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November 9, 2020 | XXIV, Issue Number 21
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Colleagues, today is Veterans Day, the day set aside by Congress to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice on our behalf for the common good. Originally known as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I, the day was renamed to honor all veterans following World War II. The significance of this day, following the turmoil of the election season, has led me to reflect on those qualities exemplified by nurses—those we remember from the past who signed on to serve during wartime and those in our classrooms today.
Nurses are on the frontlines of the war against the pandemic and they are practicing in settings of all types, working with excellence to advance the health of the United States, the nation we love, and the health of the global community. Let me acknowledge today the many members of the NLN who are veterans and those of you who work with veterans as they engage in nursing education.
As you know, Americans continue to rate the honesty and ethics of nurses highest among all professions. That is extremely important at a time when misinformation and disinformation are spread rampantly to undermine our confidence in science and our understanding of what is right and true. I am proud to be a nurse, especially during this time. I hope you will continue to look to the NLN for support as you work to educate nurses in the best traditions of our profession.
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Serving America’s Veterans
Let me use this space to remind you of the products and services offered by the NLN that are particularly pertinent to veterans. The first is our toolkit, “Nursing Leaders in the Military Serving as Faculty,” designed to help institutions avoid the pitfalls and maximize opportunities in recruiting and mentoring military nurse officers for a second career in academia. Authored by Drs. Patricia Allen, Myrna Armstrong (a colonel in the US Army Reserve), and Donna Lake (a colonel in the US Air Force Nurse Corp), this toolkit offers practical guidance for managing the processes of recruitment, hiring, and assimilation through the examination of school of nursing requirements, norms, and expectations. Published in 2018, this resource remains relevant for all types of academic and practice institutions. |
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Then there is our wonderful ACE series, the centerpiece of the NLN Institute for the Care of Vulnerable Populations, which provides innovative solutions to educate nurses working in an interprofessional environment to meet the special needs of several populations. ACE.V – Advancing Care Excellence for Veterans – emerged as the NLN’s contribution to the 2012 Michelle Obama-Jill Biden initiative, Joining Forces.
The authors of the ACE.V unfolding cases and teaching strategies are nurse educators who are either veterans themselves or worked with veterans to highlight the unique health care needs related to military service. There are four distinct unfolding cases with simulation scenarios, instructor toolkits, and an innovative final assignment that asks students to finish the story: Randy Adams, age 32, is a former National Guardsman who was deployed to Iraq; Butch Sampson, age 68, was exposed to Agent Orange during his service in Vietnam; Eugene Shaw, age 87 and retired, served as a Marine in the Korean War; and Jenny Brown is a 29-year old mother who served in a combat zone in Iraq. As students get to know their unfolding stories, they will develop the skills they will need to provide high-quality patient-centered care.
Celebrating Caregivers
Speaking of ACE, do you know that November is National Family Caregivers Month, and that the NLN offers ACE.C – Advancing Care Excellence for Caregivers? As with ACE.V, ACE.C offers simulation scenarios, faculty resources, and unfolding cases for a diverse group of caregivers. As Dr. Mary Cato notes in a recent blogpost for the NLN Nursing EDge, suicide ideation rates are high for unpaid caregivers for adults. Mary points out that caregiving, which can be stressful at all times, is particularly stressful now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with ACE.C, Mary references several useful resources and provides a link to a free one-hour course for faculty that offers suggestions for teaching students how to work with caregivers who are managing a loved one’s care. |
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Before I leave the topic of NLN ACE resources, let me say a few words about how the NLN has been able to develop this unique series of resources and provide it free of charge to educators. From the very beginning, starting with ACE.S – Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors – we were supported by a group of generous partners. Then other organizations came along to help us expand the concept to a series of vulnerable populations. Today join me in thanking the funders who have enabled us do this valuable work: AARP Foundation, Community College of Philadelphia, The John A. Hartford Foundation, Hearst Foundations, Independence Foundation, Independence Blue Cross Foundation, Laerdal Medical, MetLife Foundation, and the Retirement Research Foundation. Be sure to take advantage of all the resources that the ACE series offers.
Join with the NLN in 2021
Now to the NLN Education Summit 2021, which take place near Washington, DC, September 23-25, with the theme “Resilience through Teaching and Leading.” The call for abstracts is online through December 23. It is so important that nurse educators come together and share strategies for educating our future nursing workforce.
As you prepare your abstract for submission, don’t forget that Nursing Education Perspectives has a themed issue scheduled for Summit 2021 on the nursing education workforce, with another scheduled for Summit 2022 on educating during times of crisis. Sharing your research at the Summit and then in print in Nursing Education Perspectives is so important for advancing the scholarship of nursing education. We are all eager to see your work.
And some final thoughts. We can now congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and the first woman and person of color to hold the office of vice president of the United States, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. What an historic moment this is. I am glad that as his first action following the election, the president-elect has formed a task force to plan a response to COVID-19 that will start as soon as he takes office.
Amidst all the uncertainty we’ve been living with these past months, I am glad that I have always had my North Star, my confidence in the importance of nursing education and its promise for the future. So, I must ask once again: please give generously to the NLN Foundation for Nursing Education. Participate in the foundation’s Season of Giving activities by honoring your mentor, getting Fit for the Future, and of course, #GivingTuesday. Our foundation exists to support the NLN core values of Caring, Diversity/Inclusion, Integrity, and Excellence through scholarships for the next generation of nurse educators and grants for research in nursing education.
I hope that despite the restrictions that are so necessary during this pandemic you are looking forward to a happy Thanksgiving, followed of course by a #GivingTuesday marked by generosity. Be well colleagues – wear your mask, keep your distance, and hold your head up high. We can be proud of our collective mission to advance the health of our nation and the global community through excellence in nursing education. |
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