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• Kathy Wright

Kathy Wright

University of Utah PhD Student Leads Effort to Assist President Obama in Health Care Reform for Older Adults

As Health Care Reform becomes an increasingly popular topic for President Obama and the nation, one University of Utah student is leading an effort to have an active role in the restructuring process. Kathy Wright, MSN, GCNS-BC, PMHCNS-BC, a PhD student with the College of Nursing’s Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, has co-authored an open letter to the President of the United States on behalf of the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy (GNLA) Fellows: In it she offers assistance, guidance and expertise in the endeavor to improve health care delivery for older adults.

“The care of our elders is of great concern to the nursing community,” says Wright, whose 25- year-career in geriatric nursing has given her first-hand knowledge of the issues facing older adults—and now through the fellows program—a platform upon which to enact change. With technological advances in health care leading to longer life expectancy rates, geriatric nurses are critical in ensuring that living longer also means living well. “As gerontological nurses, GNLA Fellows bring a perspective about older adults focused on providing models of care that work to ensure quality outcomes and cost savings,” Wright says. “Nurses must be at the table as we re-create the health care system of the future.”

Sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, whose mission is to support the learning, knowledge, and professional development of nurses, the GNLA Fellows consists of 16 nurses representing 15 states. Through this 18-month mentored leadership development program, each fellow is charged with leading a project team and developing evidence-based interventions to improve care in their home institutions and communities. The July 14, 2009 letter to the President was spearheaded by Wright and her peer fellow Cynthia McDaniel RN, MSN, an instructor with the School of Nursing Online Baccalaureate Completion Program at Oregon Health and Science University. The two students quickly gained the support of the other fellows in preparing a letter to President Obama representing the group’s collective projects—and offering their perspective as nursing leaders. As circumstance would have it, the group’s assignment for June and July focused on nursing and involvement in government, making it the ideal time to launch the project. “We share in the President’s belief that we can change the course of health care for our elders,” says Wrights, acknowledging the effort will be an “audacious task” but is one the group is ready to undertake. “The GNLA Fellows are entrepreneurs within our own organizations and health systems.” The group’s projects include a number of interventions, innovative models of care and programs designed and led by nurses to meet the needs of older adults in a variety of settings: acute care, long term care, ambulatory care, community based care, preventative health, and chronic disease self-management.

When she is not campaigning for a role in health care reform or developing interventions to improve care throughout the Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health System, Wright is busy earning her PhD from the U’s Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence. Along with eight other prestigious Hartford Centers in the country, the U’s program is designed to increase the number of faculty qualified to teach geriatric nursing. The gerontology-focused PhD program utilizes internet-based videoconferencing technology to deliver doctoral nursing coursework to students located across the country, allowing students like Ohio-based Wright to "educate in place." Wright says she selected the U after meeting Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence Director and GNLA faculty member Ginette (Ginny) Pepper, PhD, RN, FAAN at a meeting. Wright had long wanted to return to school for her PhD in nursing but could never find the right time. “Ginny told me there is never the ‘perfect time’ to return to school. Her encouragement went a long way in my mind and I considered her perspective to be a reflection of the faulty of the U. I wanted to be a part of that learning environment.”

In fact, Wright says the education she is receiving at the U, from faculty members such as Associate Professor Pat Berry PhD, APRN, GNP-BC, ACHPN, is preparing her with the critical-thinking skills needed to transition ideas into action. “During my first week in the program Pat advised our cohort to ‘never under estimate the amount of time you take to just think.’ I have been thinking ever since.”

Click here to read Wright’s complete letter to the President.