Nursing Advancement

 

Nursing Advancement

One of Palm Healthcare Foundation's four strategic priorities.

The nursing shortage in Florida is growing. According to the Florida Center for Nursing, if healthcare reform is implemented according to current plans, a shortage of about 5,900 full-time nurses in 2010 will grow to more than 50,300 nurses by 2025. Palm Healthcare Foundation is committed to finding innovative solutions to address this problem. Increasing retention of nurses through improvement in the work environment and expanding nursing education capacity are a few of the strategies funded by the Foundation.

Vision for our work:
Palm Beach County has a highly skilled nursing workforce that provides seamless care across all settings, and supports residents’ pursuit of optimal health.

 

History of Palm Healthcare Foundation’s Nursing Initiatives

2001

  • Palm Healthcare Foundation (PHF) is established as a public charity serving Palm Beach County, Florida, following the sale of two local nonprofit hospitals to a for-profit entity.
  • The foundation’s board of trustees recognizes the need to grow and strengthen the nursing workforce in its community, making this a part of PHF’s mission from inception.    

 2002

  • PHF hosts a community forum to discuss opportunities and strategies to attract individuals to careers in nursing, and the role of nursing in the delivery of healthcare in the 21st century. At the meeting’s conclusion, the group determined it wanted to meet regularly and formalize a structure to facilitate accomplishment of its work in nursing.
  • The foundation establishes the Healthcare Workforce Partnership (HWP) community collaboration.
  • PHF funds the Nursing Leadership Institute at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University, and awards its first nursing scholarships. 

2003

  • The foundation hosts its first Chief Nursing Officer / Deans and Directors Meeting. Today, this Nurse Leadership group meets bi-monthly and works collaboratively to solve common nursing challenges, share best practices, plan for the future, and inform all PHF’s nursing initiatives.
  • PHF hires a full-time program director to facilitate its nursing work under the umbrella of the HWP.
  • The foundation and the top-rated local news channel host the first Annual Nursing Celebration Dinner and present the first annual Nurses of Distinction Awards. 
  • PHF and Tenet partner on a grant of $1.2 million to establish a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Palm Beach Atlantic University. 

2004

  • The HWP engages in a strategic planning / consensus process to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the educational and professional development needs of nursing students, faculty and practitioners. Through this process, the programs of the Nursing Education Initiative emerge, including primary and secondary school outreach efforts to encourage young students to pursue a nursing career; a faculty development initiative to address the nursing faculty shortage; a centralized, internet-based nursing student clinical placement system to improve and expand student clinical experiences; and the Preceptor of Excellence program to enhance the skills of nurse preceptors and honor them for the role they play in developing nurse professionals.

2005

  • PHF awards Palm Beach Community College (now called Palm Beach State College) a grant to establish a part-time evening and weekend nursing program for students unable to attend traditional school during the day. 

2006

  • The foundation becomes concerned that efforts to recruit individuals to the nursing profession are increasingly mitigated by the limitations of nursing school capacity in the community. The HWP begins to re-examine its nursing recruitment efforts, particularly the allocation of limited resources to K-12 outreach initiatives when so many of these young students would not be able to gain entry into a nursing program. At the same time, there is growing concern amongst HWP members about the retention of nursing professionals in the community.
  • PHF commissions a nursing work environment study to identify the factors that influence nurses’ decisions to stay with their employers.  
  • The HWP launches the Novice Nurse Leadership Institute, an education-practice partnership designed to reduce turnover in the first two years of practice by supporting nurses as they transition from school to the workplace; strengthening the competency of new nurses along a variety of dimensions so they may function effectively in and make valuable contributions to their organizations and the healthcare system; promoting articulation to higher levels of education; exposing and engaging novice nurses in leadership from the outset of practice; and creating a pool of future nurse leaders to serve our community and the profession. 

2007

  • The HWP reviews its strategic priorities and forms two new committees focused on nurse retention: Education-Practice Gap Committee and Retention-Work Environment Committee. 

2008

  • The Education-Practice Gap Committee of the HWP develops an action plan for improving the precepting experiences of student nurses, new nurses, new hires and preceptors.
  • The Retention-Work Environment Committee of the HWP develops an action plan for addressing environmental factors that influence nurse retention, concentrating on the interpersonal challenges identified during the nursing work environment study and HWP strategic planning processes. 
  • The Retention-Work Environment Committee hosts Transforming Behaviors to Build and Sustain a Culture of Safety in Healthcare, a full-day conference and train-the trainer workshop to enhance the skills of nurses to effect positive change in their work environments.   

2009

  • The Retention-Work Environment Committee evaluates the effectiveness of the conference in improving attendees’ work environments.  

2010

  • The CNO / Deans and Directors leadership group develops an action plan for a community initiative to support and maintain the skill sets of new nurses who are having difficulty finding employment in acute care settings. The goal is to not "lose" these nurses from our community or the profession, either because they are frustrated by the dearth of employment opportunities, or because their skill sets deteriorate over time. The effort emphasizes the need to encourage new nurses to think about employment opportunities outside of acute care settings; due to changes in the way healthcare will be delivered, and as a result of health reform initiatives, there is a great need to prepare nurses for home health, hospice, long-term care, transitional care and care coordination opportunities.