Simms/Mann Family Foundation Recognizes Extraordinary Nurses with $400,000 in Financial Gifts of Appreciation
Los Angeles-based nonprofit Simms/Mann Family Foundation announced the 2024 recipients for their Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recognition, a first-of-its-kind gift honoring extraordinary nurses at a time when the nursing care crisis grows.
40 nurses from leading Los Angeles health systems – Cedars-Sinai, City of Hope, UCLA Health and Keck Medicine of USC – will each receive a $10,000 no-strings-attached financial gift from Simms/Mann to thank them for their contribution to nursing.
In its second of a three-year campaign, Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness serves as an urgent call to action to reverse the alarming numbers and trend of nursing talent exiting the profession.
Currently, more than a third of nurses are considering leaving the profession, only 20% report feeling valued and violence against nurses has reached an all-time high. Surveys of nurses indicate the factors that most influence their career longevity include advancement and compensation, better support for work-life integration, safe working conditions and workload, all of which translate to improved patient safety, better experiences and outcomes for all.
Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness aims to elevate the breadth and depth of nursing expertise, spotlight the critical role nurses play as clinical experts holding together our increasingly strained healthcare systems and catalyze others to invest in nurses.
“When we conceived the Off the Chart campaign in 2022, our instincts and experience told us that nurses and nursing were not receiving the massive investments needed to stem the alarming tide of nurse departures and address the resulting shortage of nursing care that makes us all less safe,” said Victoria Mann Simms, Ph.D., president, Simms/Mann Family Foundation. “Nursing shortages lead to delays in routine screenings, diagnosis and treatment; increased healthcare costs; and unmanageable nurse workloads. Yet a recent report from the American Nurses Foundation found that only one penny of every dollar of healthcare philanthropy is directed to the nursing profession, and the vast majority of funding focuses on training new nurses rather than addressing the systemic factors that lead to nurse attrition. This finding confirmed our instincts and strengthened our resolve to invest in nurses and encourage others to join us – the health of our nation depends on it.”
This year, the Simms/Mann Family Foundation collaborated with four Los Angeles-based partner healthcare organizations to identify and recognize ten nurse recipients from within each organization. Forty Off the Chart recipients were selected from a wide range of endeavors, settings and various career stages – particularly focusing on nursing greatness that has limited visibility, goes uncelebrated or is unacknowledged 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.
“Nurses are the key to more cost-effective, higher-quality, more equitable health care for all. They make up the largest portion of the healthcare workforce, and their vast clinical knowledge and expertise positions them as innovators and leaders within our healthcare systems,” said Kate Judge, recent executive director, American Nurses Foundation. “Our astounding finding that only one percent of healthcare philanthropy goes to nursing and that only three out of every 100 grants for nurses focus on investing in nurse leadership or nurse-led innovation means there is enormous opportunity for people, foundations and companies to redirect their resources to this underfunded area. I applaud the Simms/Mann Family Foundation for creating the Off the Chart campaign to broaden public awareness of the essential role and expertise of nurses and catalyze the urgent action and investment in nurses that our nation needs.”
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation will celebrate the Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recipients at a May 28 event featuring remarks from globally recognized nurse innovator Etti Rosenberg.
“In addition to making nurses’ expertise publicly visible on a national scale, we hope to encourage nurses to grow in the profession by empowering them to recognize their own strengths and exceptional work, advocate for themselves and each other, and become leaders and activists within and outside their organizations,” continued Mann Simms. “We are excited that many of last year’s recipients have already used the Off the Chart recognition as a launching pad to help create programs that support the safety and well-being of their colleagues and address the specific needs of the people and communities they care for.”