Salus Goes to NAP, Advocates

Members of the Salus community attended the National Academies of Practice (NAP) Meeting and Forum in Pentagon City, Va., March 7 through March 9.

This year’s forum’s title was Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Advocacy for Population Health – with sessions focused on overall themes about advocacy for interprofessional collaboration, interprofessional practice models for population health, and person-centered quality healthcare.

During the conference, Dr. Jonette Owen, AuD, FNAP, CH-AP, assistant dean for the University’s Osborne College of Audiology (OCA), presented a poster on the Effectiveness of Clinical Education Vetting, Monitoring, and Feedback Processes.

Also during the conference, Satya Verma OD, FAAO, FNAP, Diplomate, director of Externship Programs for the University’s Optometry program, was awarded NAP’s Nicholas Andrew Cummings Award. The award is given to a member of a NAP Academy who has demonstrated outstanding or extraordinary contributions to interprofessional healthcare. The award marks the end of Dr. Verma’s term as president of NAP.

“It was a great honor and I am proud of my involvement in the evolution of NAP,” said Dr. Verma about winning the award. During his term as presidency, Dr. Verma brought in a new management team, improved communications with a bi-weekly NAP Times, engaged the leadership in strategic planning, revived the e-journal, and declared the month of April as Interprofessional Healthcare Month.

“The award represents the best of what we’re [NAP] looking for,” said Victor Bray, MSC, PhD, associate professor in the University’s  Audiology program, and NAP’s secretary/treasurer, and member of the executive committee and council.  “As Dr. Verma finishes out his six year term of presidency, I believe he was very effective in all of his roles.”

Prior to the start of the conference, more than 70 NAP Fellows held an advocacy day on Capitol Hill to advocate for healthcare reform. Dr. Owen; Dr. Bray; and Robert (Bob) Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, clinical director of the Speech-Language Institute (SLI) of Salus University and assistant professor in the University’s Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program, represented the state of Pennsylvania and met with several legislators.

“Going to Capitol Hill is always an exciting experience and a unique opportunity to influence national policy,” said Dr. Owen.

“Healthcare is now one - fifth (⅕) of our economy and healthcare costs are not justifiable; we spend two times per capita, compared to other countries like ours, but have poorer outcomes than these other countries,” Dr. Bray said. “Everyone on the Hill realizes the system is broken. Legislators are looking for solutions.”

The trip to Capitol Hill to present as a unified voice of diverse healthcare providers and offering help to the legislators is a great step in the direction in healthcare reform.

The message from NAP to the legislators was a clear one: NAP, made up of Distinguished Fellows representing 14 healthcare professions, want to be utilized for their knowledge to which legislators can make evidence-based decisions in healthcare reform.