Resources and News
Key Publications and Resources
NLN on Advancing Research in Nursing Education
December 2012
Early this month, the National League for Nursing (NLN) put forth two documents updating its vision of and priorities in nursing education research. To learn more, go to NLN Vision: Transforming Research in Nursing Educationand NLN Research Priorities in Nursing Education, 2012-2015.
The Pursuit of Higher Degrees: Predictors Among Newly Licensed RNs
December 2012
A recently published study by Kovner et al. explores how personal characteristics (including age, family composition, race and ethnicity, previous work experience, etc.), workplace attributes (such as work setting and schedule), and work-related attitudes (such as variety and intent to stay) may help predict whether ADNs and BSNs go on to pursue higher degrees. While data confirm a shortage of RNs in rural areas and among racial/ethnic minorities, analyses suggest that RNs who are black and those starting out in rural areas are more likely than others to pursue higher degrees within a few years of licensure. Click here for more details and other interesting findings.
New Jersey Model Marks Progress in Reducing Nursing Faculty Shortage
November 2012
Key representatives from the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) – which began in 2009 – spoke to New Jersey state legislators about the initiative’s progress on addressing the state’s nursing faculty shortage. Currently, New Jersey is facing two inter-related shortages: nursing faculty vacancy rates of 10.5 percent and a projected shortage of 23,358 fewer nurses than needed by 2030. Funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the initiative pays for tuition and fees and provides a $50,000 stipend and a laptop computer, so that nurses can choose to study full-time without having to work. This faculty preparation program model removes financial barriers for students interested in pursuing career as a nurse faculty member. The first 10 doctoral students in the program will be graduating this spring 2013; a total of 61 nurses have been recruited to participate in NJNI faculty preparation program. Click Here to read more.
Nursing Schools Continue to Seek Innovative Solutions to Address Faculty Shortages
November 2012
In order to deal with the dual issues of the existing nursing faculty shortage and the possible sudden waves of retiring nursing faculty (anticipated when the economy improves), nursing schools across the nation are finding ways to retain as well as to increase the number of nursing faculty needed to educate new nurses. These approaches include: “fast-track” degree programs such as BSN-to-DNP and BSN-to-PhD programs; hiring clinical practice nurses as adjunct faculty outside of their regular work hours; “buying time” for nurses to teach from clinical agencies; using teaching assistants enrolled in the PhD program as instructors; preparing new faculty by providing tuition support; employing succession planning by developing adjunct faculty pool; and job sharing in which two faculty members split a full-time position, but both retain their respective benefits. Click Here to read more.
Addressing the Nursing Workforce and Faculty Shortages in New Jersey
October 2012
By 2020, New Jersey’s nursing workforce is projected to meet only 50% of the demand, exacerbated in large measure by the anticipated accelerated retirement rates of experienced nurses as the economy improves, and the severe shortage of nurse faculty and clinical education sites. At present, New Jersey’s nursing programs report a greater than 10% nurse faculty vacancy rate. To address these issues, the New Jersey Nursing Initiative is leading the statewide effort to encourage nurses to become educators through scholarships, and to increase teaching capacity and expand nursing programs through technology, including simulation and online learning. Read more here.
Chamberlain College of Nursing Collaborates with the National League for Nursing to create the NLN Chamberlain Center for the Advancement of the Science of Nursing Education
September 2012
Through this new partnership with NLN, Chamberlain College of Nursing will run the Center with the to promote evidence-based nursing education and the scholarship of teaching. The NLN Chamberlain Center will support the expansion of NLN programs, including the Nursing Education Research Grants Program, Research Priorities Think Tank and the annual research conference in partnership with Sigma Theta Tau International. A significant amount of funding and resources to support the new NLN Chamberlain Center will come from Chamberlain College over the next seven years. Click HERE to read more.
Preparing New and Cultivating Existing Nurse Educator
September 2012
The last two issues of the Journal of Nursing Education (August and September 2012) featured several articles focusing on the critical issue of nurse educator preparation. Sherrod et al. examined a doctoral program offered jointly by the nursing and the education faculty; Young et al. discussed the potential application of high-fidelity simulation in training future graduate-level nurse educators; and Smith et al. described a nurse educator’s changing precepting and mentoring needs along the nurse faculty’s career trajectory. See the journal’s home page for these and other articles.
