With a constantly evolving healthcare environment in the US, patients and their advocates have become concerned about their ability to access the drugs and medications they need. Pfizer has been offering assistance programs to help eligible patients gain access to the company’s medications for over 30 years. Their current Pfizer RxPathways program connects patients to more than 90 Pfizer medications for free or reduced prices.
To remind patients of the benefits available to them, Pfizer has posted company announcements on their social networks. The Pfizer RxPathways program has been put in place to connect eligible patients with a full range of assistance programs including insurance support, co-payment assistance, and free or discounted medications. Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo says,
“We’ve launched a national digital ads campaign to raise awareness of the support options we offer. We want to reassure Hispanic patients that, despite any changes in public health care policy, Pfizer is here to help them access their medications.”
From 2012 to 2016, Pfizer assisted over 1.6 million patients in receiving Pfizer prescription drugs for free or reduced costs. Patients can contact the call center to speak with Spanish-trained counselors who will address their individual needs and guide them to the appropriate programs and resources. Castillo is standing by her belief that, “Everyone deserves access to quality health care, and medicines are among the most powerful tools for curing, treating and preventing illness and disability in patients.”
To learn more about Pfizer’s RxPathways program, visit here.
A new $50 million initiative to build on the excellence and diversity of the faculty at Yale University was announced last fall. The initiative, backed by the Provost’s Faculty Development Fund, will provide up to half of the salary for three years to support faculty who enrich diversity or an aspect of strategic importance at Yale.
Provost Ben Polak and Professor Richard Bribiescas, deputy provost for faculty development and diversity, have provided a recent update on the ongoing initiative. The inaugural year of the initiative supported 26 faculty members and a number of schools at Yale including Nursing and Public Health amongst several other fields of study.
Yale’s goal for the initiative is to recruit and retain the best faculty and several deans at the university have already said that the initiative significantly contributed to their recruiting efforts over the past year. Ann Kurth, Dean of the Yale School of Nursing (YSN), wants to develop a nursing faculty with a range of diversity and expertise. YSN believes that a diverse and inclusive faculty is the answer to a strong and productive culture in its school and a healthier society overall.
The Diversity and Excellence Initiative will also expand beyond faculty recruiting to support a diverse student body. A new Dean’s Emerging Scholars Program will select 15 incoming PhD students as Emerging Scholars Fellows and 10 PhD students to receive Emerging Scholars Research Awards. Yale will also be launching a new faculty program, Diversity & Education Series: Inclusive Pedagogy in Action, which promotes inclusive teaching.
Last Saturday, as part of a program called “Minority Nurse Leadership in the 21st Century,” about 100 minority nurses from all around California met at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno to discuss the role of nurses in patient advocacy and leadership. According to statistics, 40 percent of the California population are Latino while only 7 percent of the nurses statewide are Latino, proving the need for more minority nurses in California.
A 2014 Board of Nursing report from the California State Board of Registered Nursing reported that Latinos will continue to be underrepresented and become even more underrepresented in the nursing workforce in the future. African American nurses are also expected to be underrepresented until 2030, while all other racial groups continue to be overrepresented compared to the general population.
The number of white nurses in the workforce has declined from 77.2 percent in 1990 to 51.6 percent in 2014. This decline leaves the most highly represented nonwhite group of nurses as Filipinos at 20.3 percent of the workforce, with non-Filipino Asian nurses at 8.5 percent, and black nurses at about 5 percent.
Pilar De La Cruz-Reyes, a member of the California State Board of Registered Nursing and director of the Central California Center for Excellence in Nursing at Fresno State, says the purpose of the minority nurse meeting in Fresno was to get more minority nurses into leadership positions so they can serve as role models and mentors to minority students who want to go into nursing but don’t see a realistic way to get there.
Kimberly Horton, chief executive officer at Vibra Hospital of Sacramento, says that nursing is an opportunity that many Latinos have never thought about so nursing programs need to be marketed to that population, and using minority nurses to educate their peers about the nursing profession is a great way to get started. Horton is an African American registered nurse and she was one of five speakers at the Fresno meeting.
