state and federal budget deficits were also discussed as further barriers to implementing new methods of healthcare delivery.  Lastly, education of the public about the health care reform goals of increasing coverage and decreasing cost through innovation, prevention and efficiency was discussed as an immediate priority for all parties involved.

To watch the webcast of this event, please click here. 
More information on the Raise the Voice Campaign please visit the American Academy of Nursing website.