The United States faces an escalating shortage of nurses, driven in part by an aging population and a shortage of available spaces in schools of nursing across the nation. Widespread concern over the nurse faculty shortage is evident in the reports of prominent nursing organizations, as well as in the activities of numerous state workforce centers. As part of its commitment to address issues related to the nurse faculty shortage, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the creation of Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN) to fund evaluations of nursing educational interventions.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the National Program Office (NPO) to direct EIN in 2008. The NPO, which is located in the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, provides overall research direction, management, technical assistance, and monitoring of the EIN grants. Dr. Michael Yedidia serves as director of the NPO and is assisted by Joanne Fuccello, Deputy Director. » Read More
Our Mission
We support evaluations of interventions that expand teaching capacity or promote faculty recruitment and retention in nursing schools. The program aims to increase the number of nursing school graduates by evaluating strategies that address the nurse faculty shortage. With its third cycle of funding, EIN will support projects that address aspects of teaching productivity and faculty preparation in nursing education for meeting the demands of a reformed health care and public health system. Learn More
About the Program
Our Grantees
EIN is pleased to introduce its various cohorts of grantees, current and past. Twelve grants (of up to $300,000 each) have been awarded since 2009. EIN’s first grant cycle (2009-2011) funded four innovators in nursing education to support evaluations of different interventions, including Dedicated Education Units (DEUs); a technology-rich, accelerated BSN program relying on a mix of on-campus and offsite training, specially prepared clinical preceptors, and innovative course scheduling; and incorporation of a web-based virtual community into the curricula of several nursing programs across the country. For its second round of grants (2010-2012), EIN has funded evaluations of the implementation of a statewide education consortium curriculum; the substitution of clinical simulation for supervised hospital rotations; and an analysis of a myriad of state-based, support-for-service programs which offer funding support to nursing students who wish to become nurse faculty.
In mid July 2012, EIN’s third cycle of grantees began evaluation projects whose findings will directly inform strategies to prepare faculty to educate nurses for roles in the reformed health care system as envisioned in the IOM report on the future of nursing. These two-year projects (2012-2014) will focus on a range of issues, e.g., identifying barriers and opportunities for doctoral students regarding nurse faculty careers (American Association of Colleges of Nursing); assessing the various stages of career decision-making related to becoming a nurse faculty member (Indiana University); the hiring practices and intentions of directors of nursing programs related to DNP and PhD-prepared faculty (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill); the relationship between the demands of teaching doctoral students and research productivity among doctorally-prepared nurse faculty (Villanova University) and a case study to study and generate insights into the prospects for early-entry doctoral programs (admitting pre-baccalaureate students and recent graduates) to increase the number and productivity of future nurse faculty (University of Wisconsin-Madison). As with earlier funding cycles, EIN3 research projects are designed to generate findings to inform strategies for addressing the nurse faculty shortage, while expanding the nurse workforce and maintaining or improving student outcomes.
- Cycle 3 Grantees (2012 - 2014)
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
Indiana University School of Nursing
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
Villanova University College of Nursing
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing
- Cycle 2 Grantees (2010 – 2012)
University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene
The New York University College of Nursing
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing
- Cycle 1 Grantees (closed) (2009 – 2011)
- University of Massachusetts, Boston, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, College of Nursing
- University of Portland (Oregon), School of Nursing
- University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, College of Nursing
Grantee Spotlight
University of Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston) research team recently completed work on their EIN-supported evaluation project, "Project PDQ: Partnering for Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) Development and Quality." EIN staff interviewed principal investigator Dr. JoAnn Mulready-Shick (UMass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences) and Dr. Kathleen Flanagan, the EIN project evaluator, to learn more about their project outcomes. The researchers informed us that they are working on publications related to their findings; however, they offered to share some key highlights from their research. » Read more
Grantee Research Findings and Publications
EIN Grantee at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Publishes with Researchers in Partnering Hospitals in The Journal of Nursing Administration
EIN grantee Dr. Joanne Mulready-Shick (UMB) and partners from two Boston academic research centers -- Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) -- co-authored an article entitled, “Partnering and Leadership Core Requirements for Developing a Dedicated Education Unit." The article describes the creation of two Dedicated Education Units (DEU) implemented through the academic-service partnership between UMB’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, MGH and BWH. The article outlines the factors critical for the success and sustainability of DEUs, focusing on skills required to negotiate complex collaborations and the leadership competencies demonstrated by nurses across three levels: 1) the dean and hospital chief nurse executives; 2) the academic nursing program and clinical directors, and 3) the hospital clinical instructors and university’s clinical faculty coordinators.
