Nursing Practice, Research and Education in the West: The Best Is Yet to Come.

PURPOSE: This paper celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Western Institute of Nursing, the nursing organization representing 13 states in the Western United States, and envisions a preferred future for nursing practice, research, and education. BACKGROUND: Three landmark calls to action contribute to transforming nursing and healthcare: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010; the Institute of Medicine report Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health; and the report Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing. Challenges abound: U.S. healthcare remains expensive, with poorer outcomes than other developed countries; costs of higher education are high; our profession does not reflect the diversity of the population; and health disparities persist. Pressing health issues, such as increases in chronic disease and mental health conditions and substance abuse, coupled with aging of the population, pose new priorities for nursing and healthcare. DISCUSSION: Changes are needed in practice, research, and education. In practice, innovative, cocreated, evidence-based models of care can open new roles for registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses who have knowledge, leadership, and team skills to improve quality and address system change. In research, data can provide a foundation for clinical practice and expand our knowledge base in symptom science, wellness, self-management, and end-of-life/palliative care, as well as behavioral health, to demonstrate the value of nursing care and reduce health disparities. In education, personalized, integrative, and technology-enabled teaching and learning can lead to creative and critical thinking/decision-making, ethical and culturally inclusive foundations for practice, ensure team and communication skills, quality and system improvements, and lifelong learning. CONCLUSION: The role of the Western Institute of Nursing is more relevant than ever as we collectively advance nursing, health, and healthcare through education, clinical practice, and research.

Academic-Practice Partnerships: Driving and Supporting Educational Changes.

The 3 recognized missions of academic nursing-education, practice, and research-are not new. Yet, the continued separation of nursing education and service, with a lack of integration between schools of nursing and clinical practice, continues to be discussed as contributing to academic programs that produce graduates unready for clinical practice, research that does not adequately support clinical care needs, and isolation of both the nurse faculty from the clinical enterprise and clinicians from the education and research missions. Recently, academic-practice partnerships have been reemphasized as a concept and mechanism for supporting changes in nursing education and improving clinical care. This article highlights some of the driving forces behind the focus on academic-practice partnerships and summarizes 3 changes in education.

Who will educate our nurses? A strategy to address the nurse faculty shortage in New Jersey.

BACKGROUND: The nurse faculty shortage hampers the capacity of the nursing workforce to respond to the demands of the evolving health care system. As a strategy to address the shortage in New Jersey, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation implemented the New Jersey Nursing Initiative Faculty Preparation Program to prepare nurses for the faculty role. This article highlights program implementation successes and challenges, scholar and faculty perceptions of the program, and provides recommendations for others interested in preparing nurse faculty. METHODS: This evaluation uses data from scholar surveys and focus groups, interviews with grantees, and grantee reports. RESULTS: Findings suggest that a program that includes generous monetary support, socialization to the nurse faculty role, and formal education courses produces graduates who readily assume a faculty position and are committed to at least a part-time career in nursing education. CONCLUSIONS: This evaluation emphasizes the need to carefully design programs that integrate faculty preparation and advanced clinical training.

The New Jersey Nursing Initiative: building sustainable collaboration.

The New Jersey Nursing Initiative was publically launched in 2009 as a 5-year, $22 million program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation. It was reauthorized in 2011 through 2016 for an additional $8.5 million. The initiative includes a faculty preparation program and strategic tracks of work focusing on building education capacity, increasing current faculty capacity, making nurse faculty a preferred career, leading policy initiatives, creating sustainable funding in support of nursing education, and ultimately, building local, regional, and statewide collaborative networks. The tagline, "So a Nurse will be there for You," emphasizes both the reality of an aging nursing workforce needing replacement and the expected health care transformation that will result in the need for new knowledge and skills in the future nursing workforce. The purpose of this article was to describe the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, emphasizing the partnerships that have resulted from the project to date.