Designing nursing excellence through a National Quality Forum nurse scholar program.

Closing the knowledge gap for current practicing nurses in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) core competencies is critical to providing safe patient care. The National Quality Forum (NQF) nurse scholar program is one organization's journey to close the gap in the IOM core competencies in a large teaching organization. The NQF nurse scholar program is positioned to provide a plan to assist current nurses to accelerate their learning about quality improvement, evidence-based practice, and informatics, 3 of the core competencies identified by the IOM, and focus on application of skills to NQF nurse-sensitive measures. Curriculum outline, educational methodologies, administrative processes, and aims of the project are discussed.

The trifecta: harnessing the power of philanthropy, joint appointments, and practice to ease the faculty shortage: academia, practice, and philanthropy.

Partnerships between clinical facilities and academia are critical in supporting undergraduate and graduate nursing education. The authors discuss a unique model that blends academia, clinical practice, and philanthropy and uses grateful patient benefactors to assist in providing clinical instructor support for affiliated nursing schools. The authors review the process of proposal development, solicitation of benefactors, and results of the model.

The value of the political action committee: dollars and influence for nurse leaders.

Nurse leaders play an important role in the shaping of healthcare policy and the care delivery models of the future. It is vital for nurse leaders to understand the role of money in politics and how donations to a candidate's campaigns can be beneficial in getting one's concerns addressed by Congress. The political action committee (PAC) is a major vehicle for campaign contributions for candidates from any party. This article will detail the following related to PACs: history and background information, government regulations, and why PACs are an important vehicle for nurse leaders to gain access and influence in Congress.

The success story of an intermediate care area nurse internship program.

Mayo Clinic Rochester Hospitals have experienced significant growth in the number of patients requiring the specialized nursing care offered in intermediate care areas (ICAs). To ensure quality nursing care for ICA level patients, a standardized educational program was developed. The Mayo Intermediate Care Area Nurse Internship Program was a tuition-free education program that provided additional knowledge, insights, and skills needed to develop a highly competent ICA nurse. This article will describe how the concept of an ICA nurse internship program was taken from birth of an idea to fruition.

Centralizing a registered nurse preceptor program at the institutional level.

New nurses are traditionally oriented into their professional role by a registered nurse preceptor. This article describes the process of renovating and centralizing RN preceptor programs within the Department of Nursing in a multispecialty medical center in the Midwest. Outcomes of centralizing the preceptor program included involvement of nursing leaders, identification of methods of RN preceptor recognition, implementation of methods of improving institution-wide RN preceptor professional development, identification of opportunities for specialized RN preceptor classes and forums, creation of a tool to measure workload productivity, and finally, the formulation of a database to track performance and completion of orientation programs.