Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have an Office of the National Nurse?

...The nursing establishment declines to endorse. A number of nursing and public health organizations have declined to endorse the concept of an Office of the National Nurse. Among them is the Tri-Council for Nursing, an umbrella organization representing the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the National League for Nursing (NLN).

"The Tri-Council has been very clear that we don't need to put resources into creating a brand new office when we already have a chief nurse officer of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS)," said M. Elaine Tagliareni, president of the NLN. "Everyone wants to improve the quality of care and the public health service, but there's an infrastructure already in place. We need to focus on elevating the position of the chief nurse officer, not create another one, and we need to address other issues that are pertinent to the nursing community."

In the fall of 2007, the ANA and other organizations set out their reasons for opposing the establishment of the Office of the National Nurse:

* the programs proposed for oversight by the national nurse would be redundant because existing public health bodies already direct them.

* funding for existing programs is already strained, making new ones impractical.

* the proposal's public health–education efforts are limited to simple messages and do not incorporate proven, evidence-based interventions...


The role of the National Nurse. "Our goal is to elevate and enhance the position of the chief nurse officer of the USPHS so it becomes a full-time position within the Office of the Surgeon General, and to make the position's official title the national nurse for prevention," says Mills. "Having a full-time, recognizable public health nursing leader at the federal level is necessary to a culture of health promotion and disease prevention."

Another bill is anticipated to be re-introduced into the 110th Congress; with the concept that the current Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for the U.S. Public Health System USPHS) assumes the role of the National Nurse. This position restructured to include proposed duties of the Office of the National Nurse. The NNNO feels that it is crucial to also re-title the position to "National Nurse," rather than keep the title, "Chief Nursing Officer." Mills believes that the title "National Nurse" will be unique and recognizable and presently few really understand or know of the important roles that the Chief Nurse Officer of the USPHS performs.