Nurses a Necessity in Obama Administration
Monday February 9, 2009
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"I have to be hopeful or else I'll be depressed," says Geraldine Bednash, RN, PhD, FAAN, executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Nursing and healthcare groups, including the AACN, the American Nurses Association, the Tri-Council for Nurses, the AARP, and the American Academy of Nursing, have suggested eight or nine names of nurses for positions that could include heading a national agency such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (held by a nurse, Carolyn Davis, RN, PhD, FAAN, during the Reagan administration) or working as high-level policy analysts within the Obama administration.
Nurse leaders say they have met several times with the Obama transition team to talk about the need for support for nursing education and research and the critical contribution nurses can make, as well as to submit names of nurses they believed would make good policy leaders.
Some of these nurses have held government positions in the past, are familiar with the workings of Capitol Hill, and have spent time supporting candidates, including contributing money and working to get out votes, Bednash says. Others are respected specialists in areas such as healthcare workforce issues, compensation, and chronic care management, which Obama discussed during his campaign.
Bednash described the talks with the transition team as "very open and transparent. I'm hoping there are some positive things that come out of that interview."
Bednash and other nurse leaders say the chances of getting nurses on the Obama team are much better than they were during the previous administration, which had no nurses in high- or even medium-level policy positions. Former President Bill Clinton had three regional health and human services directors who were nurses and the largest number of nurses in high-level federal positions so far, says Judith K. Leavitt, RN, MEd, FAAN, a health policy consultant who served on the health advisory group for President Clinton's White House Task Force on Health Care Reform.
Nurse leaders and policy experts hope the Obama administration's nurse appointments will be close to that of the Clinton administration, if not higher.
The transition team has no nurses, something Leavitt found "disappointing." But Bednash says the team has worked closely with nurses throughout the selection process.
What is most positive, Leavitt says, is that Obama's team understands nursing contributions and issues. "There were many nurses across the country who worked for his election," she says. "We expect the administration will include nurses in a variety of roles."
No matter how many nurses end up in the Obama administration, Bednash says if nurses want a say in health policy they must be more involved in all areas of politics, from fundraising to active participation in political parties to acting as community liaisons for candidates. "We need nurses to do more of that. We don't have enough nurses working on the Hill. There are a number of physicians working up there. There are not as many nurses."
Phyllis R. Schultz, RN, PhD, FAAN, says nurses also must remember the Obama team is looking for someone with a broad vision for improving the health of the population, rather than someone who would just advance nursing.
"It's not about nurses or nursing," says Schultz, who is retired from the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle, where she taught health services management and community health. "It's about having the knowledge and expertise that nurses have. It's about public interest."
Cathryn Domrose is a staff writer for Nursing Spectrum/NurseWeek. To comment, e-mail editorNTL@gannetthg.com.
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