Nurses must assert a collective voice and articulate the values and contributions made by professional nurses to health care and the work environment. On a daily basis, RNs face a collection of challenges: issues of patient safety and quality of care; the growing demand for greater public access to health care; for transparency in reporting of clinical outcomes; growing numbers of uninsured; and overwhelming workforce issues evidenced by vacancy rates in all care settings.

Nurses cannot sit back and take a “Not on my watch” position on these issues. Together, RNs must lift up the voice of nursing with the conviction that solutions can and must be found “on our watch.” Nurses can use their power, politics and persuasion to secure safe and quality patient care while providing for healthful practice environments.

The patient care delivery model of the future will look very different from today. That means nurses must act now to define the work of the future, the roles needed to do that work, and the education that is required to create the person to fill the role of the future. Dramatic change and revolutionary thinking are required.

That work is already underway at Clarian Health, as evidenced by the stories in this annual report on nursing.

View the report (pdf, 2M)