HHS Announces $23.3 Million in Grants for Nurse Faculty Loan Program
September 2012
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced (August 30) the release of more than $100 million in new grants to grow and strengthen the country’s health care workforce. Of the total amount, $30.2 million specifically targets nursing workforce development, including grants dedicated to nursing workforce diversity and nurse anesthetist traineeship. The Nurse Faculty Loan program, which provides grants to 112 nursing schools to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty in the U.S., will receive $23.3 million of this new funding. Support from this program allows nursing schools to offer eligible students partial loan forgiveness when they graduate and serve as full-time nursing faculty for a designated period of time. Over 1,550 master’s and doctoral students were support by awards from the prior academic year.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Awards a New Cohort of Nurse Faculty Scholars
September 2012
The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program, now in its fifth year, recently added 12 outstanding junior faculty members to its prestigious cohort group. Through this program, each scholar receives a 3-year, $350,000 grant that supports his/her research pursuits, leadership training, as well as mentoring from senior faculty members. The program helps cultivate competent and committed nurse educators, who are the linchpin of ensuring an adequate supply of the nursing workforce to meet the increasing health care demand as the Affordable Care Act goes into effect. Read more HERE.
Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge Feature Focuses on Innovations in Nursing Education
September 2012
A New Dawn in Nurse Education” in September’s issue of Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge profiles innovations in nursing educations and how the pace of change has accelerated in responses to dynamic forces in the health care environment. Examples of innovations include new academic-clinical partnerships, different types of academic progression models and changes in clinical education, such as broader use of simulation and sophisticated scenarios. Read more HERE.
EIN IN THE NEWS
August 2012
From its program director to its grantees and research activities, EIN has been a focus in two recent editions of Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge (SNK). In the most recent edition (July 2012), the launch of the Nurse Faculty Query (NuFAQs) was highlighted. Accessible through the EIN website, the dataset from EIN’s national survey of nurse faculty in now publicly available, featuring an interactive interface that allows users to easily customize findings on selected aspects of faculty work-life. Read the SNK feature HERE. In SNK’s June edition, EIN program director Dr. Michael Yedidia was interviewed about the work of EIN and its grantees in a piece titled, “Health Services Researcher Seeks Sound Evidence of the Effectiveness of Strategies to Address the Nurse Faculty Shortage.” Read the engaging SNK interview HERE.
Nine States Receive Funding to Raise Education Levels in Nursing Workforce
August 2012
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces that nine states–CA, HI, MA, MT, NM, NY, NC, TX and WA–will receive funding via the Foundation’s Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) initiative to implement innovative strategies to expand the proportion of BSNs from 50% to 80% by 2020, a key recommendation in the IOM’s Future of Nursing report. Supported by this two-year, $4.3 million initiative, the nine state Action Coalitions will work closely with community colleges, universities, and employers to optimize academic progression, creating models that other states can adopt. Successful awardees will be eligible for two more years of support under phase 2 of APIN to continue their work. This initiative is led by the Tri-Council for Nursing, consisting of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National League for Nursing, American Nurses Association and the American Organization of Nurse Executives.Click to read more.
CMS supports training of APRNs in Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration
August 2012
For the first time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will directly support the training of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in five hospitals under the Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration: the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; Duke University Hospital, Scottsdale Health Medical Center, Rush University Medical Center and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center Hospital. Through this 4-year, $200 million demonstration project, CMS will test the innovative reimbursement model that aims to address the critical shortage of clinical training resources for APRNs, thereby increasing the pool of highly skilled primary care providers. Click to read more.
Assessing the Nursing Workforce Post-NSSRN: New Jersey’s Perspective
August 2012
In response to the decision by the Health Resources and Services Administration to discontinue the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN), many states, including New Jersey, are focusing efforts to set up infrastructure and processes to track their own nursing workforce. Jeannie Cimiotti, Executive Director of New Jersey’s Collaborating Center for Nursing (NJCCN), recently blogged about the Center’s work on surveying all nursing programs in the state to assess educational capacity (e.g., enrollments, graduates, and demographics of students and faculty). In collaboration with NJCCN, the New Jersey Board of Nursing is in its second year tracking demographic characteristics and employment intentions of all NJ-licensed RNs. Furthermore, NJCCN will soon be launching a survey to estimate the demand for the state’s nursing workforce. Click to read more.
QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses) transitions to a new home and continues its work to prepare and educate nurses in quality and safety competencies
June 2012
For the past seven years, QSEN has been instrumental in establishing core competencies, implementing a competency-based approach to nursing education, and developing faculty expertise and teaching tools towards this goal. With continued support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, QSEN is transitioning from the University of North Carolina’s School of Nursing to the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. In its new home, QSEN will focus on disseminating innovative ways to deliver quality and safety education, and foster its mission of making systems thinking an integral part of nurses’ professional identity. QSEN’s collaboration with AACN will continue through a new series of AACN-QSEN faculty development workshops, which will now focus on graduate education programs. Read more about QSEN’s accomplishments – which include the publication of a new textbook, Quality and Safety in Nursing: A Competency Approach to Improving Outcomes – and the new QSEN Institute here.
Findings from Florida: Faculty Shortage and Nursing School Capacity
June 2012
The 2010-2011 survey by the Florida Center for Nursing (FCN) found that prelicensure nursing programs in the state continued to confront faculty shortage. ADN and BSN programs reported that, on average, 6.4% and 12.2% (respectively) of budged full-time faculty positions remained unfilled. In fact, when program directors and deans assessed the unmet needs of full-time faculty regardless of budget availability, the shortage was much more severe—22.5% in ADN programs and 24.5% in BSN programs—and has hovered above 20% since data collection began. The survey also found that nearly half of all qualified applications to ADN and BSN programs were rejected last year, though this was slightly lower than the rejection rates from the previous year. Programs cited shortage of clinical sites (over 60%) and faculty (48% of BSN and 35% of ADN programs) as the top contributing factors to the high rates of rejections. The FCN’s annual survey, now in its 5th year, demonstrates the importance of consistent, long-term tracking of nursing education quality and capacity. Read about these and many more findings in the full report.
IOM Future of Nursing Recommendation #5: Doubling the number of doctorally prepared nurses
June 2012
Focusing on why the nursing profession ought to meet this recommendation, Dr. Marion Broome, Dean of Indiana University School of Nursing, highlighted in a recent INQRI* webinar the two crucial roles of doctorally-prepared nurses—as leaders of educational reform at all program levels, and as co-leaders of patient outcome improvement efforts. On how to inspire more nursing students to pursue doctoral degrees, Dr. Broome suggested that faculty members maximize their influence as mentors by actively involving students in their research, offering personal encouragements, and demonstrating the contributions to the nursing profession that doctorally-trained nurse leaders are uniquely prepared to make. Watch the webinar for much more insights from Dr. Broome, including Q&A.
*The Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) was created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2005 to bridge the evidence gap of nursing care and patient quality.
Job Stress, Mentoring, Psychological Empowerment, and Job Satisfaction Among Nursing Faculty
June 2012
The National League for Nursing endorses mentoring throughout nursing faculty’s careers as the method to recruit nurses into academia and improve retention of nursing faculty within the academy. A nationwide sample of 959 full-time nursing faculty completed a descriptive survey comprising a researcher-created demographic questionnaire plus Dreher’s mentoring scale, Gmelch’s faculty stress index, Spreitzer’s psychological empowerment scale, and the National Survey for Postsecondary Faculty’s job satisfaction scale. Results showed that 40% of the sample had a current work mentor. Variables showed significant relationships to job satisfaction (p < 0.01): mentoring quality (0.229), job stress (–0.568), and psychological empowerment (0.482). Multiple regression results indicated job satisfaction was significantly influenced (p < 0.01) by the presence of a mentoring relationship, salary, tenure status, psychological empowerment, and job stress. The regression model explained 47% of the variance in job satisfaction for the sample. Read More…
Colorado: One State’s Response to Tracking the Nursing Faculty Shortage
May 2012
The Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence recently released a report focused on the state’s nursing faculty shortage: Colorado’s Nursing Faculty Shortage: What It Is and Why You Should Care, which offers lessons for other states across the country. Colorado shares a common problem with many states: the growing shortage of nursing faculty is affecting its capacity to educate nurses. Within the state’s 35 schools of nursing, 53 percent of full-time faculty are over the age of 55. Researchers predict that retiring at 45 faculty per year, if they are not replaced, the capacity of Colorado’s nursing schools will drop by 25 percent in five years. This report highlights the factors driving the demand and supply of new nurses, the ripple effect of the nursing faculty shortage on the situation and the associated related increases in healthcare costs. The report features a detailed financial and health care return on investment analyses indicating that an investment in nursing faculty is very high – ranging from 350% to 1,330%. It also profiles the work of stakeholder groups in addressing the problem and the creation of the Faculty Recruitment and Retention Initiative (2008-2012), supported by the Colorado Trust. The report has launched a statewide dialogue about the nursing faculty shortage, including the launch of a website, co-sponsored by the Center and the Colorado Coalition for the Future of Nursing, which offers information on the impact of the faculty shortage on the state’s health care providers, its workforce and Coloradans access to health care.
