The California Institute for Nursing and Health Care (CINHC) today announced plans to produce a report on “Nursing Education Redesign in California.” The project is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and will be a collaborative effort with the American Nurses Association\California (ANA\C); California Organization of Associate Degree Directors, North and South; the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL), the California Association of Colleges of Nursing (CACN), and the California Board of Registered Nursing.
“This generous grant supports taking another critical next step toward building nursing education capacity in California, one of the Institute’s key initiatives in our effort to develop a master plan for California’s nursing work force,” said Deloras Jones, RN, MS, executive director of CINHC. “By engaging thought leaders and key stakeholders from across the state in the development of the report, we hope to build consensus around creative solutions.”
Jan Boller, RN, PhD, has been appointed project director. Boller has a background in clinical education, nursing leadership, and research on novice-to-expert professional nursing practice development.
“Jan comes with proven skills in consensus-building, which will be critical to the success of this project,” said Jones. “As Program Development Director for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, Jan was a leader in the consensus-building project between service and academia around critical care content in the baccalaureate curriculum.”
“As we build capacity in schools of nursing, we must ensure that the quality of nursing education is not compromised,” Jones warns. “The report will examine the educational preparation of nurses for safe and effective patient care in today’s healthcare settings, as well as for emerging practice environments.”
The Institute’s work and recommendations on educational capacity issues have already been used by the governor’s office and legislature to guide funding and program development aimed at increasing capacity in the nursing education programs, according to Jones.
Several forces are driving the need for this study in California:
- The nursing shortage
- The changing requirements of patient care delivery systems
- The impact of clinical simulation on nursing education
- Renewed interest in collaboration between associate and baccalaureate degree nursing programs
The report will build upon work initiated by the deans and directors and ACNL through “World Café” activities in 2004 and will examine several elements of nursing education redesign in California schools of nursing, including: major forces driving the need, current best practices and evidence-based innovations, specific elements to be redesigned and action steps, plans for building broad-based consensus, financing options, and education of policy makers and potential funders.
About California Institute for Nursing & Health Care
CINHC is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to developing statewide solutions to a critical nursing shortage and related nursing issues that affect the health of all Californians. For more information visit www.cinhc.org.
About Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation seeks to advance environmental conservation and scientific research around the world and improve quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please visit www.moore.org.
For further information about this project contact: jan@cinhc.org