and, therefore, is not a gift to the commu-nity. The model also allows a health caredelivery organization and a university toprovide support and assistance withoutrisking their own financial stability. Eachpartner contributes to the clinic, but nopartner assumes all risks.

Assuming success, we intend to usethis health care services managementmodel as a prototype for presenting topolicy makers and legislators. The expec-

tation is that it will demonstrate howAPNs can efficiently and effectively meetthe primary health care needs of ruralresidents.

ConclusionThis primary care services manage-

ment model is one of many options thatcan enhance rural residents’ access to pri-mary care. Moreover, once proven effec-tive, it can easily be replicated in a numberof rural areas, thereby increasing access to

preventive primary care for the rural pop-ulation.

This management model for rural clin-ics should be sustainable over the longterm; therefore local communities oughtto be able to partner with the federalgovernment, as well as state and localgovernments, to increase the number ofsimilarly managed clinics, thereby in-creasing access to primary preventativehealth care for rural residents. �

American Academy of Nursing Focuses On Patient and Public Safety

The American Academy of Nursing(AAN) held its annual meeting October26 and 27, 2001, in Washington, DC.More than 400 US and internationalnurses attended this conference, whichfocused on the knowledge base and inno-vative research in nursing that apply topatient and public safety.

Keynote speaker John J. Nance,founding board member of the NationalPatient Safety Foundation, analyzed lessons

from other industries that can be ap-plied to nursing in its care for patientsand the public. Nance’s focus was onshifting the perspective about errors incare from the individual practitioner toan examination of the systems that al-low errors to occur. Nance is a notedaviation analyst called on by the mediafor his expertise, especially in how en-tire industries can address safety in sys-temic ways. �

Honorary Fellows Inducted into the Academy

Honorary Fellows are nurses and otherproviders or academicians who have madeoutstanding contributions to the fields ofhealth and nursing. Nominated by theentire AAN, these individuals are thenselected by the AAN Board of Directors.This year Kathleen Knafl, PhD, and Do-ris Merritt, MD, were honored with in-duction into the Academy.

Kathleen Knafl, PhD, is a Yale Univer-sity professor. As a sociologist who hasspent her entire career in academic nurs-

ing, Dr Knafl is most well known for hercreative contributions to concept devel-opment in family nursing. Her workdemonstrating how families attempt tocreate an atmosphere of normalizationhas transformed the ways in which nursescase for families who have a child with achronic illness.

Dr Doris Merritt has a long and distin-guished career as a physician, administra-tor, community leader, and mentor. Herwork with the National Institutes of

Health (NIH) was instrumental in estab-lishing the Office of Research on Wom-en’s Health, which grew out of her effortsto launch this major new area of scholar-ship. She also served as the first (acting)director of the National Center for Nurs-ing Research, seeing to it that the centerwas positioned within NIH to enable it toemerge as an independent and interde-pendent entity. �

John J. Nance

AAN News & Opinion..................................................................................................................................A m e r i c a n A c a d e m y o f N u r s i n g

NURSING OUTLOOK JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 37