The nursing community has a unique opportunity to inform the public and policy makers of the vital role nurse practitioners play in advancing health access, equity, and quality care. Recently, Becker’s Hospital Review published a notice stating about 15 physicians at Edward Elmhurst Hospital were to be terminated and replaced by nurse practitioners. The implications made in response from local physician groups were that nurse practitioners are viewed as mid-level providers, and this practice could put patients in danger.

In response, in December 2019, nurses from Rush University College of Nursing and Rush Health in Chicago submitted a Letter to the Editor to Becker’s Hospital Review, expressing dismay at the description of nurse practitioners as mid-level providers. The Nursing Economic$ Editorial Board believes all nurses have an ethical obligation to correct inaccurate descriptions of advanced practice colleagues, and in support of the nurses from Rush University and Rush Health, submitted a follow-up Letter to the Editor to Becker’s Hospital Review.

Today’s discussion, led by Nursing Economic$ Editorial Board member Dr. Therese Fitzpatrick, focuses on the events at Edward Elmhurst Hospital as reported in Becker’s Hospital Review and elaborates on why advanced practice registered nurses and nurse practitioners must become informants to policy makers and the public. As the nursing profession around the world celebrates 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, participants in this discussion share the profound impact nurse practitioners make in the health care arena, both nationally and globally.

Lynne Braun, PhD, CNP, FAHA, FAANP, FPCNA, FAAN, is Professor Emerita at Rush University in the Department of Adult Health and Gerontological Nursing and a consultant in the Rush Heart Center for Women, where she was a nurse practitioner. Dr. Braun’s clinical and research interests include cardiovascular risk reduction, exercise, cardiac rehabilitation, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension management.

Raechel Ferry-Rooney, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, is an Adult Nurse Practitioner with over 20 years of internal medicine experience, and currently practices clinically in two school-based/high school health centers in Chicago. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Adult Health and Gerontology Nursing at Rush University. She is on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Society of Advanced Practice Nurses, which represents the professional interests of advanced practice registered nurses to state government in Illinois.

Terry Gallagher, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, is a Family Nurse Practitioner and the Director of Generalist Education at Rush University College of Nursing. Dr. Gallagher established a community clinic serving a low-income community on Chicago's West side five years ago.

Angela Moss, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, is a Faculty Nurse Practitioner, Assistant Professor, and Assistant Dean of Faculty Practice at Rush University, where she leads over 40 community-based faculty nurse and nurse practitioner clinicians providing care to Chicago’s most vulnerable populations. Dr. Moss is an expert in the care of underserved populations through nurse-led programs, strategic development of nurse-managed care delivery models, and programmatic and outcome evaluation, and currently practices clinically in a nurse-managed health center for formerly incarcerated men and women.

Therese Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the Senior Vice President, Performance Improvement, Kaufman Hall and Associates, Skokie, Illinois, an Assistant Clinical Professor at the College of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, and a member of the Nursing Economic$ Editorial Board.

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