Under leadership from SON assistant professor Beth Lamanna, the Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association joined in the national effort to reform healthcare and ensure patients receive affordable, high-quality care. Lamanna is the chairperson for the Public Health Nursing Section (PHNS).
Along with 17 other national organizations, the PHNS signed a report — “Commitment to Quality Health Reform: A Consensus Statement for the Nursing Community” — that calls on Congress to invest $2 billion in Nursing Workforce Development Programs that will support 400,000 of the 1 million nurses needed by 2016. In addition, the letter calls for the development of recruitment, retention and incentive programs to address the shortage of nurses in the military.
The group also requests fair and equal treatment of all levels of nursing within the healthcare community. Increased funding for nursing science also made the list as the group asked Congress to bump up support for the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Tri-Service Nursing Research Program.
To view the entire letter with all recommendations: http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/phn/Resources/
