The National Black Nurses Association held its 33th Annual Institute and Conference at the Chicago Marriott on July 22-25, 2005. With a theme of "Clinical Nursing Practices to Improve Patient Outcomes," the four-day event attracted over 1,500 participants from all over the U.S. and the Caribbean.

The opening keynote speaker was Risa Lavizzo–Mourey, MD, MBA, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who drew parallels between the mission of the foundation and the mission of the NBNA.

"At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, our mission is to improve the health and the health care of everyone in America. Our mission is so much like yours," she said. "Both are unequivocal and clear-cut; both summon us to a common cause to secure a common good. And both promise a better life for everyone."

Lavizzo-Mourey encouraged the conference attendees to work with a transcendent purpose – that of pushing American society to transform itself, for the better, so that all citizens can live healthier lives. She identified nurses as essential to improving the quality of health care and transforming the system that delivers it, citing the conclusions of the Institute of Medicine study on patient safety and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality studies on inequities in care.

Something is fundamentally wrong, she stated, when the system cannot deliver the quality that today’s patient acuity requires. The answer, she told her audience, is to make certain that nurses and nursing are agents of change, challenging and pushing the health care system to where it needs to go.

"We are convinced that the leadership of nursing and the voices of nurses will transform the environment of care at the bedside. America cannot do it without nursing," she said. "Nurses hold the key to quality health care, and we must show the country that no one is more important to health care quality and safety than nurses."

Lavizzo-Mourey’s inspirational words drew a rave response from the conference audience, according to Bettye Davis-Lewis, RN, PhD, president of NBNA. "Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey was right on target, calling on nurses for the leadership to transform health care. Everyone was very receptive to her; they all want her to come back next year."

Lavizzo-Mourey, a practicing physician, became president and CEO of RWJF in 2003, after serving as senior vice-president and director of the health care group. Prior to joining RWJF, she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Director of the Institute on Aging. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She was formerly the deputy administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research, now known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHCRQ).

The NBNA is based in Silver Spring, Maryland and was founded in 1970. There are 83 chapters and 155,000 members, making it the nation’s largest professional organization for African-American nurses. The NBNA promotes community-based health care services and outreach, especially to the underserved, advocates for nurses and nursing, advances nursing practice through research, education and networking and helps shape national and regional health policy. The NBNA brings African American nurses together as a community and a united voice, working to help resolve the inequities in health care delivery.

"The National Black Nurses Association is a forum for collective action to investigate, define and determine the needs of African Americans and to implement changes that make available to African Americans health care that is commensurate with that of the larger society," says Davis-Lewis. "Our mission is to work for quality health care for all Americans, through education, screening and detection, preventive care and health promotion. We work towards this through volunteer projects in collaboration with other organizations, such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society, in our home communities." Davis-Lewis was elected to her second term as president at the annual meeting of the organization. She owns a home health care and consulting firm in Houston and is an adjunct professor of health care administration at Texas Southern University.

Members of the NBNA receive a quarterly newsletter, the biannual Journal of NBNA, and Minority Nurse magazine. Through the organization’s web site, members can take advantage of the online Career Center, conference center and scholarship program. The web site also features position papers on a number of relevant nursing and health care issues.