Influence of a Clinical Simulation Elective on Baccalaureate Nursing Student Clinical Confidence
April 2012
Study researchers assessed whether a high-fidelity simulation course changes students’ level of confidence, compared to students learning in traditional clinical experience. Findings from this pilot study indicated that the intervention group had significant increases in confidence compared with the traditional control group, including the recognition of signs and symptoms, assessing patient condition, ability to intervene and evaluation of patients. Although this study does not address the role of faculty in the use of simulation, it offers some interesting insights regarding the effect of simulation on students’ clinical education and levels of confidence. Read an abstract of the study HERE as it appeared in the April issue of the Journal of Nursing Education.
The Initiative on the Future of Nursing: Eighteen Months of Impact
March 2012
Eighteen months after the publication of “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reflects on its impact to date. Specifically, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey reiterated the imperative of strengthening and elevating the nursing profession in the modern healthcare system, and the need for a more highly educated nursing workforce to fulfill the complex demands of its new role. She highlighted innovative approaches several states have adopted to facilitate educational progression, and affirmed the Foundation’s commitment to help transform the nursing profession. Click to read the invited editorial or read and listen to the interview with Nursing Outlook.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announces launch of the Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) initiative
March 2012
RWJF announced the launch of the Foundation’s new $4.3 million, two-year Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) initiative to advance state and regional strategies to create a more highly educated workforce. APIN will provide funding to state Action Coalitions in their work to advance the IOM’s Future of Nursing report recommendation that focuses on increasing the number of baccalaureate prepared nurses to 80 percent of the nursing workforce by 2020. Funded state Action Coalitions will each develop one strategy regarding academic progression and one strategy focused on employment for baccalaureate or higher-prepared nurses. Underscoring the effort is the role of academic-service partnerships. The initiative will be led by the Tri-Council for Nursing, consisting of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National League for Nursing, American Nurses Association and the American Organization of Nurse Executives. Click Here to Read more…
Meeting “Future of Nursing” Recommendations: Efforts in Southern States
February 2012
Following the release of “Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health”, the landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, several southern states promptly formed Action Coalitions and began working to meet the IOM recommendations. Major areas of focus include improving leadership skills and opportunities for nurses to influence public policy, payers and employers; fostering successful transition into practice for new RNs; and exploring the critical role of nurses in population health management, which can substantially improve outcome and reduce costs for patients with chronic conditions. To find out more about the specific efforts in North Carolina, Texas, and Florida, read this article.
