Nursing Workforce

Latest news:

NH Nursing Workforce Partnership recognized (10/4/04)

Southern NH Area Health Education Center named the Foundation's Nursing Workforce Partnership "Health Care Program of the Year," at its 4th Annual Champions in Health Care Celebration.

Susan Young, Executive Director of the Home Care Association of NH, nominated the Partnership for the award. The project was honored for its role in increasing opportunities for nursing education and training, thus addressing the state's nursing shortage.

The Partnership, originally designed to serve 620 nurses and students, has helped more than 2,000 participants pay for their education and advanced training. Nearly two and half million dollars has been committed to support those efforts in under two years.

Congratulations to the staff of the Foundation for Healthy Communities and their partners who make the NH Nursing Workforce such a success!

AHA urges Congress to increase funding to address nurse shortage (7/9/04)

A coalition of nursing and health care provider organizations, including the AHA, urged House and Senate appropriators to increase funding for Nursing Workforce Development programs by $63 million in fiscal year 2005 to $205 million.

"Our nation is struggling with a growing shortage of registered nurses that affects our hospitals, nursing facilities, assisted living residences, home health agencies and public health clinics on a daily basis," the 11 organizations said in a letter to House and Senate appropriations committees.

"Because RNs are the largest health care delivery workforce in the nation, this burgeoning shortage threatens the very fabric of our health care system."

The groups said current funding levels are not meeting the growing need for nurses. They note that HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration was forced to turn away 92% of applicants for the Nurse Education Loan Repayment Program and 98% of applicants for the Nursing Scholarship Program in FY 2003 due to lack of adequate funding, and that U.S. nursing schools turned away 15,944 qualified applicants to entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs in 2003 due to lack of faculty and other capacity problems.

Home Health proposal for wound care training portion (6/11/04)

The Home Care Association of New Hampshire (HCANH), a statewide membership organization representing 40 licensed home health agencies, was awarded a grant to offer a training program on wound care.

The goal of this program was to prepare home health nurses for a wound care specialist certification, and to develop a corps of trained nurses that can in turn serve as internal wound care consultants in their agencies to develop the skills of other nurses in wound care.

Click HERE to read the proposal.

Nursing Workforce Partnership director honored for advocacy (4/26/04)

A local chapter of the international honor society of nursing has established an award named in honor of  N.H. Nursing Working Partnership director Clint Jones. Citing the critical shortage of registered nurses across the nation and in our state, members of the University of New Hampshire chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International wanted to recognize champions of the profession who "are tireless in their efforts to promote nursing to the public and in assisting nurses to excel in their education and practice."

Because all of the existing awards can only go to nurses, according to Sigma Theta Tau bylaws, and because the chapter had never before honored someone who is not a nurse, it was clear a new award had to be established. And so the Clinton M. Jones Nursing Advocacy Award was created, Clint himself becoming the inaugural recipient at the annual induction of new members and awards ceremony on April 24.

Through a federal grant, the Foundation's N.H. Nursing Workforce Partnership has given millions of dollars in forgivable loans to hundreds of nursing students in the state, in exchange for a commitment to work for health care organizations in New Hampshire upon graduation.

"There are a lot of nurses in New Hampshire Since 2002 who have been touched by the money from that grant," said Patty Puglisi, RN, a Sigma Theta Tau member who was instrumental in creating the advocacy award and who also worked with Clint as a nursing intern. She says Clint has gone above and beyond the call of duty in deciding how best to distribute the loans, even expanding the criteria to include nurses who wanted an advanced degree so they could teach nursing students.

Clint is excited to be honored for his work, but says developing solutions to the nursing shortage is most important. "I am privileged to be working with all of the fabulous nurses throughout New Hampshire," he said.

Congratulations, Clint!

NH Nursing Workforce Partnership Project Helps 260 Nursing Students (1/27/04)

The NH Nursing Workforce Partnership Project, a collaborative effort between the Foundation for Healthy Communities and the NH Workforce Opportunity Council, Inc., helped 260 nursing students in the project's third round of the Forgivable Loan Program. The 260 nursing students all attend nursing schools in New Hampshire and are committed to working for health care organizations in New Hampshire upon graduation. In addition, 35 graduate nursing students will receive awards in exchange for a commitment to teach nursing within Registered Nurse Programs in NH following their graduation. An additional 478 Registered Nurses have participated in employer-sponsored specialty training.

