Sally S Cohen

Faculty

Sally Cohen headshot

Sally Cohen

FAAN PhD RN

Clinical Professor

1 212 992 5929

433 First Ave
New York, NY 10010
United States

Accepting PhD students

Sally S. Cohen, FAAN, Ph.D., RN, is a clinical professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. As a nationally recognized leader in advancing health policy and nursing at the national and state levels, she helps integrate health policy into nursing education, practice, and research. Her interdisciplinary scholarship encompasses public health, children’s rights, bullying prevention, and the politics of policymaking for children’s issues. As the editor-in-chief of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice from 2014 to 2019, Cohen helped to create a vibrant forum for nurses and others globally to share ideas and analyses of policies and political activities that affect nursing practice in all venues of care.

Before joining NYU as faculty, Cohen was the 2014–2015 NAM/AAN/ANA/ANF Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine (now the Academy of Medicine). Before that, she directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative at the University of New Mexico. The collaborative, which wrapped up its work in 2017, prepared nursing Ph.D. students for leadership in health policy. As director of policy and research at the National League of Nursing, Cohen helped advocate for legislation that in 1985 established the National Institute of Nursing Research. She also developed and directed the Nursing Management, Policy, and Leadership specialty at the Yale. 

Among her many honors, Cohen received the 2019 Lois Capps Policy Luminary Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for her exceptional contributions to the nursing workforce and healthcare policy. She was honored by Yale School of Nursing with its “90 Outstanding Yale Nurses” award in 2013. In 2008, she received the Kaplan-Landy Award for Vision, Innovation, and Leadership from the Hadassah Nurses Council. She was elected to the New York Academy of Medicine in 2006 and the American Academy of Nursing in 1988.

Cohen earned her PhD from Columbia University, MSN from Yale University, and BA from Cornell University.

 

PhD - Columbia University
MSN - Yale University
BA - Cornell University

Pediatric
Community/population health
Health Policy

American Academy of Nursing
American Nurses Association
American Political Science Association
American Public Health Association
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Lois Capps Policy Luminary Award, American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2019)
90 Nurses for 90 Years, Yale University School of Nursing (2013)
Kaplan-Landy Award for Vision, Innovation, and Leadership, Hadassah National Nurses Council (2008)
Elected to the New York Academy of Medicine (2006)
Ellen Rudy Clore Excellence in Writing Award, Journal of Pediatric Health Care (1998)
Dissertation approved with distinction (1993)
Marisa de Castro Benton Prize, for outstanding dissertation in Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University (1993)
Elected to American Academy of Nursing (1988)
Elected to Sigma Theta Tau, International, Honor Society for Nursing, as charter member Delta Mu Chapter (1979)

Advancing health policy in nursing education through service learning

Cohen, S. S., & Milone-Nuzzo, P. (2001). Advances in Nursing Science, 23(3), 28-40. 10.1097/00012272-200103000-00004
Abstract
Abstract
Knowledge of health policy is an increasingly important aspect of nursing practice and education, especially as nurses strive to improve the rapidly changing health care delivery system. At the same time, many educators, researchers, foundations, and government officials are touting the benefits of service learning. In particular, service learning offers ways to enhance partnerships between academia and community agencies and to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom. We present a model for educating nurses as advanced practice nurses in health policy that links service learning with a framework for the political development of nurses. Under the rubric of service learning, the curriculum is based on the overlap among health policy, the role of the nurse as consultant, and community-based care. After discussing the importance of health policy for graduate nursing education and reviewing the essentials of service learning, we describe a three-semester graduate sequence in health policy service learning. The focus is on the clinical and classroom components of both individual and group practica and their relationship to stages of nursing's political development. The article concludes with evaluation considerations and the implications of our work for nursing theory, research, practice, and education.

PNPs as catalysts in child care policymaking

Cohen, S. S., & Misuraca, B. L. (2001). Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 15(2), 49-57. 10.1067/mph.2001.109030
Abstract
Abstract
Dramatic socioeconomic changes in American family life, along with welfare reform, school readiness initiatives, and research on the relationship between child development and child care, have generated new interest in child care policy. Pediatric nurse practitioners and other pediatric nurses have much to contribute to the formulation of national, state, and local child care policies, especially if they are knowledgeable of key policies and regulatory issues. This article outlines these concepts with an eye toward promoting how pediatric nurses might reclaim their role as catalysts for promoting high-quality child care.

Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2000: A quick guide to the candidates' positions on pressing health care concerns

Cohen, S. S., Leavitt, J. K., & Heinrich, J. (2000). American Journal of Nursing, 100(8), 47-48. 10.1097/00000446-200008000-00052

Health policy and the private sector: New vistas for nursing

Pulcini, J., Mason, D. J., Cohen, S. S., Kovner, C., & Leavitt, J. K. (2000). Nursing and Health Care Perspectives, 21(1), 22-28.
Abstract
Abstract
During the past two decades, the drive to rein in rising health care costs has shifted some of the power in health care policy making from professional groups, government agencies, and not-for-profit health care organizations to large for-profit corporations (1-4). This has been a worldwide phenomenon, as the provision and financing of health care services is shifted from governments to private health care organizations (5,6). In the United States, the shift in power is manifested in profound ways. Market competition and bottom-line economics have permeated the health care system, creating powerful new incentives for mergers, other corporate restructuring, and the shift to for-profit status by formerly not-for-profit insurance companies and providers. Private sector health care is now increasingly influenced by for-profit organizations (3). Moreover, the health insurance industry has been transformed as traditional indemnity insurance is replaced by versions of managed care. The role of government, or the public sector, in setting parameters for health care financing and standards for the delivery of health care services is increasingly outpaced in cost cutting by organizations that directly face the bottom line. In addition, private foundations, many of which are under the auspices of managed care organizations, now fund a large proportion of health care research and demonstration projects, a task once largely within the realm of the government. Through education and experience, nurses have developed political sophistication and understanding of policy making in the public sector (7). The challenge now is to educate nurses to adapt their political and policy strategies to the new health care milieu. This challenge is particularly crucial for advanced practice nurses, who must survive in a managed care environment.

