Beyond Bedside: The Push for Nurses on Boards of Directors

The American Nurses Foundation is launching new efforts, and its executive director says CNOs and other nurse leaders can act now to increase board participation.

The nurse leadership world lost one of its luminaries when Connie Curran, EdD, RN, FAAN, passed away at the age of 67 in November 2014. I had the pleasure of interviewing Connie a couple of times, most recently in August, when we talked about the lack of nurses on hospital boards. She told me about the time she was dismissed as a "dumb blonde" by a hospital CFO when she was appointed to the board's finance committee.

Connie was a shining light of knowledge, compassion, and enthusiasm, the kind of person who not only strove for leadership, but inspired it in others; who always challenged herself and those around her; who always asked, "Why not?"

She was a former chairperson of the board of Silver Cross Hospital in Lenox, IL, and served on numerous other boards of directors, including for Hospira, Inc., DePaul University, and the University of Wisconsin Foundation. She was an amazing example of nurse leadership and was passionate about the critical need for more nurses on hospital boards.

"We have felt a deep loss in Connie's death and are really working very hard to continue this work in her memory," Kate Judge, executive director of the American Nurses Foundation, told me last week. "She is a stellar example of what is possible."

The work that Judge is referring to that of getting more nurses on boards of directors. The American Nurses Foundation recently received a $150,000 grant from the Hillman Foundation to do just that. Judge says the grant will emphasize getting nurses on boards of national health systems, philanthropies, and for-profit healthcare entities. The money will go toward hiring dedicated staff whose sole focus is this work.

Part of that work includes a board membership survey (you can take it here) for nurses to fill out to identify who has served or is serving on boards, as well as those interested in serving on boards.

The foundation is also developing a database to identify nurses who are serving or who would like to serve. So far, there are roughly 800 to 1,000 pilot profiles in the database, Judge says, adding that such a repository not only will help executives who want to recruit nurses for boards, and also will track whether the foundation's efforts to increase board membership are working.

 "I think one of the roadblocks [is] that nurses haven't [often] been on boards, so they're not considered part of the regular pool," Judge says.

That seems to be changing, at least a bit. Judge says that, increasingly, younger nurses are viewing board involvement as part of their career trajectory. In addition, older nurses wish they had started building their resume with board experience when they were younger.

"They didn't see role models there," Judge says.

Other ways that the foundation will be working to increase the number of nurses on boards of directors will be to by developing workshops about board service, as well as other educational resources that will be available in print and online.

"Our goal is to share everything that we develop as widely as possible," Judge says. "The word that this is an important venture is being spread in so many different ways."

In addition to using educational resources from the foundation, Judge says there are things that CNOs and other nurse leaders can do now to increase board participation.

"They can look to themselves and say, 'Can I serve on a board in my community?' " she says, whether that's on a school board, corporate or nonprofit board, hospital board, or non-healthcare-related board. Nurse leaders can also encourage their senior nursing staff to serve.

"The desire to serve is so rich in nurses but often is focused on the bedside," Judge says. "We hope that this work will help nurses step into new leadership positions in ways that help patients overall."

Judge says she's grateful that the grant will allow the American Nurses Foundation to do this work with dedicated resources.

"This is something that is going to take great effort and people coming together and working for something that is beyond anyone's single capacity," Judge says. "If they don't have resources to devote to something, they can't move the needle, and we must move the needle on this."