KINGSTON, R.I. – March 13, 2015 – The University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing and the Routhier Foundation will launch a four-part lecture series Tuesday, March 31 with a panel discussion on national health care reform as it relates to the nursing profession.
The Routhier Lecture Series’ first event will be held in the Galanti Lounge of the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and the lecture at 9 a.m. The program is free and open to the public. For further information, contact Caroline Natale at 401-874-2766 or cnatale@uri.edu.
Those unable to attend the lecture can watch it live online at URI Live! 
The first lecture in this series is titled “ Realizing the Potential of Health Reform for Nursing; The Opportunities and Challenges. Are We Ready?”
“Given the rapid change of health care today, nursing will call for different strategies to improve the quality and cost of delivery,” said Mary Sullivan, interim dean of the College of Nursing. “We are excited to welcome all of our Rhode Island nursing colleagues to meet and exchange ideas on the current topics so vital to nursing today.”
“Nursing has a tremendous opportunity to provide leadership and support to address the challenges that our health care system is facing both on a national and local level,” said Routhier Visiting Professor Esther Emard. “This series is designed with that objective – to educate, inform, share and engage our nursing colleagues in rising to the occasion.”
The speakers and their topics are:
• Betty Rambur, former professor of health policy and nursing and former dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Vermont, and member of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board: An overview of the current health reform through the “Lens of the Triple Aims.” The triple aims are: improving care, improving the health of populations and reducing costs of health care.
• Anne Schmidt, vice president of Patient Care Services, chief nursing officer, South County Hospital Healthcare System: The community hospital perspective.
• Angelleen Peters- Lewis, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Women & Infants Hospital: The specialty hospital perspective.
• Nancy Roberts, president and chief executive officer of Visiting Nurse Service of Care New England: The post-acute care delivery system perspective.
• Marie Ghazal, chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Free Clinic, The safety net delivery system perspective.
The Routhier Foundation and the College of Nursing will issue a certificate of completion to those who attend the full series. Other topics in the series will be:
1. “New Health Care Payment and Financing Strategies: Achieving Delivery System and Payment Reform”
2. “Leading Change in Today’s Complex Health Care Environment”
3. “Managing with Data in Today’s Digital World; Demonstrating and Delivering Value= Quality/Cost.”
Dates and locations will be announced in a future news release.