Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness Recognition
Forty nurses from Los Angeles-area health systems each receive a $10,000 gift of gratitude for their leadership, ingenuity and expertise in caring for their fellow humans and future generations
During National Nurses Week in May, the 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 in urgency and significance on a national and global scale. In its second year, the campaign is recognizing 40 remarkable nurses from four leading Los Angeles-area health systems – Cedars-Sinai, 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.
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation created Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness, a minimum three-year campaign, to serve 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 percent 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, and safe working conditions and workload, all 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 (source: Philanthropic Support for 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 1 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.”
View the remarkable stories of the 2024 Off the Chart nurses.
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 and nursing care crisis. The campaign aims to elevate, enliven, and enrich the public’s understanding of nurses as clinical specialists and subject matter experts holding together our strained healthcare systems, delivering essential services, and strengthening local economies while serving as a catalyst to urgently increase investment in nurses.
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.
About American Nurses Foundation
American Nurses Foundation is the charitable and philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Association (ANA), with the mission to transform the nation’s health through the power of nursing. The Foundation supports research, education, and systems-transforming programs, which improve health, wellness, and patient care.
