Penn’s School of Nursing will host the Pennsylvania launch of the “Future of Nursing” report with a presentation by Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a symposium from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, at Claire M. Fagin Hall, 418 Curie Blvd.
 
The Penn event is part of the national Initiative on the Future of Nursing co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine, created in 2008 to examine the nursing workforce and its capacity for meeting the demands of a reformed health-care and public-health system.

“This initiative comes at a critical time during the health-care-reform debate,” says Afaf Meleis, dean of Penn Nursing. “It will provide a blueprint for the nursing profession to proactively meet the demands of a reformed health-care system that will offer greater access, higher quality and more cost-effective care to the American public.”
 
Penn’s event will include Lavizzo-Mourey’s presentation as well as a panel presentation featuring George Thibault, president and CEO of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, and Penn Nursing’s Julie Fairman, who has worked closely with the Future of Nursing Committee, and Julie Sochalski, who was a nursing-association Washington senior policy fellow working on health-care reform in 2009-10.
Also expected to attend is Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health, Michael K. Huff. Huff is the first registered nurse to serve as the state’s top health official.

“Part of the purpose of our symposium,” Meleis says, “will be to bring together Philadelphia-area stakeholders to learn firsthand about the specific report recommendations and its implications, as well as to begin a dialogue about how we might work together to move them forward to implementation.  
 
“We see this symposium as the beginning of a process to maximize our collective efforts to improve health care for the citizens of our region," Meleis explains. "As members of this community, we all must play a part in and take responsibility for successful health-care reform and the findings of this initiative will be a critical component."