Knowledge. Innovation. Collaboration. Partnership.
As we ask the question of how, in the face of an ever-changing global health landscape, we can bolster the workforce that drives it and make strides toward progress, these are the words that come to my mind. A steadfast center on the path toward a better tomorrow: knowledge, innovation, collaboration, and partnership.
As Chief Global Affairs Officer for TruMerit, I see these core tenets woven throughout the mission of our organization as we grow and evolve to better serve the global health workforce. We drill down and expand upon them, marrying concepts to create something more. Through knowledge and innovation, we build up career mobility and care model evolution, pushing forward not just the individual practitioner, but the practice of healthcare altogether. Through collaboration and partnership—both within the organization and outside of it—we place these innovations in the hands of healthcare workers, positioned to transform their industry.
But how do we do it? With nearly 50 years of expertise, we are perhaps most known for our work in the verification and evaluation of credentials for foreign-educated health professionals. But as horizons have broadened, so have our offerings. With the establishment of the Global Health Workforce Development Institute focused on advancing global health workforce initiatives, we are empowering health workers to improve care delivery and enhance healthcare outcomes. We’ve likewise expanded the view of the health worker’s career journey. And with that comes career transformation:
- Career mobility. With career mobility comes global opportunity. For those migrating to the United States, TruMerit’s VisaScreen® program certifies foreign-educated healthcare workers seeking a visa through USCIS. And for the purpose of state licensure or academic admission, we provide comprehensive evaluations of healthcare professional education, licensure, and other credentials. Partnerships in other countries, like Canada and New Zealand, extend the reach of our credential verification and evaluation expertise and allow for more qualified professionals to utilize their skills outside of their country of education.Career mobility undoubtedly works best when paired with portability. To promote a truly global portability of skills, TruMerit recently launched the Certified Global Nurse (CGN) credential. First-level, general (RN) nurses earn the CGN credential by taking the Nurse Qualifying Exam (NQE). Based on a competency framework developed in collaboration with 70+ global nursing leaders and subject matter experts from 50 countries, the NQE exam blueprint reflects a core set of global nursing practice standards. Nurses can now benchmark their skills against those standards and set themselves apart by adding this global credential to their career portfolio.For those taking the monumental step to migrate for their practice, it is imperative that they are treated ethically and fairly in their migration and recruitment journeys. TruMerit is a leader in global ethical recruitment through the Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices. With a published code of conduct establishing best practices and voluntary standards for international recruitment organizations, the Alliance certifies organizations recruiting global health professionals to the U.S. while likewise educating those professionals about their rights in migration and the value of using a Certified Ethical Recruiter in their employment journey.
- Care model evolution. As the healthcare landscape continues to change, both the roles of healthcare professionals and the models of care they employ need to evolve. TruMerit has diversified its efforts to achieve this evolution. Seeking to shape new practice models, we are collaborating with experts to explore virtual and AI-enabled care to ensure that practitioners can meet patient needs despite differences in access due to location or infrastructure.While health workers will need to adapt and develop new skills to utilize new care technologies, it is equally important to validate and recognize current skills, especially when crossing borders. Our unique position allows TruMerit to be an effective convener, bringing together subject matter experts, regulators, and policy makers for those conversations on competency equivalence and its evaluation.Our organization inhabits an interesting intersection of knowledge generation and policy influence. Through effective collaboration across our teams, we stand prepared to utilize that position to meet the future of care and increase positive patient outcomes across the globe.
These core principles—knowledge, innovation, collaboration, and partnership—were top of mind at the National Association of Indian Nurses of America’s (NAINA) 5th Clinical Excellence and Leadership Conference, held in September. As an invited keynote speaker, I had the privilege to share how TruMerit is empowering nurses to lead with innovation and resilience as they shape the continually evolving sphere of healthcare delivery. As longtime collaborators with our organization, NAINA truly understands the need for innovation and elastic thinking as the role of nurses in our healthcare systems continues to grow on the road to not just clinical excellence, but a stronger overall global health landscape.
Looking out at the room, I saw nurses of various disciplines—engaged at the bedside, in advanced practice, in education, and elsewhere—poised and full of potential to lead healthcare into a brighter tomorrow. And with NAINA’s partnership (and the partnership of additional stakeholders both domestically and globally), TruMerit will continue to execute on its vision: to build a global resource of highly skilled health workers prepared to provide care for people around the world, ensuring they can work at the top of their expertise, and empowering them to shape and lead a more resilient and compassionate global health system.
Rodrigo Gouveia, TruMerit’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, was recently an invited keynote speaker at the National Association of Indian Nurses of America’s 5th Clinical Excellence and Leadership Conference, held in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. In the following piece, he shares insights into his keynote presentation and his takeaways from the conference.