AACN Reps Invited to the White House for ABC News Event~ Tonight

Jun 24, 2009 12:53 PM

by BBFRN

Staff

Received via email and shared with permission:

AACN Representatives Invited to the White House Tonight for a Televised Conversation with President Obama about Healthcare Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2009 – The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is pleased to announce that AACN President Fay Raines and Treasurer Janet Allan have been invited to the White House this evening, along with AACN staff members and nursing students, to participate in an ABC News program focused on the national healthcare reform debate. Airing at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, the program, titled Questions for the President: Prescription for America, will be moderated by newscasters Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer and feature a question-and-answer exchange with President Barack Obama regarding the future of the nation’s healthcare system (see the official program announcement below).

“AACN is pleased to be invited to this high-profile event to continue our work to advance the importance of nurses and nursing education in conversations about healthcare reform,” said Dr. Raines. “We hope to use this platform to underscore the strategic role schools of nursing play in preparing a highly qualified nursing workforce able to meet the demands of tomorrow’s healthcare system.”

Representing AACN at this event will be Dr. Raines, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in Huntsvillle, and Dr. Allan, dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Joining AACN’s Board members at the White House will be AACN staff members Suzanne Begeny, Director of Government Affairs, and Dr. Vernell DeWitty, Deputy Director for the New Careers in Nursing Program, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AACN also invited two local nursing students to participate: Lauren Underwood, a graduate student from the Johns Hopkins University who is serving as an intern with AACN’s Government Affairs department; and Hershaw Davis, a baccalaureate student from the University of Maryland who is a recent recipient of the AfterCollege-AACN scholarship.

AACN is hopeful that our representatives will have the opportunity to address the President directly during tonight’s program. Issues that may be addressed by AACN representatives include nursing’s role in securing access to health care; the utilization of advanced practice registered nurses as primary care providers; the national need to address the nurse faculty shortage; and the importance of focusing on prevention and quality through nursing care, among other concerns.

ABC News approached AACN last week to identify participants for this program following the testimony presented by Dr. Raines before the Senate HELP Committee on June 12, 2009. AACN offered testimony on behalf of the nursing community before the Senate on the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which addresses healthcare reform.

AACN testimony from that hearing is posted online at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Government/...Reform6-09.pdf.

For more information about healthcare reform legislation and nursing’s effort to shape the issues, see AACN’s new Nursing Policy Beat resource found online at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Government/npb.htm.

VORB · Jun 24, 2009, 04:57 PM