Robert Atkins’ long and winding road to recognition in nursing field ends with prestigious honor
The New Jersey State Nurses Association will honor 13 nurses, including three from South Jersey, for outstanding professional career accomplishments at its “Divas and Dons Gala” on Thursday, April 4 in Princeton.
One of the honorees is Cherry Hill resident Dr. Robert Atkins, who currently works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as national program director of Camden-based New Jersey Health Initiatives. His chief role with NJHI is with the grants division, attempting to fund a fundamental change in the way 21st-century medicine integrates with communities.
“No, I did not have any inkling (the honor was coming). I knew a lot of people who had been given that honor so it came as a total surprise,” Atkins said. “It is a nice recognition because there are a lot of outstanding nurses who have been given that honor.”
Atkins holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and American civilizations from Brown University and a BS in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. With such a diverse academic background, you might wonder how Atkins wound up with deep roots in the area.
Fresh out of Penn, Atkins landed in Camden, where he found employment as a school nurse at East Camden Middle School. He later co-founded the Camden STARR Program there, a nonprofit effort dedicated to improving quality-of-life for young persons.
“I got really lucky. My first job out of nursing school was in Camden, and I became a school nurse. Which was not a typical first job for someone coming out of a prestigious program like Penn, but for me it was a perfect fit,” he related.
“I got to work with kids, learned a lot about Camden and the families who live there. Loved the job, and I started that youth development program. So when the opportunity to run the state-wide grant maker for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the fact that its home base was in Camden, came along, it felt like everything came full circle.”
Atkins’ work in Camden later motivated him to complete a doctorate in the Department of Public Health at Temple University. While there, he became informed about larger issues behind factors that influence the health and well-being of children living in poorer areas, and their struggles into adulthood.
Having landed at NJHI in 2013, Atkins has since introduced initiatives that engage more nurses — in schools and the larger health-care field — in building a “culture of health” across the Garden State.
“I had the opportunity to lead the way. Where health care is going in the future is a lot different than where it has been in the 20th century and where it is now. In the 20th century, when you or I even thought about health care, you thought about patients and providers, thought about hospitals and health-care systems. They’ll always be important,” he said.
“But what we realized is that if we’re going to be able to address the different kinds of health challenges we have, it’s going to take not just technical things, it’s going to take an engagement at a community level. Taking the conversation from what we call ‘downstream’ to what we think about after we’re sick, to what happens before we get sick, that ‘upstream’ thought process.
Atkins advocates a community-based approach to preventative medicine, stressing the need for health-care professionals to start talking good practices in community centers and schools, considering transportation and access to playgrounds, and better access to healthier foods like fresh fruits and vegetables.
“If we start getting to the source, it’s much easier to prevent things like obesity than to reverse it. You look at diabetes, heart failure, if you get out in front of it, and make sure people know there’s access to these things right from high school, then we’re able to start solving the problem. Preventive medicine,” he stated.
“Get into the community where we work, play, live and learn. You can’t just talk to nurses. You have to talk to school superintendents and police chiefs and priests and rabbis and residents and kids. That’s what the grant side of it is about: How do we bring all these other voices into the conversation? Because the only way I’m going to get you to be healthy is to engage you. I can’t tell you what to do.”
Proceeds from the “Divas and Dons” event fund scholarships for nursing students and nurses who are advancing their education. The Institute also provides quality continuing education programs and grants for nurses involved in research.
