LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Simms/Mann Family Foundation today announced Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness, a first-of-its-kind gift recognizing extraordinary nurses at a time when the nursing workforce crisis grows in urgency and significance on a national and global scale. In its inaugural year, the campaign is recognizing 30 remarkable nurses from three leading Los Angeles-area health systems – City of Hope, UCLA Health and Keck Medicine of USC – thanking each nurse with an unrestricted, financial gift of $10,000 honoring their nursing greatness.
Healthcare, health systems, and nursing are at critical crossroads – more than a third of nurses are considering leaving the profession, and only 20 percent report feeling valued. Surveys of nurses indicate the factors that most influence their career longevity are advancement and compensation, better support for work-life integration, and safe working conditions and workload, which translates to increased patient safety and better experiences and outcomes for all. The Simms/Mann Family Foundation created Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness, a minimum three-year campaign, to shine a spotlight on the critical role nurses play as clinical experts holding together our increasingly strained healthcare systems and serve as an urgent call-to-action to help reverse the alarming trend of nurses exiting the profession.
“Nurses are the backbone of our nation’s health. When there is a shortage of nursing care, there are grave consequences. We are all less safe; screening, diagnosis, and treatment are delayed; care costs more; the workload for each nurse increases; and care becomes less caring,” said Victoria Mann Simms, Ph.D., president, Simms/Mann Family Foundation. “The intention of Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness is to broaden the public’s understanding of the essential and expansive role nurses have across all healthcare settings so we can collectively make the massive investments in nurses necessary to address this crisis with sustainable solutions.”
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation collaborated with partner healthcare organizations to identify and recognize 10 nurse recipients from within each organization. Off the Chart recipients were chosen from a wide range of endeavors, settings and at various career stages – particularly focusing on nursing greatness that has limited visibility or isn’t celebrated and acknowledged by traditional metrics. Recipients exhibit a bias towards action; a capacity for self-direction; originality and creative instincts; courageous and bold thinking; and the potential to achieve even more.
“My family has experienced first-hand the essential role nurses play in caring for us all and supporting the health of our communities,” continued Mann Simms. “It is past time that we take action as a society, including through philanthropy, to address the nursing workforce crisis. Off the Chart reflects our commitment to invest in nursing professionals who demonstrate extraordinary courage, ingenuity and expertise – empowering them to leverage their creativity for the safety and wellbeing of our society and future generations.”
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation will celebrate the Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recipients at a May event held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, featuring a conversation with journalist and author of Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World, Sarah DiGregorio.
The remarkable stories of the 2023 Off the Chart nurses can be found at: http://offthechart.simmsmannfoundation.org.
ABOUT OFF THE CHART: REWARDING NURSING GREATNESS
Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness is a first-of-its-kind monetary gift funded by the Simms/Mann Family Foundation recognizing extraordinary nurses at a time when our nation faces a dire nursing workforce crisis. The campaign aims to elevate the public’s understanding of nurses as clinical experts holding together our strained healthcare systems and national economy, while serving as a catalyst to urgently increase investment in nurses. To learn more about Off the Chart’s inspiring inaugural 2023 recipients, visit http://offthechart.simmsmannfoundation.org.
ABOUT SIMMS/MANN FAMILY FOUNDATION
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation is a private organization dedicated to strategically funding innovative educational programs and social services that promote well-being and economic self-sufficiency for all. The Foundation was established in 1984 and is based in Beverly Hills, Calif.