Minority nurses can be wonderful advocates for patients, bringing a special understanding of health beliefs that are ethically, culturally, and religiously based and that can have a real effect on patient health. By including nurses who represent ethnic groups in the development of patient health care plans, health care teams can better develop logical plans for treatment that won’t negatively impact the health of minority patients due to common misunderstandings or misperceptions that patients have about their health and treatment.
In an effort funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, St. Louis University (SLU) received over $2 million in federal funds to provide nursing scholarships to disadvantaged students over the next three and a half years. Similar scholarship programs at schools around the country are being put into effect to address issues facing the nursing profession as a whole (i.e. lack of diversity, nursing shortages).
The first year of the grant will provide 20 scholarships to SLU students – 10 to freshmen and 10 to sophomores. Mentoring is part of the award package, a huge benefit to students who are participating in a high pressure program and career. In the future, high school students will be recruited specifically from disadvantaged campuses.
A 2010 Institute of Medicine report titled Future of Nursing specifically addressed diversity as an issue. Compared to the general US population, nursing students show both gender and racial disparities. In 2015 men made up just 12% of the students in pre-licensure programs, and white students were 10% more prevalent in nursing programs compared to the general population, with fewer African American and Latino students being represented in nursing programs.
The current population of registered nurses has even higher racial disparities. Nursing populations now are overwhelmingly white at nearly 75%, but the rising generation has a more representative ratio at just 61% white students. Diversity in the nursing workforce has become such an important issue because of the diversity of those being cared for. Future of Nursing’s Campaign for Action explains, “A nursing workforce that reflects the diversity of the country’s communities and populations will lead to better understanding of the many elements that affect a person’s health and emotional well-being and, ultimately, to improved interactions and treatment.”
“A nursing workforce that reflects the diversity of the country’s communities and populations will lead to better understanding of the many elements that affect a person’s health and emotional well-being and, ultimately, to improved interactions and treatment.”
Scholarships also offer another important aspect in that they form a path that leads to jobs. Many popular degrees in college today do not match up with high demand jobs so incentives to get students into fields that offer high post-graduation success is beneficial to everyone involved. There are 3.6 million registered nurses in the US, but with an aging population, the demand for nurses continues to grow.
Nursing isn’t an easy profession, but for those talented in providing care for others, especially those who thought they wouldn’t be able to afford nursing school, scholarships like the ones being offered at St. Louis University could make a difference. The fact that these scholarships contribute to creating a more diverse nursing workforce in the US is an added bonus.
The University of Florida (UF) College of Nursing has named Dr. Jeanne-Marie Stacciarini, PhD, RN, FAAN, its first director of diversity and inclusion. Created to enhance awareness and dialogue about important issues in diversity, the newly established position was created based on recommendations from UF’s diversity and inclusion task force.
Stacciarini is an associate professor in the college and has been with UF since 2006. Her research focuses on mental health promotion among minorities and community-based participatory research for minority, rural, and international populations. Stacciarini has been recognized for her work with underserved populations with the 2012 Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS) Award for Research in Minority Health and the 2014 APNA Award for Excellence in Research. Outside the College of Nursing, Stacciarini is a leader on campus as chair of the UF President’s Council on Diversity and she sits on President Fuchs’ leadership cabinet.
In her new position she aims to create better dialogue and educate others about the need for diversity. She will work on student and faculty recruitment to create a better working and learning environment. Leading a new initiative with undergraduate students in the College of Nursing, Stacciarini will be launching a program called Engaging Multiple-communities of BSN students in Research and Academic Curricular Experiences (EMBRACE).
UF College of Nursing Dean, Anna M. McDaniel, says she believes that Dr. Stacciarini’s diversity work will have a positive impact on the entire college and serve as a campus-wide model. Dr. Stacciarini is a tireless advocate for faculty, staff, students, and patients from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, and as director of diversity and inclusion she will play a lead role in carrying out the College of Nursing’s commitment to diversity and inclusion for all members of the community.
Casey Dillon, a nursing graduate student in the college and former student of Stacciarini says she thinks more diversity in the college will prepare students for nursing careers. Nurses work with a wide variety of people every day, so diversity education is a necessary thing.
As nurses, Stacciarini says we need to be prepared to care for a more diverse patient body. She is honored to fill this important position and work to help more people understand diversity and inclusion to sustain that culture across the College. She hopes to bring ideas from the President’s Council on Diversity to new initiatives in the College of Nursing.
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