Helene Fuld Leadership Program Established
by Jon Eichberger
In the next five years, 200 Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Fuld Fellows will be prepared to make a tangible difference in healthcare quality and safety, particularly among older patients.
The new program, the Helene Fuld Leadership Program for the Advancement of Patient Care Quality and Safety, expands the impact of the earlier Fuld Leadership Fellows Program in Clinical Nursing and similar programs in which the School collaborates with The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the School of Medicine. The program also aligns with recent Medicare and Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports about adverse patient experiences and recommendations for improvement.
“The Fuld Leadership Program will transform the School’s ability to prepare future nursing leaders with strong competencies in patient-care quality and safety,” says School of Nursing dean Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN. “In addition, the program will help strengthen nursing education nationwide by offering an exemplary academic approach to building clinical competencies in quality and safety that can be replicated or adapted at other leading institutions.”
School of Nursing associate professor Cheryl R. Dennison Himmelfarb, PhD, RN, will direct the Fuld Leadership Program and work closely with three program leaders and three faculty mentors to guide the students through their course of study. A $4.9 million grant from the Helene Fuld Health Trust will fund the Program and produce nurses who have a solid clinical foundation in quality improvement and patient safety that is firmly grounded in leadership development.