May 15, 2019 | NLN CEO Update on NLN Resources & Deadlines

May is a wonderful month in Washington, DC. The blooms are out, it is not too hot, and the days are growing longer. At the NLN, we’re in full Summit preparation mode with several important deadlines coming up. Let me tell you about these deadlines now, with a reminder that NLN elections close on June 3 and we hope to have full membership participation:

• May 23: Abstracts are due for #NERC20, our exciting Nursing Education Research Conference with Sigma Theta Tau, March 26–28, 2020.
• May 23: Nominations are due for three prestigious NLN Awards to be announced at Summit 2019.
• May 29: Applications are due for NLN Foundation for Nursing Education Scholarships; contributions to the Foundation to support our scholarship program are welcome at any time
• May 31: Early Bird Registration closes for the Summit. You know the idea: the early bird gets the worm.

Now that I know you are aware of these essential dates, I want to tell you about some significant and related initiatives from the NLN. First, we recently published the latest in our series of Living Documents: A Vision for Integration of the Social Determinants of Health into Nursing Education Curricula. This Vision Statement speaks to the heart of the nursing mission, to care for society's most vulnerable and at-risk individuals. It addresses the critical need to incorporate social determinants of health into nursing education across the curricula, on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, to ensure that content is not isolated but integrated in meaningful ways through innovative teaching strategies. As with all our Vision Statements, recommendations are offered for faculty and for school of nursing leaders as well as for us at the NLN.

In an opinion piece I recently wrote for The Hill, "Understanding Social Reasons for Poor Health Helps to Fix Inequality," I speak to the need to incorporate the social determinants of health into education, training, and practice for all health professionals as essential for addressing health inequity and improving the health of individuals and communities. The recommendations in our Vision Statement for the NLN address this need through professional development opportunities as well as resources for faculty — and here we are well on our way.

Over the past two years, with generous funding from the Hearst Foundations, we have extended the reach of the highly regarded NLN Advancing Care Excellence series to focus on the special needs of children as a vulnerable population whose health is significantly impacted by social and economic factors. ACE.P (Advancing Care Excellence for Pediatrics) is a comprehensive program of resources and teaching strategies centered around unfolding cases. The intent is to highlight common health problems experienced by children in the areas of nutrition/obesity, oral health, preventive care, immunizations, mental health, and autism; all with nursing care management implications.

Along with other resources, we also offer the ACE.P toolkit, Pediatric Adversity and Early Brain Development, designed as a guide to help you integrate the social determinants of health throughout undergraduate and graduate curricula. The lead author is an expert in childhood adversity, neonatal nurse practitioner Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, PhD, NNP-BC, FAAN, associate professor at the George Washington University School of Nursing and director of its Infant Research, Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute. The content is highly engaging and timely, with assignments for reading, interactive exercises, and reflective essays. I encourage you to dive right in.

As NLN President G. Rumay Alexander has said, "It's been by now well-established that social, financial and environmental factors not only affect health in childhood but can have a lasting and detrimental impact throughout life, if early challenges are not identified and appropriate interventions applied." For this reason, I am proud that we are able to offer this comprehensive collection of resources, all classroom-ready, user-friendly, and free for use by nurse educators.

I say it often. The NLN is blessed to have remarkable partners, in this case the Hearst Foundations, George Washington University, and the Rory Meyers School of Nursing at New York University, which contributed the oral health content for ACE.P. Together, we are committed to preparing the next generation of nursing professionals on the frontlines of treating and caring for children in community settings.

ACE.P is the most recent offering in the ACE series, housed in the NLN Center for Excellence in the Care of Vulnerable Populations, headed by Dr. Janice Brewington. It joins ACE.S (Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors), ACE.Z (Alzheimer's disease), ACE.V (veterans), and ACE.D (disabilities), with ACE.C (caregivers) now in development in collaboration with AARP with generous funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation. I hope you use them all.

Wishing you a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And take a look at ACE.V. So many of our members have served and continue to serve, protecting our country, protecting our lives, and protecting our democracy. Breathe in spring; breathe out hope. Nursing enriches the hope of healing, the hope of living, and the hope of extending the baton to our children.

Adelphi University College of Nursing & Alpha Omega Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau Tap Dr. Beverly Malone for Lifetime Achievement Award, Read More. National League for Nursing Celebrates National Nurses Week, Read More. NLN Applauds Reintroduction of Title VIII, Read More.

Should Nurse Practitioners Prescribe Opioid Addiction Medication? Read More. #Opioids Nurse’s London Marathon Record Is Rejected Because She Didn’t Wear a Dress, Read More. Who Is Keeping Track of Our Formally Educated Simulationists? Read More. #NLNTEQ #Simulation

Next Issue of the NLN Member Update: Wednesday, June 12, 2019. View previous issues of NLN Member Update »