U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has selected UCF Nursing professor Angeline Bushy to serve on a national committee overseeing health care delivery in rural communities.
Bushy is the Bert Fish Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in UCF’s College of Nursing. She teaches in the college’s Bachelor of Science program at UCF’s Daytona Beach campus and is a veteran. Much of her research focuses on rural health care.
During her three-year appointment, which started last month, Bushy will serve on the Veterans Rural Health Advisory Committee, a critical group that advises McDonald on health care and delivery to veterans living in remote and rural areas of the country. The group also studies and innovates ways to increase access to health care for veterans, promoting their well-being, and strengthening communities’ health care infrastructure.
McDonald, in his letter to Bushy, said her contributions will be especially important because “the VA is committed to enhancing services and programs available to rural veterans.”
“Being appointed to the VA Rural Advisory Board is both an honor and humbling experience for me,” said Bushy. “Coupled with the highly publicized restricted access to rural health care providers, veterans in rural areas face even greater challenges in accessing VA services. This appointment involves representing the high proportion of veterans who live and work in rural areas across the nation. Undoubtedly, I will learn a great deal from the veterans and do my best to represent their concerns.”
This is not the first time Bushy has been selected for a national committee on rural health. She previously served on the Surgeon General’s Invitational Workshops on Women’s Mental Health and Action Agenda for the Health of Women and Girls Beyond 2010. She has been on expert panels setting national agendas in health, research and advocacy for rural women’s issues. Bushy has also authored textbooks on rural health and has received federal grants to support her research in this area.