One Radical Idea to Improve Care Delivery: Give Money Directly to Nurses

In the face of mounting challenges, the 2025 Off the Chart campaign honors nurses leading the way to better healthcare with unconditional gifts of $10,000

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, May 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- If you think you know what nurses do, these Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recipients might surprise you: One specializes in immunotherapy for childhood cancers and researches how nurses and physicians can best work together; another orchestrated the emergency relocation of chemotherapy infusion centers amidst devastating wildfires; one went to extraordinary lengths to secure a patient's access to an experimental drug that gave him an extra year with his family; and another advocates for national policies that improve access and enhance the safety of the healthcare workforce.

The Simms/Mann Family Foundation today honors 40 extraordinary nurses with $10,000 no-strings-attached gifts recognizing their leadership, innovation, and impact at a time when reports warn of a deepening global nursing care crisis. The announcement coincides with National Nurses Week, which this year celebrates “the Power of Nurses.”

The Foundation launched the Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness campaign in 2022 as a call to action, spotlighting the critical role of the highly skilled nurses holding together our strained healthcare systems and galvanizing investment in their vital work. In this third consecutive year of the campaign, the Foundation says it’s critical to illuminate the essential, world-changing nature of nursing expertise, moving beyond familiar tropes that are limiting and incomplete, and that it is committed to investing in nurses and strengthening the public's understanding that nurses save and improve lives, strengthen communities, and advance science.

In order to identify the nurses, the Simms/Mann Family Foundation collaborated with four Los Angeles-area health systems — Cedars-Sinai, City of Hope, UCLA Health, and Keck Medicine of USC— to select 10 recipients from each organization who demonstrated a “bias towards action, a capacity for self-direction, originality and creative instincts, courageous and bold thinking, and the potential to achieve even more.”

Among their many achievements, the recipients used evidence-driven research to reduce hospital-acquired infections; creatively solved problems to improve timely access to care for vulnerable populations; and spearheaded disaster planning and preparation to ensure safe and continuous care delivery.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) 2025 report "Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for Nurses Strengthens Economies" provides further evidence of the strain many nurses are experiencing due to chronic underinvestment.

“A strong, well-supported nursing workforce is more critical than ever to address global health challenges and support healthy, productive populations,” said ICN’s President, Dr Pamela Cipriano. “Investing in nurses’ careers, education, and leadership results in an excellent return on investment that means every dollar spent pays for itself many times over. It is now time to reveal the true, full value of nursing to societies everywhere and move nurses from 'invisible' to 'invaluable' across all regions.”

Victoria Mann Simms, president of the Simms/Mann Family Foundation, said: “The Off the Chart campaign was designed to shine a light on and reward nurses for their leadership, ingenuity, and expertise in caring for their fellow humans and future generations, and to serve as an urgent call to action to reverse the alarming trend of nursing talent leaving the profession. Estimates project that by 2027, almost 900,000 — nearly one-fifth of the 4.5 million registered nurses — intend to leave the workforce, taking with them an estimated two million years of nursing expertise.

“By lifting up the stories of the nurses we're recognizing, we aim to support their expertise and bring visibility to the critical services they provide, educating the public and philanthropists that nurses are critical to the health and safety of all of us so that others will be motivated to join us in investing in nurses and nursing.”

Kayla Kafka-Peterson, a 2023 Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recipient, said the recognition fueled her to have an even greater impact — to achieve even more. She specializes in brachytherapy, a targeted, high dose of radiation delivered internally to treat certain cancers. But education on brachytherapy is typically limited to physicians and physicists. Kafka-Peterson is changing that by educating nurses worldwide on this critical therapy. “Since receiving the Off the Chart recognition, I now have brachytherapy nursing educational projects on all five continents, have worked with teams around the world, and have helped brachytherapy nursing be officially incorporated into national and international meetings, conferences, and congresses,” she said.

“As a philanthropic foundation and citizens concerned about national and global health and well-being, we are calling for our communities to protect, support, and invest in nurses,” said Rachel Barchie, executive director of the Simms/Mann Foundation. “We are bringing recognition, investment, and visibility to the remarkable stories and work of Off the Chart nurses as healthcare’s trusted problem solvers and leaders so that everyone can benefit from the power of nurses and the health and economic returns that will ensue.”

The Simms/Mann Family Foundation will celebrate the Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness recipients at a May 28 event featuring remarks from UCLA Health President Johnese Spisso.

The remarkable stories of the 2025 Off the Chart nurses can be found at: http://offthechart.simmsmannfoundation.org.

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 the 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 the International Council of Nurses

ICN is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally.

Rob D’Amico
Nofiction
damico@nofiction.com