Knowlton: ‘We Need the Leadership of Nurses on Every Hospital Board’

“I believe the leaders in hospitals recognize the value of nurses. They know nurses are essential to everyday patient care,” writes David L. Knowlton, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, and a co-lead of the New Jersey Action Coalition, on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital Blog.

“The nursing role has changed as nurses today run private practices, obtain advanced degrees and prescribing privileges, and run many hospitals as CEOs. The role of nurses has changed faster than the perception of nurses held by too many people on hospital boards. That needs to change, not for the sake of nurses but for the sake of hospitals and all of us as patients.”

Read more of Knowlton’s post, one in a series for the fourth anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s future of nursing report.

News Roundup – October 7, 2014

The following is the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) weekly news roundup, highlighting nursing and health care stories from around the state.

Opinion: New Jersey hospitals prepared for public health threats (NJToday.net)
NJNI Program Co-Director Aline Holmes writes: “It’s hard to miss the news reports about Ebola and enterovirus (EV-D68). People are understandably nervous and anxious but New Jersey residents can rest assured that our hospitals are well prepared to deal with these types of public health threats.”

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News Roundup – September 30, 2014

The following is the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) weekly news roundup, highlighting nursing and health care stories from around the state.

QualCare launching enhanced health management plan for its employers (NJ Biz)
QualCare, which administers health plans for employers across the state, is offering the members of those plans an enhanced “population health management” program designed to get people more engaged in their health. QualCare will reach out to the members through a new “health service team model,” with 70 nurses organized into small teams, or pods, with each pod assigned to a handful of employer groups.

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News Roundup – September 23, 2014

The following is the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) weekly news roundup, highlighting nursing and health care stories from around the state.

The Affordable Care Act turns 1: How N.J.’s medical landscape is changing (Inside Jersey)
New Jersey medical practices are gaining new patients and serving new populations with the expansion of insurance under the Affordable Care Act, but many physicians are holding off on making wholesale changes to their practices because of concerns that the program will be dismantled before it is fully implemented. According to a May report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the percent of uninsured among the state’s non-elderly population dropped from 21.2 percent in September 2013 to 13.2 percent in early March 2014, a decrease of 38 percent. That translates into more than 400,000 newly insured people, and indicates the state is at the lowest level of uninsured in 25 years.

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News Roundup – September 16, 2014

The following is the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) weekly news roundup, highlighting nursing and health care stories from around the state.

‘Silver Tsunami’ of Older Residents Shapes Debate on Long-Term Care Policy (NJ Spotlight)
The “silver tsunami” of older New Jersey residents who need long-term support and services is spurring the growth of home- and community-based services, but it’s also increasing the need for skilled nursing facilities, as well as reshaping the type of care residents receive and how the state will pay for it. These were among several topics discussed during a recent NJ Spotlight conference that brought together long-term care policy experts to discuss the future of such services in the state.

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News Roundup – September 9, 2014

The following is the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) weekly news roundup, highlighting nursing and health care stories from around the state.

In Face of National Declines Nurses Unions Look to Expand in South Jersey (NJ Spotlight)
As the number of hospitals shrinks, the number of nurses who belong to a union has decreased accordingly. In just the past five years, the community of unionized nurses has fallen off by 11 percent. At the same time, New Jersey’s nurses unions have been affected by hospital closures and the shift to for-profit health care. But unions are trying expand the number of facilities they represent, arguing that this will allow nurses to have a larger say in how hospitals operate — and will also swell the rank of unionized nurses.

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