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It all started in May 2005 with an Op-Ed piece that appeared in The New York Times.
Teri Mills, MS, RN, ANP, CNE, a nursing faculty member at Portland Community College in Oregon, posed the question: "Who better to educate Americans on how to take better care of themselves than nurses?"
With that simple concept in mind, she argued, the best figure to lead the charge in applying preventive strategies to improve our citizens' health and lower our country's healthcare costs would occupy a newly created post - that of a National Nurse.
"We're seeing a rise in chronic conditions that are preventable, and it's just been a travesty as a nurse to witness that, as well as the climb of obesity in our country," Mills explained. "I believe nurses are in the best position to do something about it.
"We have a Surgeon General, why not a National Nurse to lead the country into a culture of prevention?"
Mills set about to launch a campaign, the National Nursing Networking Organization, to garner support, elicit feedback and ideas, and hone her idea into an actionable goal.
The concept has evolved in the 3 years since - for example, stemming from the original idea to create a wholly new entity, Mills realized an infrastructure exists that can be buttressed and expanded to fulfill her vision.
Today, the campaign seeks to begin with the closest thing the U.S. now has to a National Nurse - the chief nursing officer of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) - and adapt it into the Office of the National Nurse. The program also would utilize another existing entity, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), to accomplish the new office's goals on a local level.
By strengthening existing resources and networks, and unifying them under one national office of nursing leadership, Mills believes the initiative would usher in a new era of healthcare - one that hinges on prevention.
A Broad Vision
The mission for the proposed office is to establish symbolic national leadership by elevating the current USPHS post to a level of high visibility to the nursing profession and the public, to complement the work of the U.S. Surgeon General, to promote involvement in the MRC to improve the health and safety of the community, and to incorporate proven evidence-based public health education in implementing prevention strategies.
In a similar way that Smokey the Bear is synonymous with preventing forest fires, and McGruff is linked to crime prevention in the public consciousness, Mills believes a central, visible nursing figure could bring to the forefront the importance of disease prevention and wellness.
Creating the office, Mills explained, would not only elevate the status of the nursing profession, but also provide a stronger conduit among localized efforts to problem-solve on a community level - essentially optimizing the impact of multiple small efforts through coordinated resource management.
"We know using best practices to deliver a message of prevention requires multiple components," she said. "In addition to a National Nurse stating what the message would be, it needs to be reinforced in a way the public can understand. That's why what we're asking for is to utilize what we have now, which is a Medical Reserve Corps, and to integrate the component of national nurse teams and other disciplines."
The MRC would provide a foundation for building a network of volunteer nurses and other health professionals to promote, encourage and support nationwide efforts that focus on wellness and disease prevention.
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