Friday February 17, 2023
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom
Dampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library*
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
It is easy to believe nurses should have more influence on health policy.
Nurses deliver a large portion of health care. Nurses have to pay attention to how the rest of healthcare institutions operate because they are in the middle of the process. Nurses are generally salaried, and so while they have an interest in higher compensation they do not normally have the incentives to generate costs that physicians may have. Patients spend more time with nurses than physicians. And, more and more, the managers of and “experts” on health care are trying to transfer functions from physicians to nurses.
Yet there are at least two dimensions of health policy on which nurses might take stands. One is those situations in which nurses are directly involved. This would include, for example, under-staffing of hospitals or some of the perverse effects of how electronic medical records have been implemented in the United States, such as even worse communication between physicians and nurses, and “alert fatigue.” In short there are policy areas for which nurses should have special authority as participants in the delivery of care. The other is simply that the over three million working registered nurses are by far the largest group of health care providers and among the more likely groups to feel a moral imperative to fix our broken health care system. So the various nursing organizations, such as the ANA and National Nurses United, have been particularly active in many health policy issues that less directly engage nurses’ own roles in the system.
In spite of many efforts, to an outsider it can seem that organized nurses achieve some goals but have not been able to keep lots of bad things from happening to how medical care is delivered and have had only brief and modest success expanding access and equity for patients. It is also easy to believe that the system would be worse without organized nurses’ efforts. How then should we think about the influence of nurses on health policy? This is something I could try to answer in my health policy course. However, since we have on campus Professor Patton, who was President of the ANA during the battle to enact the Affordable Care Act, it seems a lot more sensible to ask her!
In-Person and Virtual Attendance
In order to make it easy for people to protect themselves and still participate, the meetings are accessible on Zoom. Participants can register for each meeting in the same way they did for the past two years. The link is posted below.
We now have new technology in the Dampeer Room that should make it easier for participants on Zoom to hear the discussion in the room and allow less worry about echoes within the room.
The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. Please also remember to show identification when entering Kelvin Smith Library.
Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.
Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu/ Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.
This week’s Zoom link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwucuChrD4sGNVwuEoPSFgAAJvIHlxYG6wY
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Rebecca M. Patton DNP, RN, CNOR, FAAN is the inaugural holder of the Lucy Jo Atkinson Chair in Perioperative Nursing at CWRU’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Her teaching and research focus on perioperative nursing, health policy, quality and safety, and issues of teamwork and management.
Before her service as president of the American Nurses Association from 2006 to 2010, she served on the ANA board as a director and then treasurer. As treasurer she helped realign budgets to fit priorities and increase revenue through and an ambitious membership dues campaign. During her term as ANA president she worked to ensure that nurses’ voices were heard in the Affordable Care Act debate and before on topics such as reimbursement, patients’ rights, staffing, nursing education funding, and the roles of registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses in our national health care system.
* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
Note: We are still working to create the schedule for the semester. In addition to the programs listed below, a few others are nearly arranged. Please contact me at joseph.white@case.edu to suggest other topics – especially if you can suggest speakers!
February 24: Environmental and Social Corporate Governance. With Victor B. Flatt, J.D., Visiting Professor and Burke Environmental Law Center Distinguished Visiting Fellow, CWRU School of Law; Dwight Olds Chair in Law and Faculty Co-Director, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources (EENR) Center, University of Houston Law Center.
March 3: A Psychedelic Renaissance? With Lee Hoffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry.
March 10: Moore v. Harper and Merrill v. Milligan. With Atiba Ellis, J.D., Professor of Law.
March 17: Spring Break
March 24: TBD
March 31: The Electricity Grid of the Future: Challenges and Opportunities. With Kenneth A. Loparo, Ph.D., Arthur L. Parker Endowed Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering.
April 7: TBD
April 14: TBD
April 21: TBD
April 28: TBD |
