Press Room
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Human Capital Blog Highlights Future of Nursing work in NC
NC Future of Nursing Coalition Named an Action Coalition by AARP, AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Future of Nursing CampAIgn for Action -September 26, 2011
UNC Charlotte, three local colleges teaming up to train nurses
Charlotte Business Journal - by Jennifer Thomas, Staff writer
Date: Friday, August 26, 2011, 6:00am EDT
UNC Charlotte will collaborate with three area community colleges to increase the number of nurses receiving four-year degrees here.
The Charlotte-based university, Central Piedmont Community College , Gaston College and the Carolinas College of Health Sciences will participate in a statewide initiative called the Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses project, or RIBN.
The local effort, tentatively slated to begin in fall 2012, will enroll 24 nursing students at both one of the community colleges and UNCC.
Students will earn an associate’s degree in nursing at the community college, but also take a course each semester at UNC Charlotte. After receiving the associate’s degree in nursing, they will continue on for the 4th year at UNCC and receive their BSN.
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence Receives Grant to Further Efforts at Addressing North Carolina’s Nursing Shortage
June 28, 2011 Press Release
Raleigh, N.C. - The Foundation for Nursing Excellence (FFNE) has received a $1,370,000 grant from The Duke Endowment (TDE) to increase the number of Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates in North Carolina by expanding the RIBN (Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses) project. Over the next three years, more than two-thirds of the award will be shared directly with five different regional RIBN partnerships throughout North Carolina.
A higher educated nursing workforce is needed to address the increasingly complex healthcare needs of our citizens, and expand the pool for future faculty and advanced practice nurses. North Carolina must create new partnerships between community colleges and universities to support seamless progression toward a baccalaureate degree. The Duke Endowment is further investing in the expansion of the RIBN project to ensure an adequately prepared nursing workforce to support the health and well-being of the citizens of our state.
One of the priority recommendations from the 2004 NC IOM Nursing Workforce Report and from the 2011 IOM Future of Nursing report is to significantly increase the proportion of BSN prepared nurses by 2020. Currently over 66% of our newly licensed nurses enter the workforce with associate degrees in nursing and less than 15% of these nurses achieve a BSN or higher degree in nursing during their careers. Given the important role community colleges have in educating the majority of the NC nursing workforce, it is imperative that we identify new ways for qualified nursing students entering a community college to seamlessly progress to the completion of a baccalaureate degree at the beginning of their careers if we hope to increase the proportion of BSN prepared nurses and build the necessary faculty pipeline to avert a severe workforce crisis.
In 2008, the FFNE in collaboration with Western Carolina University and Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College began work toward the implementation of a four-year, dual admission, seamless progression educational tract with support from a Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future (PIN) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Northwest Health Foundation, and the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence, as well as from UNC General Administration, the Janirve Foundation and The Duke Endowment. Based on the success of the initial stage of this project in western NC and the broad interest in expanding this educational model statewide, The Duke Endowment is investing in the expansion of the RIBN model in five regions across the state, including 14 associate degree and five university nursing education programs.
“We are pleased to continue our investment in The Foundation for Nursing Excellence and the RIBN program,” said Mary Piepenbring, Vice President of The Duke Endowment. “This project works with innovative partnerships to implement an NC IOM priority recommendation and delivers the results we seek to strengthen the nursing workforce in our state and improve the delivery of care.”
About the Foundation for Nursing Excellence
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence exists to positively impact health outcomes for North Carolinians by addressing nursing workforce issues and improving patient safety. www.ffne.org
About The Duke Endowment
The Duke Endowment, in Charlotte, N.C., seeks to fulfill the legacy of James B. Duke by enriching lives and communities in the Carolinas through higher education, health care, rural churches and children’s services. Since its inception in 1924, the Endowment has awarded nearly $2.8 billion in grants.
ADVANCE for Nurses Highlights RIBN Program
ADVANCE for Nurses writer Lisa O. Monroe highlighted the Foundation for Nursing Excellence’s RIBN program in part one of their three part series on initiatives across the country to relieve an expected future nursing shortage.
In this article, Jonas Center’s Executive Director Darlene Curley talks about the generosity of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the work being done in the project. This project builds “partnerships with community colleges and four year institutions working towards a common goal” of procuring highly trained nurses and thus a higher quality in patient care.
Polly Johnson, President and CEO of Foundation for Nursing Excellence, discusses how it works with the North Carolina portion of the project and how the nursing students are “socialized from day one that they are on their way to a bachelor’s degree in four years.”
She explains that while attending community college, these students must take one university course per semester, usually online. By the time they earn their bachelor’s degrees in nursing, they will actually have received more nursing preparation than students attending traditional baccalaureate programs.
By allowing students to be educated in their own communities, the consensus is that many of them will stay and serve those communities as nurses.
Five other regions in the state are set to establish similar partnerships so stay tuned as the RIBN program grows.
To read the entire article visit http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/Supporting-Nursing-Students.aspx
National Summit on Advancing Health through Nursing
Recently Polly Johnson, President and CEO of Foundation for Nursing Excellence, along with other nursing leaders in North Carolina, attended the National Summit on Advancing Health through Nursing where the recently released Institute of Medicine Report: The Future of Nursing - Leading Change, Advancing Health was discussed in great detail. Government, healthcare, business and philanthropic thought leaders were challenged to work collaboratively to move the major recommendations of the report forward to action at the national, state and local levels.
North Carolina is already moving forward on several of the key areas with The Foundation for Nursing Excellence taking the lead on two of the major recommendations. The IOM recommendation to Increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020 is currently being addressed by the Foundation for Nursing Excellence through our Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses (RIBN) project with Western Carolina University and Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. This model is now being developed in five other regions of the state. The Foundation is currently involved in developing an Evidence-based Transition to Practice model for North Carolina which supports the following recommendations: Implement nurse residency programs; Expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts; and Ensure that nurses engage in lifelong learning. Our Nursing Preceptor Success Program prepares experienced nurses to effectively function in preceptor and mentoring roles with new nurses making the critical transition from the classroom to the healthcare setting. This online three-module educational program is accredited through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Nursing and allows the nurse to obtain contact credit hours for their continuing competency licensure requirements.
We are pleased that the Foundation for Nursing Excellence has a finger on the pulse of nursing and the need to prepare our future nursing workforce to effectively partner with our other professional colleagues to meet the health care needs of our citizens.
To read the summary of the IOM Report; go to: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence Receives Grant to Further Efforts to Increase the Number of BSN-Prepared Nurses in North Carolina
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence has received a grant from The Duke Endowment to continue their support of the Western North Carolina Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses project over the next two years. Further comments and contact information are in the July News Release.
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence Receives Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Grant to Further Efforts at Addressing North Carolina’s Nursing Shortage
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence (FNE) recently received a gift to further the second phase of its Evidence-Based Transition to Nursing Practice Initiative in North Carolina. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation provided funds to specifically identify, design and test strategies related to preceptor role development and the use of simulation in assessing and enhancing core competence and confidence development during the first 6 months of employment for newly licensed nurses in our state. The goals of this project are to enhance competence and reduce new nurse turnover by 20% as strategies for creating a well-prepared nursing workforce in North Carolina. Further comments and contact information are in the November News Release.
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence Receives Duke Endowment Grant to Further Efforts to Strengthen North Carolina’s Nursing Workforce
The Foundation for Nursing Excellence (FNE) recently received a second gift from The Duke Endowment to further the Evidence-Based Transition to Nursing Practice Initiative in North Carolina. Further comments and contact information are in the December News Release.
