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On stage amid a crowd in New York City’s busy financial hub, Dorrie Fontaine had no problem with nerves.

“I was so confident in our message,” Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN, dean of the University of Virginia School of Nursing, said in a telephone interview.

The message was delivered May 8 when Fontaine rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ stock market and addressed a crowd of attendees. The event was in conjuntion with National Nurses Week. May 8 also was celebrated as National Student Nurses Day.

“We’re all going to need a nurse,” Fontaine said.

Nurses can play roles in numerous aspects of healthcare, she said, from bedside care to teaching to the national healthcare reform process.

“Nurses can do anything,” she said. “They’re wonderful problem solvers.”

Fontaine stressed the importance of higher education for nurses and its impact on the economic health of hospitals.

“Nursing quality has a significant economic impact on healthcare systems,” she told the NASDAQ audience. “A workforce comprised of better-educated nurses results in lower risk of complications and a lower rate of mortality.”

Fontaine said studies show a well-educated nursing staff “can decrease the risk of patient death by over 5%.”

Many Virginia graduates attended the event, which was set up thanks to NASDAQ managing director Don Johnson, a 1980 grad of the school of nursing. Fontaine said Virginia grads from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were in attendance.

“It was pretty incredible,” she said.

Barry Bottino is a Regional Editor for Nursing Spectrum.

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