Public Policy Fellow: UofL School of Nursing PhD Student Visits

Earlier this month it was wonderful to welcome Valerie McCarthy to AARP and the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA). Valerie was given an office and email access during the 2 weeks she was with us March 2-14, 2008.

Valerie is a doctoral student at University of Louisville School of Nursing in

Louisville, Kentucky. Her special area of interest is in the health and wellness of older adults. She is here doing her Social Policy Practicum related to understanding Issues in Aging. Valerie is a resident of beautiful southern Indiana. Her hobbies are her grandchildren and doctoral studies. She is nearing the end of her course work in the doctoral curriculum and is approaching qualifying exams in August.

During Valerie’s second week we attended the Public Policy Institute of American College
of Nurse Practitioners. This invitation came about because I represented Dr. Susan Reinhard in a presentation about AARP’s CCNA. Download thank_you_letter.doc Attendance allowed us to talk frequently at lunch about the importance of doing an Op Ed on the importance of Nurse Practitioners in Primary Care.

Valerie's Op Ed

The most important outcome Valerie produced was an Op Ed in response to the reauthorization of health professions education programs established under Title VII of the Public Health Service Act (PHS).

The background information for this idea about Op Ed started from Pat Ford-Roegner (American Academy of Nursing) and Diana Mason (American Journal of Nursing). I jumped on the bandwagon after I attended a Title VII Hearing and only one NP was present to testify. Most of the funding for Title VII programs goes toward primary care medicine and dentistry training and increasing medical student diversity. I still can’t believe MDs never even thought about NPs as a way to increase access to primary care. I thought Op Ed was a great idea because someone in Nursing needed to respond.

I thought that American College Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) would be a wonderful vehicle to author the idea of identifying strengths of nurse practitioners as part of multidisciplinary team. Then, Nancy Sharp (Senior Health Policy Expert for ACNP) found the editorial below in USA Today:

USA Today March 13th, 2008 Article

It gave us an excellent opportunity to respond. Valerie and I attended the Advanced Public Policy Institute with Nancy Sharp. We talked several times with Nancy Sharp about doing an Op Ed. The Op Ed needed to get out quickly in response to the USA Today editorial.

Nancy was able to get approval from her Board quickly. In summary, a special huge thank you goes to Valerie for taking this on as her project and production of this wonderful Op ED.

March 27, 2008

An Op Ed was submitted for publication in USA Today. They informed us that it was too long for them to publish. They requested it be downsized to a 250 word editorial. ACNP downsized and resubmitted as an editorial on the same day. Please find the link below to the editorial:

USA Today March 27. 2008 Op Ed Article

Thanks again to Valerie!