Commencement Address
October 26, 2013
Charles S. Mahan, M.D.
irst, let me congratulate all of you
for graduating from this unique and
wonderful institution that I have grown to
know and love over many years.
About 20 years ago Kitty Ernst gave me a
necktie with a Latin phrase on it. Having taken
four excruciating years of Latin at Morgantown
High I could still recognize a few Latin phrases
such as UBI IGNIS EST [where’s the fire] and
that favorite of all us doctors – E PLURIBUS
UNUM. But the words all over the tie are
CARPE DIEM which as you probably know
means “seize the day”. As you walk out of this
ceremony, I would like you to seize THIS day
and EVERY day for the rest of your lives – to
help move our country from near the bottom
of all developed nations to the top in the health
and safety of babies, children and families.
This particular time in our history gives
your very class the biggest opportunity to make
those changes of any class in the last 48 years.
What happened 48 years ago? Medicare and
Medicaid were passed which gave health care
coverage to millions of Americans including
ALL seniors. In the years since then , we are the
only developed country that does not cover all
pregnant women and all children.
Now, under the Affordable Care Act or
“Obamacare,” we will finally be able to cover
them.
In preparing this talk I ran across an article
by Dr.John Schumann, a family doctor in
www.frontier.edu
Tulsa, Oklahoma. He made nine predictions
about the next 10 years in American healthcare.
All are pretty positive – I’ll mention a few that
may be most interesting to this audience:
• The Affordable Care Act is moving ahead
and won’t be stopped.
• Patients will become smarter consumers of
health care.
• At least half of the 47 million Americans
that don’t now have health insurance will
get it in the next four years.
• The number of nurse practitioners will
grow dramatically and gain much more
freedom to practice independently.
The American Medical Association – which
has supported The Affordable Care Act –
predicts we will need to produce 20% more
doctors than we now have in order to meet the
needs of the millions newly covered under the
Act.
Those of us at Frontier say NONSENSE to
that. We feel strongly that that gap can be filled
with nurse practitioners and midwives and we
will get better health outcomes than now as a
result. We think the primary care practitioner
ratio should eventually be 80% nurses and 20%
doctors – a ratio that exists in the countries
with the best outcomes. To that end we have
1
grown Frontier Nursing University so that in
the last ten years our yearly number of students
has expanded from 200 per year to 1585 today.
Now that there will be many more of you
practicing, here are some steps you can take to
SEIZE THE DAY:
• Fight for independent nursing practice in
every state.
• Fight for equal pay for equal work.
• Move all normal births out of hospitals.
It will be safer overall; reduce the risk of
deadly hospital infections and save tons of
money.
• Focus on patient safety-work with other
professional groups to reduce cesareans
and obstetrical hemorrhage and neonatal
Dr. Charles S.
Mahan, MD
2
intensive care admissions, to name a few.
• Get seriously political – stand shoulder to
shoulder with all like-minded care givers –
doulas, doctors, all kinds of midwives, etc.
[How many people in your state legislature
or Congressional delegation of either political
party REALLY support your cause? Find out.
Support the good ones – and YOU should
consider running for office!]
This is a great time for you – it is YOUR
time – seize it!
It has been an honor to serve Frontier and
to speak to you today. I will end with words
from the late comedian Pat Paulson who ran for
President a number of times with this slogan:
“Well the wind blew and the crap flew and you’re
only here for a day or two.”
A nationally regarded expert in maternal and child health, Dr. Mahan became
dean of the Florida’s only accredited school of public health in March 1995.
Prior to joining the University of South Florida (USF), he was Florida deputy
secretary for health - the state’s top health officer - and a professor at the
University of Florida College of Medicine. Dr. Mahan is a USF Professor
Emeritus both in the Department of Community and Family Health, College
of Public Health, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College
of Medicine. He has served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Secretary of the Florida
Maternal and Infant Care Program. He has served on the Frontier Nursing
University Board of Directors for the past eleven years.
Frontier Nursing University