Lessons from Oprah

Abstract

We are educating the nurses who will influence health care for the next century. The only questions are, What influence will these nurses have? What intellectual capital will they contribute? Is it not time for us - leaders in the house of nursing - to take an Oprah moment and focus on providing the best? It is my pleasure to warmly welcome Beverly Malone back to the United States as the new chief executive officer for the National League for Nursing. At this time, we poignantly wish Dr. Ruth Corcoran warm winds, calm seas, and a wonderful retirement. Ruth, thank you for your wise leadership, stewardship, and laser-sharp focus on the mission of the NLN. For those who do not yet know the NLN's newest CEO, Dr. Malone was a staff nurse, clinical specialist, assistant administrator for nursing, dean, and vicechancellor before serving two terms (1996-2000) as president of the American Nurses Association. While ANA president, Beverly served on President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry and the Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting Committee. At the end of her second term as ANA president, she was appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and became the highest ranking nurse to serve in the United States government. From this post, she went to London to serve six years as general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing. With a membership of more than 390,000, the RCN is the largest professional nursing organization in the world. In England, Beverly was also a board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for the United Kingdom. She is the first person to have been appointed to represent two different nations (the US and later the UK) at the World Health Assembly. And she has been included in the Ebony Magazine list of the 100 most influential African Americans and the Daily Mail list of the 100 most influential women in Britiain. Beverly, welcome back and welcome home! Dr. Malone takes the helm of the NLN in its 114th year. At this time, educational issues in nursing are remarkably similar to those in 1893, when this organization first came into being. At the turn of the 20th century, nursing schools had multiplied from approximately 30 to more than 400. The reason for this rapid proliferation was that hospitals had learned that nurses were important to patient outcomes and to quality health care. So began a recurrent cycle. Through the years of the 20th century and now into the 21st, nursing shortages begat numerous commissions on nursing and numerous reports to Congress. …