Nurses protest choice of dentist to lead U.S. nursing research institute

Nursing advocates have drilled into reports that a dentist has been appointed acting director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The nurses argue that only a nursing leader is qualified to head the grant-making agency, whose fiscal year 2019 budget was about $163 million.

NINR recently announced that following the resignation of Ann Cashion, RN, PhD, FAAN, effective on September 30, the acting director of the agency will be Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, a dentist and long-time NIH executive. Tabak does not appear to have any nursing background.

The Truth About Nursing, an advocacy group based in Baltimore, has started a campaign to persuade NINR to change course and appoint a nurse to the leadership post. The group argues that the appointment not only places a non-nurse in the position of disbursing taxpayer funds for nursing research, but also reinforces harmful stereotypes that nursing is not a serious, autonomous profession, despite nurses’ unique knowledge base and scope of practice.

"Non-nurses are non-qualified to evaluate grants for nursing research," said Truth executive director Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH. "Would NIH appoint a nurse to oversee the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, which Dr. Tabak once directed?"

The Truth says the NINR appointment undermines nurses’ claims to adequate resources. The group argues that many still do not understand the value of nursing, resulting in deadly understaffing and other problems. A recent study found that nurses are consulted for only 2% of U.S. health news articles. Yet more nurses than ever are earning doctorates in nursing so they can pursue ground-breaking research—often with funding from NINR.

"The stereotype of nurses as low-skilled handmaidens who need physicians to oversee them remains common, fueled by the news media and of course Hollywood," said Summers. "But we have not often heard that nurses need dentists to oversee them. That sounds more like our favorite telenovela than the real-life action of a federal agency." See our campaign at truthaboutnursing.salsalabs.org/ninr

The Truth About Nursing is a 501(c)(3) international non-profit organization based in Baltimore that seeks to increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care. The focus of the Truth is to promote more accurate, balanced and frequent media portrayals of nurses and increase the media's use of nurses as expert sources.

See the Truth About Nursing's about us pages.

For more information, please contact:

Sandy Summers, MSN, MPH, RN
Founder and Executive Director
The Truth About Nursing
203 Churchwardens Rd.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21212-2937
office 1-410-323-1100
fax 1-410-510-1790
cell 1-443-253-3738
ssummers@tansandbox.org

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