AAN/ANF/IOM Scholar in Residence 2002-2003

The American Academy of Nursing ispleased to announce the selection of

Bonnie Mowinski Jennings, DNSc, RN,FAAN, as the 2002-2003 AAN/ANF/IOM Scholar-in-Residence. Dr. Jenningsbegan her residency in September 2002with an extensive orientation to numer-ous influential policy-making bodies.While serving in this capacity, Dr. Jen-nings will be assigned to the Institute ofMedicine’s Committee on Work Envi-ronment for Nurses and Patient Safety.

In March 2002, Dr. Bonnie Jenningsconcluded an exciting career in the army.She retired as a Colonel with 32 years ofmilitary service. During her final tour ofduty, Dr. Jennings worked for the Officeof the Assistant Secretary of Defense forHealth Affairs as the Deputy Director forHealth Program Analysis and Evaluation.In that position she transcended militaryservice and disciplinary boundaries toguide the studies and analysis of programsrelated to the health of the 8.4 millionmilitary health system beneficiaries.

Her military career took her to variety

of locations and provided her an array ofexperiences covering clinical practice, ed-ucation, research, administration, andhealth policy. Threaded through theseopportunities were numerous leadershipresponsibilities. Her sphere of influenceevolved throughout her career, expandingfrom individual patients to army-wideprograms and policies and, ultimately, toa challenging mix of health policy devel-opment and analysis for the Departmentof Defense. She was especially privilegedto serve with a wonderful team as theChief Nurse Executive at Madigan ArmyMedical Center, a large tertiary careteaching hospital in the Pacific North-west, with additional responsibility as theChief Nurse of the Western RegionalMedical Command. Madigan was a ma-trixed organization, focused on providingquality patient care within the financialconstraints of the military’s managed caresystem.

Funded by the army to pursue doctoraleducation, Dr. Jennings completed herstudies at the University of California San

Francisco where she received the distin-guished dissertation award. Subse-quently, she was selected to complete aone-year military fellowship with the De-partment of Health and Human Services.Most of her time was spent on the NIHcampus with the National Institute ofNursing Research (NINR). From 1991-1994 she represented the Department ofDefense on the NINR National AdvisoryCouncil.

The American Academy of Nursing inpartnership with other prestigious organi-zations offers three Scholar-in-Residenceprograms. The programs are designed toprovide the opportunity and support formid or senior-level career nurse leadersand potential leaders to be immersed innational health care policy, health servicesissues, and nursing research. Opportuni-ties are available to work with the Insti-tute of Medicine, Agency for HealthcareResearch and Quality, and the NationalInstitute for Nursing Research. Furtherinformation can be found at www.nursingleadership.org. �

AAN Testifies Before the IOM Committee on Work Environment and Patient Safety

L inda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN,FAAN, Chair, AAN Commission on

Workforce, recently shared findings fromthe American Academy of Nursing’s con-ference, “Using Innovative Technologyto Enhance Patient Care Delivery,” withthe Institute of Medicine’s Committee onWork Environment for Nurses and Pa-tient Safety.

During their first committee meeting,Dr. Bolton stated that the “inefficient useof nurses’ time has been largely unrecog-nized as contributing to the shortage ofnurses. We are seeking automatic and in-telligent systems that activate decisionand therapeutic systems with predeter-mined and predefined notification systems,

which facilitate response to patient prob-lems and relieve the nurse of many non-valued physical and communication tasks.”

However the challenges of applyingnew and emerging technologies to patientcare delivery systems should not be un-derestimated. The academy will focus onfuture states where technology is not onlyavailable but fully integrated within andamong delivery systems. Demonstrationprojects will be developed which will al-low providers, institutions, and vendorsto work collaboratively to create safer pa-tient environments, decrease the workload burden on providers, and address afuture public health crisis.

The committee’s role is to identify key

aspects of the work environment fornurses that likely have an impact on pa-tient safety and potential improvementsin health care working conditions thatwould likely increase patient safety. Serv-ing as vice-chair is Ada Sue Hinshaw,PhD, RN, FAAN. She is joined on thecommittee by Marilyn Chow, DNSc,RN, FAAN, Mary Lou de Leon Siantz,PhD, RN, FAAN, Charlene A. Har-rington, PhD, RN, FAAN; PamelaMitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN; Audrey Nel-son, PhD, RN, FAAN; as well as individ-uals with experience in engineering, oper-ations research, industrial psychology andcommunications. The committee willmeet again in November 2002. �

AAN News & Opinion..................................................................................................................................A m e r i c a n A c a d e m y o f N u r s i n g

266 VOLUME 50 • NUMBER 6 NURSING OUTLOOK