Ann Oertwich, PhD, RN

Executive Director, Nebraska Board of Nursing

I have been a Registered Nurse in Nebraska for over 40 years with a diverse nursing background in acute care, home health and hospice, as well as both public and private nursing education programs. I have served as the executive director of the Nebraska Nurses Association for which, while acting as a registered lobbyist, I was able to successfully make legislative changes that supported the mission of the Nebraska Board of Nursing. I have served as a founding member of my local health department board, the Elkhorn Logan Valley Public Health Board, for which I helped pass legislation to create such health departments across the state. I have also had niche involvement in nursing organizations which have led to experiences such as completing the Nurse in Washington Internship. I have developed and managed my own private practice as an ostomy and wound care nurse in rural Nebraska. I have a long history of community service as well as professional nursing service which has broadened by view of nursing as well as health care in general. Based on my current role as Executive Director of the Nebraska Board of Nursing, nursing regulation is at the heart of what I do as a public servant in my state.

I currently hold a Director-at-Large position on the NCSBN Board of Directors and am applying for re-appointment. I believe my professional history and ability to be a quick study have aided me in adapting quickly to the role of Director-at-Large over the past two years. Serving on the NCSBN Board is an intense experience that pulls upon every fiber of your being to be prepared, on target, and pull from many areas of experience such as prior organizational experience, skills of critical thinking, negotiation and consensus building, as well as perseverance. If find the Board’s movement to strategic thinking versus simply strategic planning, has really enhanced our roles as Board members. The concept of ‘ONE NCSBN’ is very much alive in all that we do as Board members and it has been a delight to see that emulated by NCSBN staff and membership. We are all better together in this organization working as one! Prior be my time on the Board of Directors, I have participated in every EO Summit over the past 9 years, served as the Nebraska Commissioner for the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), and have served two terms as Treasurer of the NLC. I have participated in various work groups or meetings as needed within the NCSBN structure during my tenure.

I believe that my personal characteristics of tenacity and perseverance with a willingness to collaborate make me a strong fit for the NCSBN Board of Directors. My professional history is an asset, having been a participating member at various levels of other professional organizations such as ANA (and NNA), Sigma Theta Tau, Wound Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society, etc. I also believe that my history in state nursing regulation ‘on both sides’ , meaning Nebraska Nurses Association EO, a prior member of the Nebraska Board of Nursing, and now EO of that Board all uniquely qualify me for Board membership, as I have had an chance to view nursing through all three lenses.

As a current Board member seeking to serve another term – I strongly believe and uphold the mission of NCSBN – ‘NCSBN empowers and supports nursing regulators in their mandate to protect the public.’ I believe over the past two years I have been witness to the fine tuning of this mission within the realm of carefully articulating what we DO as an organization. NCSBN is not a regulatory agency – but is does support and elevate the nursing regulatory bodies (members) through policy, research and education. I believe that by carefully defining our mission and values, we, as an organization, have a better understanding of our strategic initiative statement (above). My contributions over the past two years have been to engage in serious strategic thinking about who NCSBN is, what we are about, and what we have the resources to accomplish.