This site is an archive of a closed Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, provided for educational and historical purposes. Please note that this content is not routinely updated and that contact information and social links may not work.

SLP_9082_AboutThe Collaborative

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative is preparing a new generation of nurses with PhDs to meet our nation’s health policy challenges. Our doctoral nursing students engage in policy-relevant research to address the health care needs of Americans, including its most vulnerable populations.

Based in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, the Collaborative is a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for building the capacity of nurse leaders to engage as full partners with other professions in research, analysis, development, and advocacy of health policy at all levels. The Collaborative is strongly committed to increasing diversity in nurse leadership and health policy.

The Collaborative offers a unique interdisciplinary focus, bringing together scholars and experts from both clinical and social sciences, and engaging in partnerships with other health professionals, researchers, community leaders, and policymakers. We work with our colleagues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy, also located at the University of New Mexico, to provide faculty and students opportunities for learning from both social scientists and health professionals.

The Collaborative reaches beyond the academic setting to engage with communities we serve and with policymakers at every level. We focus on relevance and research, on policies that make a difference in health, and on techniques for building an evidence-based case for policy change.

The RWJF Collaborative Fellowship

The  Collaborative has awarded support to its final cohort of doctoral Fellows, who will complete their studies in 2018. Our program has provided our Fellows with the guidance and support of experienced nurse mentors and health policy leaders. We expect our Fellows to engage in vigorous, policy-relevant discussions that challenge long-held beliefs and to be open to feedback on their personal skills and professional work.

The Health Policy Concentration

RWJF Collaborative Fellows, along with other nursing doctoral students, pursue the health policy concentration in the University of New Mexico College of Nursing PhD Program. The academic program includes a rigorous course of study, grounded in real-world clinical experience and relevant research, that helps to create a deep understanding of the factors that shape and influence health-related policy decisions.

The academic curriculum includes 13 required health policy credits and six credits of health policy electives. As part of the 13 required credits, health policy concentration students must complete a field placement. They must also complete core courses, advanced methods requirements, and one nursing PhD substantive area course. The BSN-to-PhD curriculum option integrates the health policy concentration with other required master’s and PhD courses in an accelerated plan of study. For more information, see the Nursing PhD curriculum page: click here.

The University of New Mexico College of Nursing continues to accept applications for its program of study leading to a PhD in Nursing with a concentration in health policy. Click here to see the general requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree and the specific requirements for the College of Nursing.

Nursing Leadership and Health Policy

Our nation faces opportunities and challenges as it reforms its health care system within an environment of fiscal Homepage_Rotatation 1constraints. These opportunities and challenges include:

  • an aging population that will require an increasing level and greater coordination of care;
  • an increasingly diverse population that will require health professionals to be inclusive in addressing racial and ethnic health disparities; and
  • millions of newly-insured Americans who will require primary and preventative care.

These opportunities and challenges are heightened in rural populations with few health care providers  and in low-income communities that have long been underserved.

In order for our nation’s health policies to meet these needs and to be relevant to the people they serve,  we need nurse leaders who are willing and able to engage in creating and executing these policies –  nurses who have the background, preparation, and ability to develop innovative solutions to urgent problems.