Professor, Routhier Chair, and former Interim Dean Betty Rambur wins prestigious award from national nursing association
Honoring her “outstanding contributions to nursing education, research, and practice,” the American Association of Colleges of Nursing has named University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Professor Betty Rambur winner of the 2024 Lois Capps Policy Luminary Award.
The award recognizes “an outstanding nursing leader who has made a significant impact in transforming policy to improve the health of the nation.” Rambur, the College’s Routhier Chair for Practice, and its former interim dean, is a national leader in health policy and health reform. Her work focuses on health care payment reform, ethics, and workforce redesign within alternative payment models.
“Dr. Rambur has been a long-time champion of nursing who currently serves as an expert on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, AACN’s Health Policy Advisory Council, and as a State Grassroots Liaison,” the award announcement reads. “Her leadership continues to be an inspiration for the next generation of nurses.”
Rambur, who will receive the award at AACN’s 2024 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference Oct. 14-16 in Washington, D.C., focuses on population health, reducing disparities and overtreatment, health care regulation, cost containment and re-conceptualized models of care, including primary care nursing and e-/virtual care. Her book, Health Care Finance, Economics, and Policy for Nurses, now in its second edition, provides a guide to support nurses’ effectiveness and contributions to organizations in rapid transition in response to evolving financial and reimbursement incentives.
“I am truly honored to receive this prestigious award and special recognition from my colleagues,” Rambur said. “It is personally meaningful because it celebrates my life’s work—work that I am passionate about and love to do. My commitment to translating complex policy and payment issues to nurses and others is rooted in my belief that these are not only critical economic imperatives, but also represent core ethical principles that drive the quality and accessibility of health care. Our system ostensibly intended to promote health and healing is increasingly beleaguered and unaffordable, burdening families and businesses alike. Who other than nurses fluent in the language of policy can develop and lead actionable strategies to shape a robust, sustainable system?”
Rambur has also been honored by nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau International with the Sloan Consortium Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning Award, and by the American Academy for Nurse Practitioners with the State Award for Nurse Practitioner Advocacy. In addition to MedPAC and the AACN advisory council, she is a trustee of South County Health, and a member of Rhode Island’s Cost Trends Steering Committee and Long Term Health Plan Committee. She also serves on the editorial advisory board of the peer-reviewed journal Policy, Politics, and Nursing Practice.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is the voice for academic nursing representing more than 875 member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide. AACN works to establish quality standards for nursing education; assists schools in implementing those standards; influences the nursing profession to improve health care; and promotes public support for professional nursing education, research, and practice.