State of the Nursing Workforce: Understanding the Nursing Workforce Demand

The Nursing Community recently organized a luncheon briefing series in collaboration with Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and the bi-partisan co-chairs of the Senate Nursing Caucus. This series, titled “State of the Nursing Workforce” offered two briefings on October 3, 2012 and October 10, 2012 for Senate staff. The first event, “Understanding the Nursing Workforce Demand: Present and Future” featured Juliann G. Sebastian, Dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Kay Carnegie, Dean of Health Sciences at Chemeketa Community College. Dr. Sebastian and Ms. Carnegie addressed the current nursing educational environment, barriers to increasing student capacity, and the work being done by the baccalaureate and associate degree nursing programs to reach the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report goals of a more highly educated nursing workforce.

The second event, “Anticipating Healthcare Needs: The Role of Nurses” featured Darlene Curley, Executive Director of Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence, Janet D. Allan, Dean and Professor at the School of Nursing University of Maryland, and Marjorie S. Wiggins, Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer at Maine Medical Center. The panelists addressed nursing’s essential and expanding roles in primary, acute, and chronic care with a focus on the critical role Advanced Practice Registered Nurses play in providing these services. Models of nursing care such as Nurse-Managed Health Clinics and transitional care were also shared with the audience.

The series was sponsored by 29 members of the Nursing Community at varying levels and was well attended by nearly 100 Senate staff and nursing representatives. The dialogue among staff and speakers included questions regarding the Doctor of Nursing Practice, safe staffing ratios, and ways to address the educational bottleneck.

Below are photographs from the briefings.