Using a Center for Nursing Health Policy Fellowhip to Develop Skills as a PHN Leader

The 2007-2008 NC Center for Nursing Health Policy Fellowship was awarded this year to a public health nursing specialist in recognition that public health nursing is an area of workforce planning that has received less attention than the widely acknowledged nursing shortages in acute care. The North Carolina Center for Nursing (NCCN) is unique in that it is the first state-supported agency charged with nurse workforce planning, addressing issues of nursing supply and demand and recruitment and retention. The Mission of the North Carolina Center for Nursing is to assure that the State of North Carolina has the nursing resources necessary to meet the healthcare needs of its citizens. The Legislative Mandate includes the following three areas of concentration: 1. Developing a strategic statewide plan for North Carolina. 2. Convening various groups that include representatives from nursing, other healthcare professions, the business community, consumers, legislators, and educators. 3. Enhancing and promoting recognition, reward and renewal activities for nurses in North Carolina. Impacting public health policy through leadership development is critical to the long term survival of the most numerous professional category in the public health workforce. This presentation will discuss the unique opportunity that this fellowship created, the challenges facing a nursing health policy fellow, and the opportunities which the NC Center for Nursing mentorship provided to impact the public health nursing shortage in North Carolina. Leadership skills frequently appear at the top of the list of training needs identified by pubic health nurses. While there exist many excellent continuing education offerings in leadership skills, the opportunity to actually spend 18 months shadowing legislators, following health policy legislation from start to finish, and identifying the critical pieces of legislation which can have the greatest “bang for the buck” is a unique opportunity in hands on leadership training. Communicating urgency and translating population health data into action, are key health policy skills which public health nurses need in order to impact the health indices on their communities.