Contacts:
Lauren Musiol
202-745-5051
What: The Center to Champion Nursing in America, a joint initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in collaboration with the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education, will convene leaders from 11 states to demonstrate innovative models of nursing education. These models are helping increase the numbers of new nurses and address the looming national nursing shortage which threatens the quality and safety of health care of hundreds of millions of Americans.
The Nursing Education Redesign Conference will showcase education redesign solutions from Oregon, California, Hawaii, New York and North Carolina. Featured initiatives include collaborative partnerships between university and community college nursing programs, the redesign of clinical education, and strategies to increase the number and specific capabilities of faculty to educate nursing students for the challenges of the 21st century health care system.
Why: There is an urgent need to reform nursing education to reflect the realities of providing quality health care to an increasingly diverse patient population, including a rapidly aging citizenry and a changing, evolving health care system. The nursing shortage is being caused, in part, because tens of thousands of qualified applicants are turned away each year due to a lack of enough faculty to teach them. In addition, university and community college curricula are rarely aligned, creating a bottleneck that ultimately prevents new nurses from entering the workforce and diminishes the pool of nurses qualified to become nursing faculty.
When: October 22, 2009, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PT October 23, 2009, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. PT
Where: Embassy Suites Portland - Airport
7900 NE 82nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97220
Media Opportunities: Interviews with state team leaders, as well as representatives from the Center to Champion Nursing in America and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are available prior to the summit. Spokespersons include:
· Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior Adviser for Nursing, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
· Christine Tanner, RN, PhD, FAAN, Youmans-Spaulding Distinguished Professor,
Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing
· Susan Reinhard, Senior Vice President of the AARP Public Policy Institute and Chief Strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America
· Brenda Cleary, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director, Center to Champion Nursing in America