School of Nursing Associate Professor Abraham Ndiwane has been accepted for the Gloria J. McNeal Leadership and Public Policy Mentoring Fellowship. Administered by the Association of Black Nursing Faculty, the goal of the fellowship is to improve the diversity of nursing academe, with a special emphasis on promoting the acquisition of leadership positions within the nursing workforce and promoting nurse educators’ involvement in public policy and advocacy.
Ndiwane anticipates the fellowship will help him hone skills in advocating for policy issues such as staffing ratios, reimbursements for skilled nursing care, interpreter services and other regulatory issues that affect nursing practice with culturally diverse & minoritized populations.
“I believe the Gloria McNeil Mentoring Fellowship in Leadership and Public Policy will enhance not just my course, but also our nursing program as well as my program of research,” said Ndiwane, who is also External Faculty Nurse Scientist for the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. “The specific foci in the areas of political activities, grantsmanship, and public speaking to advocate nursing values will augment the necessary course content and research related to health care access, quality and healthcare cost for minority and low-income populations.”
The key topics that will be covered over the course of the one-year Fellowship include: Leadership Concepts; Public Policy Advocacy; Career Mapping and Networking; and, Authorship, Leadership and Grantsmanship.
“As educators of future nurses to provide care in a culturally diverse society,” noted Ndiwane, “I believe that faculty should teach students to be aware of how patients may be affected by historical, systemic oppressions embedded in malaligned policies that lack equity in service to all and how and why people of color and other minoritized populations generally may avoid seeking much needed care.”