Profiles

• To profile exemplary nurses for the American Journal of Nursing.
• To profile nurses holding political office for Charting Nursing’s Future, an initiative of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, and create short videos for use on the Campaign’s YouTube channel. 
• To profile graduates of the Rhode Island Nursing Institute Middle College (RINIMC) to convey the value of this unique educational program to funders and potential adopters of the model.

Kelly McGrady: Help Me Help My People

Jackie Campbell: Creator of the Danger Assessment

Mayor Jean Stothert: A First for Omaha

Shirley Nathan-Pulliam: A Nurse Turned Maryland Legislator

RINIMC: Our Graduates

What makes Kelly McGrady such an asset to her community? Could it be childhood adversity? Her military training? An exceptional leadership program? Her faith in God? 

It’s tempting to credit any and all of these influences for McGrady‘s ability to get things done under extraordinary circumstances, but perhaps her achievements spring from a more intrinsic source. McGrady is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, and a health facilitator at the Sage Coulee Outreach & Wellness Facility in Bismarck, North Dakota.

She says it’s been a tough year for the nation’s Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) people, who operate the health center where she works. She counted 176 MHA deaths in 2020—from COVID-19, chronic health conditions, drug overdoses, and suicide. She says the losses have been devastating and the grief compounded by the fact that tribal members were not able to come together to conduct funeral rites. On the work front, she says, “It’s been wild.”