Across the United States, 4.7 million frontline health care workers provide patients and clients with preventive and early intervention services, chronic illness management strategies, and long-term and post-hospitalization rehabilitative care. Despite their critical and expanding role in delivering health care, these workers earn less than $40,000 per year on average and have limited opportunities to build skills or advance professionally.
This is the second round of grants under Jobs to Careers, a four-year, $15.8 million national initiative of RWJF, in collaboration with the Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor. The program encourages partnerships among employers, educational institutions and other organizations to improve training and advancement opportunities for their frontline workers. The partnership organizations are working to implement long-term systems changes and test new models of work-based learning – an approach to adult education that emphasizes the employee as learner, and the work process itself as a source of learning. Boston-based Jobs for the Future (JFF) serves as the Jobs to Careers national program office.
“Along with the strong partnerships, work-based learning is the cornerstone of this initiative,” said Barbara Dyer, president and CEO of the Hitachi Foundation. “It holds promise to be an invaluable tool to help workers learn how to solve real problems on the job and to help employers figure out the best strategies to train future workers so they can succeed in jobs with better pay and increased responsibilities.”
The eight projects represent diverse settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community and behavioral health centers in cities and remote villages. The new grants bring the total number of Jobs to Careers projects to seventeen. To see them all, visit www.jobs2careers.org.
One of the eight grants was awarded to PIN partner MS Hospital Association Health, Research & Educational Foundation, Madison, Mississippi. The Mississippi Jobs to Careers Initiative is a partnership of the MS Hospital Association Health, Research & Educational Foundation, MS Office of Nursing Workforce (which manages the effort), Central MS Medical Center, and Hinds Community College. The initiative will provide frontline medical center workers with opportunities to increase their skills, thereby reducing high turnover rates and vacancies among ancillary staff and improving the quality of care provided to consumers. The medical center, with other partners, will develop a training curriculum; revise human resource policies to include a career ladder for frontline workers with wage increases, recognition, and rewards; and establish the work ethic needed to sustain a continual work-based learning model. Hinds Community College will develop courses, policies, and processes to provide classes on the medical center campus. The curricula will include short-term, challenging instruction blocks that apply immediately in the health care setting and lead to certificates and academic credits for learning accomplishments.
Web sites:
http://www.mhanet.org
http://www.monw.org
http://www.centralmississippimedicalcenter.com
http://www.hindscc.edu
Led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation, Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future encourages local foundations to act as catalysts in their communities to develop strategies needed for a stable, adequate nursing workforce. The 11 grants being awarded this year represent the involvement of 27 local foundations and a multitude of other funding sources. These foundations, some for the first time, have forged partnerships in their own communities to apply for this grant, giving increased attention to the nursing shortage in their communities. Read More
Recently a number of PIN grantees were highlighted in editorials placed in their local newspapers. Click to Read More
]]>It’s been said that two heads are better than one when embarking on a successful endeavor. A new program takes this idea of teamwork tenfold in its efforts to address the nursing shortage in communities nationwide. Partners in Nursing’s Future is a nine-state, 10-foundation collaborative aimed at exploring solutions to the nursing industry’s most pressing issues.
]]>Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation
Lead Unique Program with Partners in Nine States
REGIONAL FOUNDATIONS SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN
$10 MILLION INITIATIVE TO ADDRESS NURSING SHORTAGES
IN COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation
Lead Unique Program with Partners in Nine States
Princeton, N.J. and Portland, Ore. – A new initiative to develop solutions to address the nursing shortage through regional and local partnerships was announced today with support for 10 projects (see attached list) across the country. Led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation, Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future will support foundations to act as catalysts in their communities to develop strategies needed for a stable, adequate nursing workforce. This new program launches as the effects of the nursing shortage are increasing in severity.
“Nurses are the cornerstone of our health care system and want nothing more than to provide safe and compassionate care for their patients in supportive and efficient work environments,” said Susan B. Hassmiller, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This unique partnership of the philanthropic community provides an opportunity to foster innovations that will develop nursing workforce solutions beyond what any one foundation could do alone.”
