Minnesota Nursing Magazine (PDF) - School of Nursing - University ...

alumni news
A Letter from the Nursing Alumni Society President
Dear Alumni and Friends of the School
of Nursing,
Our society is experiencing economic challenges that are pivotal to
the nursing profession. April’s annual nursing alumni celebration,
entitled The Power of Nursing: Building Healthy Communities,
focused on how nurses are changing and advancing health care.
Keynote speaker, Minnesota Commissioner of Health Edward
Ehlinger, Dean Connie Delaney, nursing faculty, and our nursing
alumni engaged in lively round table discussions that evening.
The generations of nurses in attendance – representing providers,
consumers and advocates of patient care – all recognized that
nurses are well positioned to contribute at a leadership level to
health care reform.
As the nation’s largest and most trusted health profession,
nurses are practicing in more diverse settings and focusing on
patient-centered holistic care. Indeed, nurses are becoming more
visible and better recognized by the public. Here are some of the
recommendations voiced during the table discussions with alumni:
• Nurses must be fully accountable for their outcomes and
should prepare reports for targeted audiences that contain
recommendations for action.
• Advanced practice nursing providers should be reimbursed
for care, just as other providers are currently reimbursed.
• Nursing is divided into specialties that collaborate for the
advancement of a given practice, and as nurses we must
become involved at the state level in framing legislative
language that allows us to work to the full potential of our
licenses.
• Nurses should continue building new care models to address:
• children and adolescents to keep them healthy and in
school
• the general population to keep them connected to a
health care home in lieu of emergency rooms
• older adults to keep them in their homes as long as possible
• complex medical patients to minimize their need for
hospitalization.
Today’s nurse leaders have
a tremendous opportunity
to redirect the waste in our
complex health care systems for
the purpose of providing quality
coverage for all citizens. This is an
exciting, and indeed challenging,
time for nursing.
I look forward to serving as
your Nursing Alumni Society
board president this year.
Together with this board, I
want to continue the excellent
work of our past president, Michael Graham, and his board in
strategic efforts to increase alumni engagement. Our goal is to
create a lifelong spirit of belonging and pride in the University of
Minnesota, the School of Nursing, and the nursing profession. We
are sincerely interested in continuing our current relationships and
learning more about building stronger connections to our younger
alums. I welcome your participation and your ideas.
Together in Leadership and Action,
Jeanne Pfeiffer, DNP, MPH, RN, CIC
President, Nursing Alumni Society Board
Pfeiif052@umn.edu
Alumni Spring Celebration and Reunion program,
“The Power of Nursing: Building Healthy Communities”
fall/winter 2012 25