VUSN’s Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., receives the Health System Impact Award from W. David Helms, president and CEO of AcademyHealth.
Photo by Ben Zweig
Study of nursing shortage lands VUSN’s Buerhaus national award
Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., senior associate dean for Research at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, was one of two investigators to receive the first-ever Health Services Research (HSR) Impact Award, presented by AcademyHealth, for research that established a relationship between hospital nurse staffing and adverse patient outcomes.
The award was presented to Buerhaus and co-winner Jack Needleman, Ph.D., associate professor of Health Services at the University of California, Los Angeles, at the 2006 National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.
Buerhaus and Needleman helped inform the discussion and passage of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which was signed by President George Bush just two months after their groundbreaking study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Research that impacts the lives of Americans doesn't just happen in a laboratory. Health outcomes can also be improved by studying the way health care is delivered, identifying barriers and obstacles to care, and investigating the potential impact of policy decisions on the consumer,” said W. David Helms, president and CEO of AcademyHealth. “This award recognizes research that clearly translated into policy and, ultimately, made our health care system better.”
The HSR Impact Award is presented by AcademyHealth, a leading non-partisan resource for health research and quality, in recognition of the positive impact of health services research on health policy or practice.