Two nurses from the southwestern Vermont region, John Green, BSN, RN, of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) and Eileen Rice, Ph.D., RN, Assistant Professor in the Division of Nursing at Southern Vermont College (SVC) have been selected to be Vermont Nurse Leadership Fellows by the Vermont Action Coalition, part of Governor Peter Shumlin’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Nursing.
The program “prepares nurse fellows to lead and inform health-care decision-making by leveraging their frontline perspective and providing additional insight into the business and financing of health care,” according to Mary Val Palumbo, DNP, APRN, associate professor of nursing, University of Vermont, and co-lead of the Vermont Action Coalition. More than 50 Vermont nurses were nominated for the program and 25 were selected.
John Green currently works at SVHC as a Medical-Surgical Clinical Coordinator. In this nursing leadership position, Green demonstrates strong communication skills and provides direction to staff on clinical issues. Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Operations, Carol Conroy, DNP, RN, CNOR, said, “John is a strong patient advocate, as well as a supporter of collaborative practice between nursing and other health care providers. He models transformational leadership and exemplary professional practice, and encourages innovation based on evidence-based practice to improve the outcomes of care for the people we serve.”
Rice is an experienced registered nurse who has taught in the RN-BSN and Associate Degree Nursing Programs at SVC since 2006. SVC Division of Nursing Chair Mary Botter, Ph.D., RN, said, “Our program is fortunate to have faculty such as Dr. Rice to benefit our students every day.”“I feel honored to participate in this leadership program and look forward to bringing back to SVC the many things I will learn,” Rice said. “We continually impress on our nursing students the importance of leadership.”
Both Conroy and Botter serve on the Academic Progression Committee—a statewide committee formed as a result of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Nursing.
Fellows will work with Betty Rambur, Ph.D., RN, Professor of Nursing and Health Policy, University of Vermont, a well-known nurse leader nominated by Governor Shumlin for the Green Mountain Care Board. Under Rambur, fellows will learn leadership skills, strategies for career development, how health policy is developed and implemented and other essential information to bring back to their place of work. Nurse fellows gathered for the first time at the Vermont Organization of Nurse Leaders’ Summit onApril 4at the Stoweflake Resort. AARP Senior Vice President Susan Reinhard, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, the chief strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America, delivered the keynote address, entitled “Promoting the Health of our Nation, Innovation, Challenges and Policy.”
Fellows were selected for their demonstrated commitment to nursing, for the breadth of their volunteer activities, both professional and community-oriented; for their ability to articulate their goals, ideally, goals broader than the unit, hospital, or school in which they worked, according to Angie Chapple-Sokol, Vermont Action Coalition Outreach Coordinator, College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont. “Greater consideration was given to nurses who were not shy about speaking up, and who demonstrated, according to their nominators, qualities of leadership,” Chapple-Sokol said.
Green, formerly a U.S. Army paramedic, is currently enrolled in a master’s in Nursing Administration program at Kaplan University. He received his associate’s degree in Nursing from Vermont Technical College and his bachelor’s in Nursing from Kaplan in 2012.
Rice holds a Ph.D. in Education (with specialization in Nursing Education) from Capella University, an M.S. in Nursing from Pace University Leinhard School of Nursing and a B.A. degree in Biology from Middlebury College.
For more about Southern Vermont College:
Founded in 1926,Southern Vermont Collegeoffers a career-enhancing, liberal arts education with 15 academic degree programs for approximately 500 students. SVC recognizes the importance of educating students for the workplace of the twenty-first century and as successful leaders in their communities. SVC’s athletic teams are part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III and the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC). The College is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and has been designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Community-Engagement Classification institution.
For more about Southwestern Vermont Health Care:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is an integrated health system serving Bennington and Windham Counties in Vermont and nearby communities in New York and Massachusetts. SVHC is the parent company for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center—Vermont’s first hospital to be recognized as a Magnet for nursing excellence. SVHC also includes the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, the VNA & Hospice of SVHC, the SVHC Foundation, and the SVMC Northshire and Deerfield Valley campuses. SVMC’s multispecialty medical group is operated in partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians and provides a wide range of primary and specialty care to the region.
For more about the Vermont Action Coalition:
The Vermont Action Coalition is part of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a nationwide movement to improve health and healthcare through nursing. An initiative of AARP and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, the Campaign include Action Coalitions in 50 states and the District of Columbia working to implement the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing recommendations. Learn more atwww.campaignforaction.org. Follow the Campaign for Action on Twitter at @Campaign4Action and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/CampaignForAction.
Source: SVC