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Carol Hall Ellenbecker received a fellowship at the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA), funded by the Public Policy Institute of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ). The fellowship is based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Ellenbecker’s efforts are directed toward nursing workforce policy in the context of the broader health care system and health care reform. CCNA’s goal is to ensure that Americans have the highly skilled nurses we need to provide affordable, quality health care now and in the future. At CCNA, Dr. Ellenbecker collaborates with the Center’s director, Brenda L. Cleary, PhD, RN, FAAN, a national expert on health care workforce research and policy, and Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief strategist and Senior Vice President at AARP, who directs its Public Policy Institute and is a nationally recognized expert in nursing and health policy. During her fellowship, Dr. Ellenbecker is conducting research that investigates issues related to nursing education that have important policy implications for education and society’s access to high-quality, affordable health care in the future. She is working to assemble a broad array of resources on legislation, regulation, workforce data, public policy, research, and current events regarding nursing, the nursing shortage, nursing workforce issues, nursing in the context of the broader health care system and health care reform, and aging issues. The fellowship builds nicely on Dr. Ellenbecker’s previous work of nursing job satisfaction, nurse retention, and patient outcomes in home health care. An upcoming issue of Health Affairs will report on these topics. AARP has national presence. While at AARP Dr. Ellenbecker has had access to national experts and top-level decision makers. Dr Ellenbecker is delighted to have this opportunity to participate in the policy process firsthand. In her words,“This is an exciting time to be in the nation’s capital working on nursing issues. Nurses have a major role to play in health care reform, they have solutions to the many problems we face, and they will be instrumental in shaping a quality health care system for the future.” Upon returning to UMass, Dr. Ellenbecker plans to continue her contributions to the national health care agenda and apply what she has learned to a curriculum that develops a nursing workforce trained to meet America’s health care needs of the future. |
