THE GREAT STATE OF
ILLINOIS
Jeffery Hudson, R.N. BSN, CEN
Jeff Hudson has been a registered nurse since 1990. He has held positions of staff nurse, charge nurse, manager, director and currently Assistant Vice President. He has earned both Associate and Baccalaureate Degrees in Nursing. He left Emergency Nursing in 2004 to pursue a Chief Nurse Executive Fellowship, completing the program in two years. Since March of 2006, he has served as the Assistant Vice President for Patient Care Services. He is pursing his graduate degree in Nursing with a focus in Management and Leadership at North Park University, Chicago, IL. He is a member of the American Organization for Nurse Executives and serves on the Political Action Committee (PAC) arm of the organization. He also belongs to the American Asian and Pacific Islander Nurses Association (AAPINA). He is a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN).
Jeff has a strong interest in providing safe patient centered care. “Registered nurses have the right to collaborate with patients, physicians and employers providing excellent nursing care and to thrive in a safe work environment.”
I welcome Jeffery and thank him for taken part in this project. I hope that this will help us to bring nursing a little closer to becoming a true profession where we are all linked together as one.
November 2006
November 2006 Illinois Report
By Jeffery Hudson, R.N., BSN, CEN
In Illinois on Tuesday, 7 November 2006, the people have spoken. The voters have returned Governor Rob Blagojevich (Democrat) to his office for a second term. Governor Blagojevich is only the democrat to be elected to a second term in Illinois since 1964. Although the Governor and his office has been plagued with numerous federal investigations and some of his advisors have been charged with crimes, it seems the programs that have been implemented were seen as successful by the electorate.
The governor has been seen as a champion of health care reforms in the State of Illinois. In the past four years he has provided health care reforms for all children. The program is called All Kids and has provided opportunities for middle and lower-income children to have healthcare. So far, over 70,000 kids have been enrolled in the program, and over 520,000 people who did not have healthcare previously, now have access to healthcare.
Blagojevich signed into law in July, Senate Bill (SB) 931. This law provides $3.5 million dollars in 2007 to fund several initiatives aimed at the nursing shortage. The legislation is targeted to increase the number of faculty available to educate student nurses, provides financial assistance to nursing students, and establishes a new Center for Nursing. The Center for Nursing will have a mission of developing a strategic plan to ensure that the state can train, recruit, and retain nurses. The Center will provide a mechanism for scholarships and repayment of loan options. Additionally, it provides for a process to establish fellowships for aspiring faculty to become educators in nursing programs.
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