After 24 years in healthcare, including 14 years as a Registered Nurse, John was drawn to two essential problems- 1. Why couldn’t Nursing control its practice domains, and 2. Why was the healthcare system we had so dysfunctional in terms of Public Health outcomes? John soon realized that the problems were linked. If nursing could not ensure safe levels of practice, and were not actively engaged at the decision tables as to where resources were allocated in the systems, how could Nursing ensure the maximum benefit for our patients would be realized?

The answer lay in the political relationship of nurses to the facilities, and nursing to the political process. He then embarked on a journey of research and discovery in his Public Intellectual Ph.D. in Comparative Studies. He has spoken at several international and national interdisciplinary conferences on healthcare system design.  He also advised several nursing groups on political empowerment, including NPs as they worked towards independent practice and prescriptive authority. Out of this work, he discovered a need for a clear mission and vision for nursing.

He traveled abroad to study other healthcare systems and developed what he thought the goals of a healthcare system must be. From there he began advocating for the only system design that truly addressed the needs of providers, patients, and our communities- the adapted Public Utility model. Over the last year+, Dr. Silver has been working with an innovative interdisciplinary team of people forming Nurses Transforming Healthcare and working to implement the model in the United States.