FHC releases updated vacancy and turnover rates (11/07/03)

Vacancy Rates at New Hampshire Hospitals October 2001 - October 2003

Turnover Rates at New Hampshire Hospitals October 2001- October 2003

A Successful RN Re-Entry Course at Catholic Medical Center 08/11/03
 

FHC announces training grant recipients (07/23/2003)

The Foundation for Healthy Communities announces recipients of the latest round of specialty training funds through the Nursing Workforce Partnership Project. Hospice of the Littleton Area received funding to train 18 Registered Nurses in Palliative/End-of-life Care. This project represents a collaboration with seven organizations, including Littleton Regional Hospital and Cottage Hospital. The North Country Nursing Education Consortium received funding to train 18 RNs in Medical-Surgical Certification. The Northern N.H. Area Health Education Center received funding to provide preceptor training to 30 RNs. These last two projects represent collaborative efforts of Androscoggin Valley Hospital, Cottage Hospital, Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital, Memorial Hospital, Weeks Medical Center and Littleton Regional Hospital.
 

Preceptor Project supported by a NH Nursing Workforce Partnership grant connects new nurses with the World of Nursing Practice (07/03/03)

New Hampshire addresses nursing workforce shortage by increasing educational opportunities for nurses (03/19/2003)

More than 180 nursing students and 12 health care organizations in New Hampshire were recently awarded grants and scholarships from the N.H. Nursing Workforce Partnership Project, a $3 million H-1B grant New Hampshire received in November from the U.S. Department of Labor. This two-year grant program seeks to serve N.H. residents who represent a mix of employed and unemployed nurses, as well as adults seeking a career change and young adults who are just entering the workforce. The program’s four major strategies include a forgivable loan program for nursing students, an RN specialty training program, an RN re-entry program and RN preceptor training.

Read the healthynh.com article.

View the list of training grant recipients

New Hampshire Nursing Workforce Partnership Project

Nursing Workforce Partnership Project Fact Sheet

The Foundation for Healthy Communities conducted the first statewide nursing survey in New Hampshire. The survey covered six major areas: practice characteristics; nursing as a career choice; daily work environment; compensation and recognition; job satisfaction; and demographics. The data were obtained through focus groups of nurses and administrators; random sample surveys of practicing and lapsed license nurses; and the collection of vacancy, wage and turnover data from hospitals, home care and long-term care facilities.

Read the May 7th press release

Read the Executive Summary.

Read the final report.

Read the appendices: 

Appendix 1               Appendix 2

Appendix 3               Appendix 4

Read the presentation from the May 7th news briefing.

Read the survey questionnaire for lapsed-license nurses

Read the survey questionnaire for practicing nurses

The Foundation for Healthy Communities has launched a collaborative initiative to ensure access to high-quality nursing care within New Hampshire health care organizations. The N.H. Nursing Workforce Initiative, funded by the N.H. Health Care Fund Community Grant Program, represents a collaboration among statewide nursing organizations and health provider groups to provide empirical data on nurse shortage issues in New Hampshire, to examine potential solutions and to then widely disseminate this new information statewide.

This latest FHC initiative seeks to ensure effective recruitment and retention of RNs and LPNs to meet the needs in key sectors of the health care system in New Hampshire. FHC has conducted focus groups and surveys of nurses from varying education levels and organizational settings (hospitals, long-term care facilities, home care, clinics, physician offices and schools), as well as nurse managers and human resources managers. This new information will be used to help interpret other data regularly collected by N.H. Board of Nursing, N.H. Hospital Association and the NH Department of Employment Security.

The second phase of this initiative involved identifying model programs or best practices from within New Hampshire and out of state that may be adapted locally to improve recruitment and retention of RNs and LPNs. A project advisory committee was convened as part of this activity.

In the third and final phase of this initiative, FHC prepared a report for use by Nursing Summit leaders, the Workforce Opportunity Council and others to address nursing recruitment and retention strategies in New Hampshire. The final report is a resource to help administrators, nurse executives and human resource staff with practical information to explore adapting recruitment and retention strategies and measure their progress. Nurse educators, public policy makers and workforce planners will have improved data to design strategies to address the expanding nurse shortage.

For more information, contact Shawn LaFrance at slafrance@healthynh.com or Kathy Bizarro at kbizarro@nhha.org.

Useful workforce links:

Check out the N.H. Hospital Association Workforce section at  www.nhha.org for a statewide jobs listing and information on health care careers.

Discover Nursing at  www.discovernursing.com where you can get the basics on the field, find a nursing program in your area, or search through hundreds of nursing scholarships.