American Nurses Association names Cipriano president

Who: Pam Cipriano, 60, new president of the American Nurses Association.

Previous positions: Senior director at consulting firm Galloway Advisory by iVantage and chief clinical/nursing officer at the University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville.

On nurse staffing: “For nurses, one of the most important things is we know we still have complex patients with acute needs. We are working to support safe and optimal staffing levels. … You can never have a specific (staffing) ratio that doesn't change because healthcare is dynamic and patient needs are dynamic. But we think it's important to establish a minimum ratio that can be adjusted upward if needed.”

Benefits of health IT: “The primary benefit (of EHRs) is the ability to communicate, the ability to have rapid retrieval of data, the ability to analyze what's happening to our patients and ensuring those systems point out alerts. There are many advantages to EHRs.” She also cited concerns, especially the learning curve for new systems. “We want to preserve as much face time between the nurse and patient as possible. It's about making sure EHRs are efficient, intuitive.”

Quality outcomes: “Whether it's keeping patients safe—reducing risk of falls or medication errors—all are very prominent (quality) programs that are part of the incentives and disincentives under value-based purchasing. … What affects so many of those outcomes? It's nursing care.”