RWJF’s Charting Nursing’s Future Publishes Two Policy Briefs In Its Four-part Series Focusing On Implementing The IOM’s Future Of Nursing Report Recommendations
January 2012
As part of its Charting Nursing’s Future initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has launched a four-part miniseries of briefing papers that focus on implementing the recommendations set forth in Institute of Medicine (IOM) report (2010), “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” Since August 2011, two papers have been released: “Implementing the IOM Future of Nursing Report—Part 1: How to Dramatically Increase the Formal Education of America’s Nursing Workforce by 2020” (August 2011) and, “Implementing the IOM Future of Nursing Report — Part II: The Potential of Interprofessional Collaborative Care to Improve Safety and Quality” (November 2011). The first report looks at the report’s educational progression recommendations and summarizes the ways in which key players around the country are responding. Specifically, the report calls for increasing the percentage of nurses holding the bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree or higher to 80 and for doubling the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020. The second brief in the series examines ways to implement the Future of Nursing Recommendations by examining interprofessional practice trends, the types of educational transformation needed to prepare health professionals to provide collaborative care, as well as the policies necessary to assure its delivery.
Cleveland State University designs program to ease national shortage of nurse educators; creates new Nursing Education Specialization track within its PhD program
November 2011
To address the critical shortage of nurse educators, Cleveland State University School of Nursing (CSUSON) recently launched a new Nursing Education Specialization track within its PhD program to train master-prepared nurses for research-oriented faculty positions. This new track’s community-based curriculum is designed to produce nurse educators with expertise in urban issues, and graduates are further encouraged to take on full-time faculty positions thanks to the CSUSON’s Nursing Faculty Loan Program, a loan-forgiveness program established through a grant from HRSA. Read the press release here.
Nursing Profession looks to New York as First State to Mandate BSN-Preparation
November 04, 2011
New York state-one of the 5 original pilot sites selected to lead the way in implementing the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) “Future of Nursing” recommendations-may be positioned to be the first in the nation to mandate a BSN for all registered nurses. One of the IOM recommendations is to increase the proportion of BSN-prepared nurses to 80% by 2020, and several forces are in motion in New York towards this end. Some hospitals have begun to require or at least encourage newly hired nurses to obtain a BSN within a set time period. Nursing education programs are beginning to offer financial incentives, in the form of much reduced tuition, for RNs to earn a bachelor’s degree. On the legislative end, nursing leaders in the state are working to revive a state legislative bill first introduced in 2005 (which never moved to a legislative vote) which would require all new nurses obtain a BSN within 10 years of receiving their license. Read more here for information on the state of New York’s Future of Nursing’s Campaign for Action.
Facilitating Factors among Second-degree Nursing Students: A Review of Existing Evidence in the Journal of Nursing Education
November 2011
Accelerated (second-degree or graduate-entry) nursing programs pathways have been in place in the United States since the early 1970s and continue to gain popularity. In response to the nursing shortage, the accelerated pathways are intended to attract individuals with post-secondary education in other disciplines, and allow them to complete nursing education in an abbreviated period rather than the traditional 4-year curriculum. While these programs are more rigorous and standards are higher than the traditional pathways, little research has been conducted on the course facilitators-student, faculty, and environmental attributes that contribute to successful program completion. A new literature review in the Journal of Nursing Education (JNE) summarizes the evidence to date, and identified several themes of academic as well as non-academic facilitators including skills acquired from tertiary education, faculty support, maturation and motivation, and life and career experiences. The article suggests that such knowledge could be valuable in establishing best practices to better attract and prepare prospective students with previous tertiary education.
Click HERE for an abstract of the JNE article
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awards $82 million to Strengthen Nursing Workforce
October 2011
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has allocated $82 million to the Nursing Scholarship Program and the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program. These programs provide qualified nurses as well as nursing students and faculty with financial support and loan repayment assistance in exchange for service in facilities with a marked shortage of nurses. The funds are expected to support more than 1,700 awards through both programs.
Read HERE for more detailed information about the program, including a listing of awards by state.
Johns Hopkins University Announces New Accelerated Second-degree Program
October 2011
Influenced in part by the Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report “The Future of Nursing, Leading Change, Advancing Health,” Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has decided to offer only accelerated Bachelor of Science options for those who hold a bachelor’s degree in another discipline. According to Sandra Angell, associate dean for student affairs: “We are finding that with each pool of applicants for our bachelor’s program, those who hold a previous degree are in the clear majority-and their numbers continue to grow.” These students enter the nursing education program with diverse backgrounds and experiences and tend to be well-prepared and highly motivated students. All JHU accelerated options can lead to a master’s degree.
Click HERE for more information about the new program.
