FUTURE OF NURSING

March 20, 2023

Welcome to Oakland University and….welcome to a long overdue and profoundly timely discussion about the need for nurses to play a central role in the shaping of public health policy.
Thank you to our panelists, the policymakers at the forefront of developing Michigan healthcare policies, and our moderator Lilia Lazarus, for her excellent reporting on a range of health issues. Your work, Lila, is truly a public service.
In the three years since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we must not only learn from what nurses can teach us about healthcare, but we must also find better ways to care about the nurses who care for us.
And that care begins with listening… and then translating what we hear into more responsive and effective policies that improve the health of all Michigan residents.
In an increasingly complex healthcare system of specialists, there is a compelling need for all of us in healthcare to remember that we must treat the whole patient, including the psychological and emotional effect of living with an injury, illness or a disease…
No one knows that better than the nurses at patients’ bedsides hour after hour, day after day.
“The Future of Nursing” symposium comes at a time of profound change in healthcare, medicine, public health policy and politics.
In this cauldron of cultural change, nursing stands at a crossroads.
Between 2020 and 2021, the number of working U.S. nurses dropped by over 100,000, the largest single-year decline recorded in four decades of data (according to the Current Population Survey, January, 2022).
And shortages in critical care staff at U.S. hospitals are on the rise. (Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
The reasons for the nursing shortage must be addressed…including staffing, workplace conditions, burnout, wages, lack of incentives and the surges of Covid-19 cases among healthcare workers.
We must realize that nurses make up the underpinning of the American healthcare system, and that underpinning is in serious need of support.
By 2030, the number of registered nurses needed in the United States is estimated to increase by 28.4% from 2.8 million to 3.6 million.
Nursing schools across the country are finding ways to graduate more registered nurses to meet the current healthcare demand.
To help meet the critical demand for nurses in Michigan, Oakland University and Corewell Health have partnered to increase the number of nurses graduating from OU.

Through our strategic collaboration, Corewell will provide $10 million for student grants and more than $10 million for infrastructure investments.

Today’s “The Future of Nursing” symposium will look at healthcare and nursing trends, and explore ways nursing educators, policymakers and nurses can be more influential public health policy advocates.

In many ways, nurses must learn to advocate for themselves the way they advocate effectively for their patients.

It’s a discussion that will determine the quality of the Michigan and American healthcare system in the days and years ahead.

And now, I’d like to introduce Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has been a strong advocate for nurses and a passionate supporter of public health policies designed to protect all Michigan residents.

EVENT RUN OF SHOW

8:30 AM Attendee Registration/Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM MC starts Symposium
9:01 AM Welcome: OU President, Dr. Ora Pescovitz
9:05 AM Governor Whitmer Address (TBD)
9:15 AM OU SON Address: Dr. Judy Didion
9:20 AM Panel Discussion (moderated by MC) includes: Legislatures & Healthcare leaders
9:45 AM Q&A – 30 mins
10:15 AM Close Panel Discussion/Intro Advocate Training: Carlie Austin
10:20 AM Networking: Break w/Refreshments-25 mins
10:45 AM Nurse Advocate Training Session: Rochelle Black/Bonnie Maluchnik)
11:25 AM Closing: Carlie Austin
11:30 AM Event Ends