Nurse Narrative Database

Thank you for your interest in supporting the Nurse Narrative Database at UVA’s Nursing Advocacy Initiative (NAI)! Stories are one of the most powerful ways we connect with others, and the stories nurses can share about their practice and profession can impact healthcare policy in profound ways.

We are gathering nurse narratives from current UVA professional nurses on the following two issue areas: maternal health and the healthcare workforce pipeline.

Nurse narratives are specific stories related to these issues. Some examples of nurse narratives:

• You have cared for or watched a patient experience a preventable negative outcome (including severe morbidity or mortality) and know a specific practice that could be implemented that would prevent such outcomes or improve care
• You see patient after patient struggle to navigate the same, specific aspect of maternal healthcare, and you know of a fix for this issue that would help make care easier or accessible
• You are a participant in UVA’s Earn While You Learn program and have used this job workforce program to achieve your current level of employment
• You work or have worked with a participant in UVA’s Earn While You Learn program and it has impacted your practice area

All identifying patient information will be removed from nurse narratives.

We ask for specific personal information from you to ensure that narratives are verifiable, and to create accountability within this program. If you prefer your full name to be withheld, it will be. You will indicate whether you can be available to share your narrative or if you would prefer that someone else do so.

These nurse narratives will be stored securely. When NAI’s nurse ambassadors meet with legislators and their staff to discuss one or both of our issues, they will identify relevant nurse narratives to share with legislators. Legislators might consider these narratives privately, or they might refer to them in interviews or floor speeches. Again, our nurse narratives will not contain personal public health information and you can choose whether your full name is attached to your nurse narrative. If you change your mind about your narrative being in the database at any time, please contact us and we will remove it.

Thank you for considering participating in this important project! Stories connect us to each other and, as a nurse, the stories you can share can be profound and deeply moving. Please reach out to Leanne Fox at Leanne.Fox@uvahealth.org if you have any questions or would like to participate.