Nursing shortage: New Jersey Hospital Association launches three-year initiative

Project Aims to Retain Nurses, Improve Patient Safety and Outcomes

With an ongoing nursing shortage, a major transformation in the nursing work environment is needed so that healthcare facilities can continue to provide safe, effective quality care to patients. To help address this issue, the New Jersey Hospital Association's Institute for Quality and Patient Safety, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has launched a major three-year initiative, Transforming Care at the Bedside, that will train and support nurses so they can spend more time with their patients while increasing job satisfaction.

"Because of the nursing shortage projections and the changing demographics of our society, we must change the environment in which nurses work to increase retention and decrease turnover," said Aline Holmes, MSN, RN, director of the NJHA Institute for Quality and Patient Safety.

"We need to increase the amount of time nurses spend providing direct patient care and investigate ways to keep our more experienced nurses in the workforce longer while helping them to maintain their enthusiasm and passion caring for others. This project is the transforming innovation for improving the work environment in which professional nurses practice," said Holmes.

To help nurses achieve these goals, the TCAB initiative will:

• Provide education and training in performance improvement for front-line staff nurses, which will give them the tools they need to implement improvements on their units and identify and test changes in their work environment;
• Empower staff nurses to make the changes needed to increase the amount of time spent on direct care on their unit; and
• Provide education and training for nurse managers to help them facilitate their staffs' work and provide the leadership necessary to make changes.

Using RWJF's $732,000 grant, the goal of TCAB is to improve patients' safety and outcomes while improving the work environment for nurses in New Jersey's hospitals. Forty-seven N.J. hospitals will take part Nov. 16-18 in the first learning session for the implementation of TCAB.

"We also will develop a toolkit and educational resources for hospitals so they can spread these changes throughout their organization. We plan to measure the effectiveness of TCAB by monitoring nursing retention and turnover rates, patient safety and by surveying staff, managers and chief nurse executives," states Holmes

Barbara Chamberlain, PhD, RN, APRN, CCRN, WCC, recently joined NJHA and will serve as TCAB's program manager. Chamberlain earned her doctorate in philosophy, nursing from Widener University; a master's degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania; and a bachelor's degree in nursing from Stockton State College. In addition to working at NJHA, Chamberlain also serves as the Nursing Research Consultant for Atlantic Regional Medical Center and is president of BJC Consulting Services.