University of Pennsylvania Introduces BSN-to-PhD Program to Shorten Pathway to Nursing Doctorate
The Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation, a new BSN-to-PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, offers an intensive curriculum that incorporates interdisciplinary education and research career development starting at the undergraduate level. This program was created—in partnership with the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation—as a response to the concern over the lengthy pathway to a PhD typical for the nursing profession. The program aims to provide a shortened, more integrated alternative for qualified students by shortening the time from entering nursing school to completing a doctorate to about seven years. Students in the program benefit from intensive oversight with faculty and colleagues by forming close and ongoing relationships with faculty mentors, becoming part of active research teams in the university, and participating in colloquia and other activities under the guidance of their mentors. For more information on this new program, click here.
RWJF’s Charting Nursing’s Future Publishes Two Policy Briefs In Its Four-part Series Focusing On Implementing The IOM’s Future Of Nursing Report Recommendations
January 2012
As part of its Charting Nursing’s Future initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has launched a four-part miniseries of briefing papers that focus on implementing the recommendations set forth in Institute of Medicine (IOM) report (2010), “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” Since August 2011, two papers have been released: “Implementing the IOM Future of Nursing Report—Part 1: How to Dramatically Increase the Formal Education of America’s Nursing Workforce by 2020” (August 2011) and, “Implementing the IOM Future of Nursing Report — Part II: The Potential of Interprofessional Collaborative Care to Improve Safety and Quality” (November 2011). The first report looks at the report’s educational progression recommendations and summarizes the ways in which key players around the country are responding. Specifically, the report calls for increasing the percentage of nurses holding the bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree or higher to 80 and for doubling the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020. The second brief in the series examines ways to implement the Future of Nursing Recommendations by examining interprofessional practice trends, the types of educational transformation needed to prepare health professionals to provide collaborative care, as well as the policies necessary to assure its delivery.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Funding Opportunity – Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) coordinated a unique, multi-funder initiative to identify, generate, synthesize and disseminate evidence essential to informing efforts to implement the recommendations outlined in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” and to contribute to Campaign for Action’s goal of advancing comprehensive change in health care for patients and the country. The application process for this round is now closed; however, to learn more about this Research Agenda, visit the Future of Nursing website here. The purpose of this activity is to increase and focus national attention on a common research agenda related to the IOM recommendations and to facilitate and coordinate funding activity across a range of funders of nursing research.
Journal of Nursing Education Guest Editorial, March 2011: Transforming Clinical Education
Read a discussion by Pam Ironside and Angela McNelis about how many nursing faculty continue to grapple with how to create and sustain nursing education innovations in their day-to-day practice and particular contexts. The authors review findings from a recent survey of faculty teaching in prelicensure RN programs.
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health
On October 5, 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its much anticipated report – The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health– following its two-year joint Initiative on the Future of Nursing with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The Initiative was launched to respond to the need to assess and transform the nursing profession – with its over 3 million members representing the largest segment of our country’s health care workforce – and the report’s purpose is to make recommendations for an “action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.” Read more about the report: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. View the Webcast of the October 5 IOM Report Release. Check back for ongoing updates about the report recommendations as the Committee and nurse leaders move forward with implementation activities.
National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced in September the release of its report based on its Bureau of Health Professions’ 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. The report — The Registered Nurse Population: Findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses – is published every four years and includes comparisons from eight recurring surveys, 1980 through 2008. Key highlights from the report related to nursing education include:
- One of the primary barriers to restocking the pool of RNs is a shortage of nursing faculty to meet the growing need to educate new nurses
- The shortage of nursing faculty will grow significantly in the near future with 60 percent of current faculty aged 50 years and older
- The number of RNs with master’s or doctorate degrees rose to 404,163 in 2008, an increase of 46.9 percent from 2000
Health Reform and the Nursing Workforce: Nursing Related Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA)
The Center to Champion Nursing and AARP developed a crosswalk to identify the ways in which federal health care reform will have an impact on nurses and the nurse workforce. The table includes provisions in the PPACA related to: education and incentives to produce more nurses; increased demands for highly skilled nurses (e.g., support for nurse managed health centers); quality incentives that are related to nurses; incentives and practice opportunities for nurses; and opportunities for nurse advocates and leaders). Read more about the provisions, type and amount of funding and expected timelines.
