HJAR May/Jun 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  MAY / JUN 2023 63 Neal Reeves, MBA, DNP, RN-BC Clinical Assistant Professor UAMS College of Nursing that is rarely the case. In fact, nurses yield very little influence. This should cause us to ask what our brand image is as nurses. The term “nurse” is protected in 35 states, Arkansas included, in states’ nurse practice acts. For 21 years, nursing has been recognized as the most honest and ethical profession, yet we still have a nurs- ing shortage, are still underused, are under recognized as contributors to healthcare, are perceived as having a lack of influence and being subservient, and were deemed heroes during the pandemic, but physi- cians were the most interviewed medical professional. Nurses are facing the neg- ative images from TV portrayals in med- ical dramas from overdoses and suicide attempts to alcoholism or as being defiant and not following the rules. These images hurt nursing and create an identity crisis because of a lack of public discourse and absence of a clear, strong position that communicates our value to healthcare. How do we move from our existing brand position to our desired brand posi- tion? Build a successful branding strategy. We need to start by discussing who we are and what we have to offer to the healthcare landscape.The strategymust clarify the es- sence of nursing, how we provide value to the healthcare community; we must clear- ly communicate the benefit of nursing and how we are different. This allows us to de- fine the perceptions and values we want to communicate. We then must develop the vision that sets nursing apart from others and look to network and build a constitu- ency that can help spread the vision. We then communicate that message across all means of communication channels, being consistent with the message and vision and not compromising on them. Nowwemust develop this idea of expert power. Most people believe that expert power is the power that is held by those with the most information or knowledge on a particular subject, but that is truly rel- ative. For example, a hospital is considered an expert organization because there are a large number of highly educated profes- sionals who are defined by advanced edu- cation, licensure, professional norms, and ethical standards, not to mention all of the continuing education those professionals must maintain. So how do we differentiate between different hospital organizations and their expertise? All of these degrees in those organizations do not communi- cate expert power. Just like the number of stakeholders is not as important as is the close proximity of stakeholders to the de- cision makers. Not all experts carry equal weight when it comes to organizational decisions. The public does not understand the various specializations or the expertise of the nursing profession. The public tends to understand expertise hierarchy. The expertise of our physician colleagues car- ries more weight than other profession- als within healthcare. A great example on the forefront of most everyone’s opinion in healthcare is the need for more nurs- es. How does that translate to the public’s understanding of nursing?The public gen- erally does not understand the differences between licensed practical nurses, regis- tered nurses with various degree levels, or any advanced practice registered nurse variations or certifications. But the pub- lic clearly sees the difference between a family practitioner in medicine and a car- diologist; through well-defined efforts of the medical establishments, the public is convinced that there are differences in the abilities in the various medical specialties and that some of them have more exper- tise power because the public perceives them as being more expert. We need to help the public see this same thing in nurs- ing through better branding efforts on our part. n Neal Reeves, MBA, DNP, RN-BC, earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice from UAMS. He currently serves as a clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing and leads the graduate program in nursing administration. He started his nursing career as an ICU/ED nurse emphasizing surgical and trauma care. He deepened his knowledge and experiences as a trauma ICU nurse while serving in the Army. These experiences taught him the importance of education and meeting the student where they are to develop them further personally and profession- ally. He teaches various courses at the undergradu- ate and graduate levels with an emphasis on acute care and healthcare leadership and policy.