ABSTRACT
To wrap up the three big items--attracting talent, the professional nurse role, and our structural disadvantages--I would offer the following take-away thoughts: We ought to do what we can to get our disproportionate share of RNs out of the health care system to work in dialysis. If we work together, we have a shot at making that happen. As an industry, we must exploit our strengths. We have to exploit the pride that comes in the services and the care that we provide. We need to create in a very visual way that difference for nurses who are considering which area of specialty to go into and where to create their careers. We, as providers, have a huge opportunity to create the right environment for our nurses. That's something we own. We have to fix it. We have to create a better place to work for nurses than any place else. We must create a more enriching place for nurses than anywhere else. That's up to us. I know a lot of us on the provider side are doing tons of things to make that happen and we need to keep driving that. We need a level playing field. We've proven the fact that we can deliver clinical outcomes with the best. Now we need help from our biggest customer to make sure we can compete for the resources that are necessary to sustain and improve those clinical outcomes on an ongoing basis.