Credentialing International Leadership

Member Profiles

Fadwa A. Affara, RGN, SCM, MA, MSc, International Advisory Council Co-Chair

Educated as a nurse and midwife, Fadwa Affara practiced as a nurse and midwife for ten years in the United Kingdom and abroad. After obtaining an MSc in Nursing with a specialty in education, she spent the next 12 years in nursing education, initially in Scotland and then in Bahrain as Chairperson of the Division of Nursing at the College of Health Sciences. As chairperson she oversaw the reform of nursing education to an articulated system ranging from the practical nurse level to post-basic specialties and a post-registration BSc.

Affara joined the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1987, initially as director on an international nursing regulation project that involved over 80 countries. In 1991 she took up the position as one of ICN's consultants for nursing and health policy. Among her special responsibilities at ICN were regulation, education, the International Classification for Nursing Practice and women's health. During her period at ICN, Affara helped to set up the regulation and International Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nursing Networks, and co-chaired the ICN Credentialing Forum. She has been a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant on several occasions, advising governments on regulatory issues. In addition, she has participated in various WHO working groups.

Affara is retired from ICN. Currently she serves as Co-Chair of the ANCC International Advisory Council and continues to undertake consultancy work for ICN, WHO, and other agencies, particularly in the field of regulation.

Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN

Dr. Aiken is Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and The Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is the winner of the 2003 Individual Earnest A. Codman Award from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for her leadership utilizing performance measures to demonstrate relationships between nursing care and patient outcomes. She and her co-authors were honored in 2003 with the Health Services Research Article of the Year Award by AcademyHealth for their paper in JAMA documenting the effect of nurse staffing on surgical mortality. Dr. Aiken leads the International Hospital Outcomes Consortium studying the impact of nursing on patient outcomes in eight countries, for which she received the International Nursing Research Award from Sigma Theta Tau International.

Dr. Aiken is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Dr. Aiken is a fellow and former president of the American Academy of Nursing and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom. Prior to coming to the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 she was Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Aiken received her bachelors and Master's degrees in nursing from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and her Ph.D. in sociology and demography from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in medical sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Dr. Aiken has a longstanding interest in studying the outcomes of Magnet hospitals in the United States. She has published many papers in leading scientific journals documenting the superior outcomes for the nurses and patients in Magnet hospitals. She has been an active participant in researching the international applicability of the Magnet concept. She served on the International Advisory Committee for the pilot Magnet Recognition Program^® in the UK, and undertook the research documenting better outcomes for the first UK-recognized Magnet hospital. She directs a pilot initiative in Russia and Armenia with ANCC and the American International Health Alliance as strategic partners, designed to test the applicability of Magnet criteria to the improvement of quality of hospital care in developing country contexts. Dr. Aiken is a well known resource on Magnet hospitals internationally.

Rosemary Bryant, RN, BA, Grad Dip Hlth Admin, FRCNA

Bryant was appointed to the position of Executive Director of Royal College of Nursing, Australia in 2000. She is a Registered Nurse who has had a broad career in acute hospital and community nursing, as well as in the bureaucracy. Her previous positions include holding the chief nursing position in the government of Victoria, one of the Australian states, and Director of Nursing at Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia. In June 2001, Bryant was appointed as a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Council of Nurses.

Bryant has had experience in the development of nursing education policy, policy for the regulation of nursing, and other nursing policy development. In the 1990s she had her own consultancy business and undertook a variety of projects including feasibility studies, nursing workload studies and policy projects around nursing regulation. She also undertook a consultancy for the World Health Organization in Nepal, assisting the Nepal Nursing Council to establish an accreditation system for nursing courses leading to nursing registration, establish a nursing register, and develop standards for nursing practice. Bryant's academic interests revolve primarily around the regulation of health professionals.

Bryant's main concerns today relate to the supply and retention of nurses in the nursing workforce and the movement of nurses around the globe. She is keen to ensure that nursing's voice is a strong one and heard in all forums where decisions about health care are made.

Frances Hughes, RN, MA, FCON

Frances Hughes serves as the Chief Advisor, Nursing in the New Zealand Ministry of Health. She has had 20 years of experience in the New Zealand health service, working as a health clinician, manager and educator. In addition to her nursing qualifications, she has a BA and MA and has completed a doctorate. She is a member of many national and international nursing groups, including the Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee as the New Zealand delegate. Hughes was also a previous member of the New Zealand Nursing Council and Health Funding Authority Regional Ethics Committee.

Prior to commencing in the Ministry, Hughes worked as the Director of Nursing in Mental Health and Disability. She is a fellow of both the College of Nurses in New Zealand (Aotearoa) and the Australian and New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses, and is an accredited New Zealand Nurses Organisation Nurse Clinician. Hughes is also the Commandant-Colonel of the Royal New Zealand Army Nursing Corps. She was awarded the 2001/2002 Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy from Commonwealth Fund in New York.

Tribute to Margretta Madden Styles

In 1999, the ANCC Board of Directors established Credentialing International to provide consultation and credentialing services to nurses and their affiliated organizations in other countries. ANCC, known for the diversity and integrity of its credentialing programs, has been recognized both as a model for other countries to emulate and as a potential provider of credentialing services.

Margretta Madden Styles EdD, RN, FAAN

It is a given in life that all good things come to an end sooner or later--all the more regrettable when it turns out to be sooner. In July 2001, we had an extra-special experience end much too quickly at the American Nurses Credentialing Center when Margetta Madden Styles, EdD, RN, FAAN, resigned as director of Credentialing International.

Dr. Styles' vision, entrepreneurial excellence, and position in an impressive international network of colleagues have been responsible for the creation and early successes of Credentialing International. As a result, discussions regarding certification and MagnetInternational are underway with colleagues in Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Central and South America, the United Kingdom, and the Newly Independent States of Central and Eastern Europe. Gretta's enthusiastic, charismatic leadership is encouraging nurses to raise the bar of professional development and health care excellence around the world. The humility and devotion that she brings to her work honors all nurses, especially her colleagues in the United States.

In appreciation of Gretta's extraordinary accomplishments in pioneering the global development of ANCC, she received two honors that ANCC invites the nursing community to celebrate with her. For her work in promoting international projects to assist health care facilities achieve the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition award, Dr. Styles was presented with the crystal Magnet obelisk. This event will mark the first time that an individual has received the prestigious award. Typically, the award is reserved for institutions that have successfully made the Magnet journey to create health care environments that attract registered nurses who are committed to practicing excellence and are among the best and brightest in the profession.

Given Dr. Styles' lifelong commitment to professional development and credentialing excellence, the scholarship to support research in credentialing, sponsored by the Institute for Credentialing Innovation (The Institute) at ANCC, has been named the Gretta Styles Scholarship for Credentialing Research. This scholarship will ensure that the base of health care credentialing knowledge will expand significantly. As an example, the relationship between professional certification and the provision of quality health care will be better understood. It is conceivable that findings could lead to the identification of practice strategies that serve as predictors of specific health care outcomes and, in part, as the foundation for evidence-based practice. Contributions to the Gretta Styles Scholarship for Credentialing Research can be made by writing to the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) at 8515 Georgia Ave, Suite 400, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3492, Attn: Development Office. The ANF is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

These awards are particularly fitting as Dr. Styles, a remarkable visionary, has blazed trails of credentialing excellence around the world.

This page last revised 5/16/2006.