Funding partnerships have been established in nine states with 10 regional and local foundations; each receives up to $250,000 from Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future – a five-year, $10 million program – and matches the grant with at least $1 for every $2 provided. Working with partners such as state workforce investment boards, hospitals and educational institutions, foundations selected for partnership will explore an array of initiatives that meet their community’s specific needs, including recruiting and retaining nursing faculty, developing new roles for nurses in the care setting, fostering diversity, and empowering nurses to assume leadership roles.
“As nursing shortages vary across communities, so must the solutions – that’s why a range of programs is being explored through Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future,” said Judith Woodruff, J.D., director of strategic initiatives of NWHF and program director for Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future. “One size won’t fit all - and we need solutions that will work close to home through this unique collaboration.“
In communities across the country, the nursing shortage has become so severe that it threatens patient care and safety, health care costs, and patient outcomes. The causes of the nursing shortage are complex and range from rapid population growth in several states, decline in nurses’ earnings, an aging nursing workforce, low job satisfaction, poor working conditions, and an increasingly diverse patient population requiring intensive health services.
Through the Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future initiative, local and regional foundations are joining together to spark collaboration among their own community partners and other local grant makers.
One of the program’s objectives is to create a domino effect – where innovative ideas are tested locally and shared nationally. Partners represent a diverse group planning a wide range of program initiatives.
Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future is currently seeking proposals for a second round of partnerships. Two-year grants of up to $250,000 each will be awarded in September 2007, with partnerships matching their awards with at least $1 for every $2 provided. The Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future call for proposals is available at www.PartnersInNursing.org. Brief proposals are due by November 9, 2006.
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime.
Founded in 1997, the Northwest Health Foundation is an independent, charitable foundation committed to advancing, supporting and promoting the health of the people of Oregon and southwest Washington. The Foundation focuses on issues of health and health care, seeking concrete solutions to today's health problems while advocating to prevent tomorrow's. As part of NWHF's commitment to cultivate a stable, skilled nursing workforce in the region, the Foundation invests 30 percent of available funds in collaborative and sustainable solutions, including the development of advocacy and leadership within the nursing community.
Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future Projects:
1) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (Michigan)
- Nursing for Life: RN Career Transition Program will extend the careers of experienced nurses in Michigan, by developing a transition/training program into non-acute care settings, such as long-term care, home care, hospice, and ambulatory care.
2) The Colorado Health Foundation (Colorado)
- Building Infrastructure and Leadership for Colorado's Nursing Workforce will pilot a clinical placement platform and the development of a nurse leadership fellowship program.
3) Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc (Maryland)
- Nursing Careers Support Initiative will implement a formalized, sustained mentoring program that seeks to address three primary objectives: retention of new nurses, development of a nurse leadership network, and a pipeline for future nurse educators in eastern Maryland.
4) Dreyfus Health Foundation (New York)
- Minority Nurse Mentoring in the Mississippi Delta will help develop and retain a diverse nursing workforce in the Delta region of Mississippi.
5) Hawaii Medical Service Association Foundation (Hawaii)
- Hawaii Partners in Nursing: Addressing Recruitment and Retention Issues in Long Term Care will build educational capacity in long-term care facilities in Hawaii through continuing education and training, and attract new nurses into the geriatric specialty area.
6) Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation (Massachusetts)
- Collaborating To Advance Nursing: Developing Opportunities (CAN DO) will develop the structural framework for nurses to advance from Licensed Practical Nurse through doctoral level, and raise the bar for cultural proficiency within the nursing profession in western Massachusetts.
7) Mississippi Hospital Association Research and Educational Foundation (Mississippi)
- Mississippi Critical Nursing Faculty Shortage Initiative will increase and retain nursing faculty that more accurately reflect the ethnicity and gender of the population in Mississippi.
8) Rasmuson Foundation (Alaska)
- Partners Investing in Nursing will increase the number of native Alaskans trained in nursing, and develop a statewide preceptorship training model to be implemented in all hospitals in the state.
9) St. James Healthcare Foundation (Montana)
- Academy of Advanced Nursing Workforce Solutions will provide nursing students a career success skills program in order to retain them in the nursing workforce in Montana.
10) Ventura County Community Foundation (California)
- Ventura Nursing Legacy Project will develop a common set of sustainable long term strategies in California to address recruitment, health policy and diversity in the nursing profession.