Improve Health Care by Transforming the Nursing Profession

In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a groundbreaking report that called for transforming the nursing profession to meet the demands of an increasingly complex healthcare system. The IOM’s recommendations became the impetus for The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a nationwide, multidisciplinary initiative launched jointly by AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Through coalitions in every state and the District of Columbia, the Campaign for Action (CFA) engages with policymakers, healthcare professionals, educators, and business leaders to transform health and healthcare through nursing so everyone in America can live a healthier life, supported by nurses as essential partners in providing care and promoting health equity and well-being.

“America today faces serious challenges in health and healthcare, especially around access, quality, and cost,” says Nancy Fishman, a Senior Program Officer at RWJF. As she states:

A powerful solution lies in the country’s 4 million nurses, who represent not only the largest sector of the healthcare profession, but also the consistently most trusted.

The IOM recommendations targeted several areas where transformative change in the way nurses are educated, trained, and deployed could contribute to a healthier America. These include access to care; transforming nursing education; interprofessional collaboration; diversity in nursing; and data collection. Since 2011, TCC Group has conducted a formative evaluation of CFA and its constituent coalitions, aimed at yielding actionable insights into what’s working and what needed to change.

“The idea is to enable CFA stakeholders to make course corrections and adjust their strategy as needed,” says Jared Raynor, TCC Group’s Director of Evaluation & Learning. Co-led by Kate Locke, Associate Director of Evaluation & Learning, the project will continue through 2019.

“TCC Group’s extensive experience working with coalitions has been invaluable,” says Patricia Polansky, Director of Program Development and Implementation at the Center to Champion Nursing in America, also an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and RWJF, which coordinates the Campaign. “Kate and Jared have gathered a wealth of information via site visits to the coalitions, interviews with stakeholders, and constructive participation in CFA meetings and conferences. They’ve provided a lens through which we’ve been able to look at the overall campaign and the individual coalitions and make tangible gains in sustainability, nursing leadership, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building.”

Campaign Director Susan Hassmiller, Senior Adviser for Nursing at RWJF, calls CFA “a very important means to a very important end” and says that TCC Group’s collaborative approach has been a key factor in the campaign’s progress to date: “Kate and Jared have a real ability to talk to people one-on-one in a non-threatening way—to make it clear that their charge isn’t only to evaluate, but also to help, and to provide advice and technical assistance.”

Download the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation / AARP Impact Story.