Read an abstract of the article HERE.
EIN Grantee JoAnn Mulready-Shick, EdD, RN, CNE presented at the Ohio League for Nursing’s Nursing Education Summit 2012 in Dublin Ohio (March 30, 2012).
Her presentation – “EVALUATING DEDICATED EDUCATION UNITS: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS” – can be reviewed HERE.
EIN Grantee Project Team at New York University College of Nursing Publishes in Journal of Nursing Education
Dr. Hila Richardson and Dr. Mattia Gilmartin co-authored with Dr. Terry Fulmer an article entitled, “Shifting the Clinical Teaching Paradigm in Undergraduate Nursing Education to Address the Nursing Faculty Shortage.” The authors at NYU College of Nursing, supported by a two-year EIN grant, describe their new clinical teaching model that substitutes high-fidelity human patient simulation for up to half of the students’ clinical education experience. The article looks at the model’s effects on nurse faculty capacity.
Read an abstract of the article HERE as it appeared in the April issue of the Journal of Nursing Education.
National Survey of Nurse Faculty
How do nurse faculty members spend their time? How do they assess key aspects of their work-life?
Click here to create customized findings from the 2011 national survey of full-time nurse faculty members by using NuFAQs, our Nurse Faculty Query web-based tool.
Choose from over 60 characteristics of workload and attitudes toward work-life and explore how they differ among faculty subgroups of interest to you. Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of full-time faculty members teaching in nursing schools that offer at least one degree program that prepares graduates to sit for the licensure exam. The study was conducted by staff at the EIN National Program Office and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
» view allWhat's New
Building Blocks of a Dedicated Education Unit Model
May 2013
An article in the May 2013 issue of the Journal of Nursing Education features the Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) model at the University of Portland (UP), an EIN grantee in 2010-2012. In this article, Dr. Susan Moscoto et al. describe the key ingredients of UP’s DEU model, as well as lessons learned from its replication efforts at three other schools of nursing. Read the abstract Here.
New HRSA Report Explores Nursing Education Capacity
May 2013
In the newly released report titled The U.S. Nursing Workforce: Trends in Supply and Education, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) analyzed data from various sources over the past decade on the RN and LPN workforce. In addition to presenting the current (2008-2010) workforce characteristics and supplies against those in 2000, the report examines the nation’s nursing education capacity–both for producing new nurses and for enabling RNs to attain higher education. The report indicated a 67 percent increase in the annual number of master’s and doctoral graduate degrees awarded between 2007 and 2011. The annual output of master’s graduates has increased by about 60 percent, and the output of doctoral graduates has more than tripled over the past four years. These increases have implications for the education of the future nursing workforce, as well as for nursing leadership in academic and clinical settings.
Read the report Here.
EIN’s Recent Annual Meeting of Grantees is Profiled in Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge (May 2013)
May 2013
This month’s issue of Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge features a summary of EIN’s third annual grantee meeting held in Portland, Oregon, where national experts, including deans, designers and directors of doctoral education programs, conferred with grantees on a range of topics relevant to nursing education research and scholarship. The meeting included a roundtable discussion focusing on the ways to optimize the contribution of DNP-prepared faculty to nursing education. EIN’s two active cohorts presented research plans and preliminary findings to leaders in graduate nursing education, editors of key nursing journals and communications experts. Click HERE to read more details about the meeting.
