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New face set to lead occ health nursing association
Richard Kowalski first male president in history
For the first time in its history, the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) is preparing to install a male president. But that's not really how Richard Kowalski, RN, MSA, COHN-S, sees it.
"I don't look at [being an occupational health nurse and incoming president of AAOHN] as being a gender issue," he says. "I see it as challenges and opportunities."
Established in 1942, AAOHN is a 10,000-member association dedicated to advancing the health, safety, and productivity of workers by providing education, research, public policy, and practice resources for occupational and environmental health nurses. Until now, all its presidents and most of its board leadership have been women.
Kowalski, now an occupational health consultant whose special interest is case management, came into occupational health by accident, but for the same reason many other nurses enter the field — he had a young family to support, and he chanced upon an opportunity he felt was too good to pass up.
The former Vietnam combat medic was working as a nurse in the emergency department when he happened to be out with friends who were applying for skilled trade jobs with General Motors in northern Michigan. He was hired to be an onsite nurse for GM in 1971.
He became active in AAOHN shortly thereafter, joining the board in the late 1980s. His experience in AAOHN has given him an appreciation for the effect economics can have on the job security of occupational health nurses, as well as perspective on his own long and successful career with GM.
"Being active and involved with the board has allowed me to see that with economic problems, there are nurses who come and go with some companies. I was lucky."
After a few years with GM, Koslowski became medical supervisor, then general supervisor, and finally managing supervisor (an executive position) in Saginaw. Seven plants and 10,000 employees were under his care, and he supervised medical departments that were staffed round-the-clock at each location.
While working in-house in occupational health was a stable job for Koslowski during his time at GM, even that has changed since his retirement three years ago. GM, like many other large employers, has found it more cost effective to outsource its occupational health services.
That is one reason that he believes case management is the area of occupational health most likely to grow in coming years.
"[AAOHN's] biggest challenge is going to be to help provide skills and education for our members to do their jobs, improve the jobs they are in, and if necessary, find new jobs," he says. "In occupational health, case management is going to be the biggest growing field because of the way companies are structuring their costs and benefits. It's cheaper for them to buy the services from a hospital or other vendor that specializes in case management."
The many faces of occ health attract
The attraction of occupational health to nurses looking to advance their career and expertise is that it is so many things, Kowalski says.
"It is health, business, wellness — there are a lot of facets to occupational health that you don't see in most other nursing jobs," he points out. "You're able to develop not only your nursing skills, but other area of skill as well.
"I got a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in health administration [in addition to a nursing degree], so I like to say that because of occupational health I know the business side, the people side, and the medical side of nursing."
While the big-business structure of GM allowed someone in nursing to advance to an executive position, occupational health nurses at smaller employers can often find themselves in positions of important decision-making.
"Often, an occupational health nurse will find he or she is the only person at that company who is the go-to person on health care issues," he explains. "They become the medical expert.
"So nurses need to learn the business, so they can talk business as well as health care and see how the two go hand in hand."
AAOHN, he says, has been invaluable to him in learning how business and health care work together in different settings across the country. Besides providing networking opportunities, he says, nurses attend AAOHN meetings for continuing education "and to see what's out there."
"Being on the national board of AAOHN, I have met a lot of brilliant, talented nurses, and learned a lot from a lot of different people," he adds.
As president of the association Kowalski anticipates working with other associations in which AAOHN members have cross-memberships — for example, the Case Management Society of America.
"Our board converted to the Carver governance model a few years ago, and it has been great for us because we were able to have more opportunities for our staff to do things that are good for our members, under the direction of the executive directors," he says. "We can provide quickly what our membership needs, rather than sifting through big, old-fashioned committees that took too long for changes to go through the structure and get back to the membership."
Carver policy governance places emphasis on organizational purpose (the "ends") over the means by which those purposes are achieved. The executive board determines what results the membership should have, and then turns it over to staff to accomplish it, with the only limits on staff being to work within the board's pre-stated standards of prudence and ethics.
"That model has been great in improving things for our membership, and [current AAOHN President] Susan Randolph has done a wonderful job of implementing it," he says. "One thing I've seen in the last five years is that our board and staff are there to provide what the membership wants and what they need to help them with their profession."
Outgoing president Susan Randolph, MSN, RN, COHN-S, FAAOHN, says Kowalski's experience and knowledge are the most valuable tools he brings to the association presidency, but acknowledges that his gender can't hurt.
"He is one of a small number of men who have served as president of national nursing organizations, so he will bring a new face to occupational health nursing," she says. "He can be a role model, a spokesperson for men in occupational health nursing."
Kowalski and the 2007-2008 board of directors will be installed at this year's AAOHN Symposium and Expo in April in Orlando, FL.
For the first time in its history, the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) is preparing to install a male president.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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