Blowing Open the Bottleneck: Designing New Approaches to Increase Nurse Education Capacity
In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center to Champion Nursing in America, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration commissioned a paper entitled: Blowing Open the Bottleneck: Designing New Approaches to Increase Nurse Education Capacity, which provided background for participants attending the national Nursing Education Summit in June 2008. According to CCNA, the purpose of the paper is to provide a concise but comprehensive understanding of the complexity of nursing education and to stimulate innovative thinking in order to implement creative solutions to the challenge of insufficient nursing education capacity.
Five recommendations for pre-licensure clinical nursing education
MacIntyre, R. C., Murray, T. A., Teel, C. S., & Karshmer, J. F. (2009). Five recommendations for pre-licensure clinical nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education, 48(8), 447-453. This article offers five recommendations and analysis to stimulate local, state and national conversations on new approaches to clinical nursing education:
- Re-envision nursing student-staff nurse relationships
- Re-conceptualize the faculty role
- Enhance development for school-based faculty and staff nurses working with students
- Reexamine the depth and breadth of the clinical component
- Strengthen the evidence for best practices in clinical nursing education
The Center to Champion Nursing in America – Dedicated Education Unit
The Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA) has created a catalogue of videos that focus on leading issues in nursing and nursing education. The following link http://www.vimeo.com/7941844 leads to a short video profiling the Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) program at Massachusetts General Hospital as an example of an innovation in clinical nursing education.
Massachusetts Dedicated Education Unit from Champion Nursing on Vimeo.
Read “A Summary of the February 2010 Forum on the Future of Nursing: Education – Institute of Medicine” that was released on September 1, 2010. RWJF’s Initiative on the Future of Nursing seeks to build a blueprint for the future of nursing as part of larger efforts to reform the health care system. The information and perspectives discussed at this forum will inform a final report on the future of nursing, expected to be released in October 2010.
Other Nursing National Programs and Initiatives
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to addressing the nursing shortage by supporting a range of nursing projects and initiatives through its program areas, Building Human Capital and Quality/Equity. Current RWJF nursing programs include:
Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative
To support interdisciplinary studies that address critical knowledge gaps regarding causal linkages between nursing and health care quality and to synthesize, translate and disseminate major findings to key stakeholders.
New Jersey Nursing Initiative
The New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) is a five-year, $22 million project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation, working to transform nursing education in the state. Its goal is to ensure that New Jersey has the well prepared, diverse nurse faculty it needs to educate nurses to meet the demand for health and health care in the 21st century.
Nursing Alliance for Quality Care
The mission of the Nursing Alliance for Quality Care (NAQC) is to advance the highest quality, safety and value of consumer-centered health care for all individuals — patients, their families and their communities. A list of alliance members can be found here.
Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future
To support the capacity, involvement and leadership of local foundations and community partners in implementing localized nursing shortage solutions to serve as templates for communities facing similar issues nationwide.
Quality and Safety Education for Nurses
Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is a multi-phase project that was launched in November 2005. QSEN’s overall goal is to address the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows
To provide advanced leadership opportunities for nurses in senior executive roles in health services, public health and nursing education who aspire to lead and shape the U.S. health care system of the future.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program
To address the nursing shortage by funding scholarships in accelerated bachelor’s degree programs at nursing schools, with preference given to schools that increase the number of students in these programs or increase enrollment and retention of disadvantaged or minority students.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars
To increase the stature and academic standing of nursing faculty and draw more nurses to teaching careers by creating a cadre of national leaders in academic nursing through career development awards to outstanding junior nursing faculty.
Center to Champion Nursing in America
The Center to Champion Nursing in America is an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Center, a consumer-driven, national force for change, works to increase the nation’s capacity to educate and retain nurses who are prepared and empowered to positively impact health care access, quality, and costs.
Wisdom at Work: Retaining Experienced Nurses (closed)
Wisdom at Work was an RWJF program launched in 1996 that sought to build an evidence base for what works to retain experienced nurses in hospitals and to develop better understanding of the impact of such interventions. View the program report here.