NLN Lauds Additional Funding Proposed in President Obama’s 2014 Budget to Expand Nursing Education Capacity
April 2013
President Obama proposed an additional $20 million for Title VIII Nursing Education Funds to help address nurse and nurse faculty shortages in his 2014 budget proposal. In a recent news release, National League for Nursing (NLN) CEO Dr. Beverly Malone spoke about the League’s appreciation for the additional funding, “Federal funding is imperative to the equation between delivery of high quality health care services to the greatest number of Americans and nursing education. The Title VIII dollars requested in FY 2014 for nurse workforce development acknowledges the reality that nurses are an essential component of our health care safety net.” The additional funds will also help support more racial and ethnic minority applicants to nursing programs as a means to close the cultural gap between nurses and the diverse patient populations served. NLN president Dr. Judith Halstead noted that, “The NLN is gratified that the federal Nursing Workforce Diversity Program will directly benefit from President Obama’s proposed Title VIII funding.” Click to view the NLN news release here.
Patient Care in Hospitals with More Baccalaureate-prepared Nurses Linked to Lower Mortality
April 2013
A new study, published in the March issue of Health Affairs, found that nurses’ education level (i.e., proportion with baccalaureate degrees) was linked to lower post-surgery mortality. Using Pennsylvania nurse survey and patient discharge data from 1999 and 2006, this study found that a ten-point increase in a hospital’s percentage of nurses who held a baccalaureate degree in nursing was significantly associated with improvements over time in rates of surgical patient mortality: 2.12 fewer deaths per 1,000 surgical patients. This study used a two-stage panel design to shed light on longitudinal changes, which provided a strength over previous studies which had been largely cross-sectional. Click to view the abstract of the article here.
Development of the Hawaii Statewide Nursing Consortium: Design, Process, and Lessons Learned
February 2013
An article in the current issue of the Journal of Nursing Education describes the development of the Hawaii Statewide Nursing Consortium, which was modeled after the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education and implemented using a community-based participatory process Read the abstract of the article here about the design and implementation of the curriculum, as well as lessons learned during the process.
Addressing Nurse Faculty Shortage Through NEXus, A National Doctoral Education Collaborative
February 2013
The Nursing Education Exchange (NEXus) is a collaborative of 12 universities, whose PhD and DNP students, while matriculated locally, have access to more than 150 courses offered by consortium members via distance-learning modality. Read the abstract of the article about the initiation of this innovative method of course delivery to address nursing faculty shortage, barriers, administrative challenges of the participating institutions and factors contributing to continuing expansion and success of this model.
National Survey of Registered Nurses to Begin in January 2013
January 2013
During the week of January 7th through 14th, the National Council of the State Boards of Nursing and the Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers will invite active RNs, randomly selected across the U.S., to participate in a national survey on the nursing workforce. Results from this survey are expected to shed light on the demographic and professional characteristics of the nation’s nursing workforce, help identify resource needs, and inform policy decisions in both healthcare and education sectors. Click Here to read more.
Nursing Organizations Aligned on Academic Progress for Nurses
September 2012
As a means of showing their support for academic progression for nursing students and graduates, leaders from national organizations representing community college presidents, boards and program administrators have joined with representatives from nursing education associations to endorse a joint statement on nursing education. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Association of Community Colleges Trustees, the National League for Nursing (NLN) and the National Organization for Associate Degree Nursing are among the organizations that issued the consensus statement, which represents a shared goal of preparing a well-educated, diverse nursing work force by supporting all nurses in their efforts to pursue higher education. The leaders agreed that, “It is through the collaboration and partnering of various organizations that we can facilitate and inspire the seamless academic progression of nursing students and nursing.” Writing in her blog
Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action Director and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing Susan Hassmiller stated, “This was a historic moment that will mean greater support for efforts to help nurses advance their education.” The Campaign for Action initiative will work with these partners to encourage more states, community colleges and employers to support nurses’ academic progression and strengthen nursing education. Click HERE to read more.