Nurse practitioners can cut costs and provide increased care.

Cohen, S. S. (2000). Clinical Excellence for Nurse Practitioners : The International Journal of NPACE, 4(3), 173-174.

Nurse practitioners' experiences with managed care organizations in New York and Connecticut

Mason, D. J., Alexander, J. M., Huffaker, J., Reilly, P. A., Sigmund, E. C., & Cohen, S. S. (1999). Nursing Outlook, 47(5), 201-208. 10.1016/S0029-6554(99)90052-0
Abstract
Abstract
In a study of nurse practitioners in New York and Connecticut, more than half reported they had never applied to be credentialed by a managed care organization. The majority of nurse practioners reported that their offices billed for their services under the name of the collaborating physician and at the physician rate.

Focus groups reveal perils and promises of managed care for nurse practitioners.

Cohen, S. S., Mason, D. J., Arsenie, L. S., Sargese, S. M., & Needham, D. (1998). The Nurse Practitioner, 23(6), 48, 54, 57-60 passim.
Abstract
Abstract
Decades of practice and research suggest that nurse practitioners (NPs) provide cost-effective and high-quality care. Managed care's emphasis on prevention and cost savings led some policy makers to view NPs as a way to meet the need for primary care providers. However, access to and utilization of NPs has increasingly been controlled by managed care organizations (MCOs) through their selection of providers for primary care panels. This study employed qualitative methodology to examine NPs' experiences with MCOs. Three focus groups, comprising 27 NPs in New York and Connecticut, revealed NPs' mixed reactions to managed care and a range of sentiments regarding NPs' efforts to be listed as primary care providers. The results reflected NPs' concerns about their perceived "invisibility," as well as their sense of "invincibility" in the ways in which NPs are responding to the barriers posed by MCOs. They identified barriers to, as well as ways to facilitate, being listed by MCOs, and described the importance of NPs working individually and collectively in negotiating with MCOs.

Managed care organizations' arrangements with nurse practitioners: a Connecticut perspective.

O’Donnell, J. P., Cohen, S. S., Mason, D. J., Baxter, K., & Chase, A. B. (1998). Connecticut Nursing News (Meriden, Conn. : 1980), 71(1), 19-20.
Abstract
Abstract
Executives in more than 50% of managed care organizations (MCOs) in New York and Connecticut were interviewed for information on the roles, participation, and listing of NPs as primary care providers. MCO executives are highly satisfied with their primary care provider NPs, particularly in women's health and geriatrics, secondary to spending more time teaching and explaining procedures than physicians. Among both health care professionals and the general public there is an overall lack of current knowledge and/or confusion about NPs and their practice. Eighty-two percent of executives in MCOs thought their organization should encourage the use of NPs as primary care providers. Beginning in the early 1960s, advanced practice nursing has shown steady growth. Research has found that NPs provide cost-effective, quality-driven patient care (Brown & Grimes, 1995; Cohen & Juszczak, 1997; Frampton & Wall, 1994; Hardy & Evans, 1995). Many thought health care reform would lead to an expansion of advanced practice nurses (APNs) and other nonphysician providers as primary care providers (Aiken & Salmon, 1994). Funding for and enrollment in graduate nursing programs rose nationwide (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 1996). Anecdotal reports indicated that NPs were not included in MCO primary care provider panels. The purpose of this study was to explore MCO arrangements with nurse practitioners and the factors that influence them.

Managed care and reproductive health

Cohen, S. S., & Williams, D. R. (1998). Journal of Nurse-Midwifery, 43(3), 150-161. 10.1016/S0091-2182(98)00008-1
Abstract
Abstract
Managed care poses special challenges to midwives providing reproductive health care. This is owing to the sensitive nature of issues surrounding reproductive health and aspects of managed care that may impede a woman's ability to obtain continuous, confidential, and comprehensive care from the provider of her choice. Variations across payers (ie, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurers) regarding covered benefits and reimbursement of midwifery services also may create obstacles. Furthermore, some physicians and managed care organizations are embracing policies that threaten the ability of midwives to function as primary health care providers for women. Despite these hurdles, midwives have the potential to remain competitive in the new marketplace. This article underscores the importance of being knowledgeable about legislation and policy issues surrounding the financing of midwifery services, quality performance measurement for HMOs as they pertain to reproductive health, and discussions regarding which clinicians should be defined as primary care providers.

Managed care organizations' arrangements with nurse practitioners.

Mason, D. J., Cohen, S. S., O’Donnell, J. P., Baxter, K., & Chase, A. B. (1997). Nursing Economic$, 15(6), 306-314.
Abstract
Abstract
Thirty-four of 67 MCOs in New York and Connecticut responded to requests for information on the roles, participation, and listing of nurse practitioners as primary care providers or in other capacities. MCO executives report a high degree of satisfaction with NPs who serve as their primary care providers, especially in women's health and geriatrics, as they spend more time teaching and explaining procedures than physicians. Ongoing lack of up-to-date information and/or confusion about the scope of NP practice exists among both health care professionals and the public. Perceived differences in the scope of care provided by NPs was related to state regulations, physician practice patterns, and availability of primary care physicians. Eighty-five percent of MCO executives thought their organizations should encourage the use of NPs.