Presidential position would highlight field

Teri Mills isn’t a name politician, and she doesn’t peddle any influence except among students in her classroom. She’s a nurse and a teacher. But she loves what she does and, she says, “I’m kind of authentic.”

Maybe that’s why, when she suggested that the nation hire a national nurse, people listened. Her op-ed article in The New York Times was the third most e-mailed story from the newspaper’s Web site the day it was published. Her e-mailbox was flooded with enthusiastic support, and when she traveled from Oregon to Capitol Hill two months later, members of Congress listened with interest to this grass-roots initiative from someone who has seen firsthand how the healthcare system is failing.

In a country where the nursing shortage is expected to reach 400,000 by 2020, where obesity threatens the health of children and increasing numbers of families go without health insurance, Mills says a national nurse program could turn the tide and boost the nation’s health. Mills, who teaches nursing at Portland Community College (Portland Community College Faculty Federation/AFT) suggests that a national nurse could focus on prevention with 15-minute weekly broadcasts on things like raising teens, maintaining a healthy heart and avoiding obesity. A National Nurse Corps could organize community activities  and would be more effective than the surgeon general, who, Mills says, is all but invisible.

“Informational programs would decrease dependence on a healthcare system that is not only expensive but at times inaccessible, especially for those who lack insurance or live in rural areas,” wrote Mills in her op-ed May 20. Working at a family clinic and with HIV patients, she is confronted with uninsured patients every day.

“I see [this] as a presidential appointment,” says Mills. “Nurses are valued by Americans, but it would really put the spotlight on nursing and help attract individuals to the profession.”

Mills doesn’t think of herself as the “national nurse,” but she would take on the mantle just to get things started, if needed. “I see us all as being the country’s nurses,” she says. “All of us went into nursing to make a difference, to help people, and this is the way that we do it.”