Creativity and Connection: Building a Regional Nursing Education Framework

The Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Inc.

Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, Massachusetts Hospital Research and Educational Association

In addition to the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, the project includes five other funders from New Hampshire (NH) and Rhode Island (RI):

1) The Edward J. and Virginia M. Routhier Foundation of Rhode
    Island

2) The New Hampshire Nurses Foundation

3) The University of Rhode Island Institute for Nursing Leadership
    and Faculty Development

4) The Rhode Island Nurses Association

5) The Rhode Island Nursing Foundation

Anne Marie Boursiquot, MBA; Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Inc., AnneMarie_Boursiquot@tufts-health.com, 617-972-1082

Maureen Sroczynski RN,MS; Project Director, msrocz@aol.com, 508-285-7047

Patricia Noga, RN, PhD(c); Finance Manager, pnoga@mhalink.org, 781-272-6045

In addition to this project leadership, NH and RI have identified co-leaders to coordinate activities in their states and these individuals are:

NH:   Ellen Ceppetelli RN, MS; Ellen.B.Ceppetelli@Hitchcock.org,

603-650-8891

Sharon George, RN, PhD; Sgeorge@anselm.edu, 603-641-7084

RI:      Dayle Joseph, RN, Ed.D; dayle@uri.edu, 401-874-5300

Jean Marie Rocha, RN, MPH; Ginar@hari.org, 401-946-7887 x102

Brief Project Synopsis: 

Creativity & Connections: Building a Regional Nursing Education Framework provides a multifaceted three-state approach to address nursing faculty development and educational infrastructure issues. The specific plans for the project are focused on building a regional nursing education collaborative among the states of MA, RI and NH.  The framework of the project includes the establishment of a multi-stakeholder regional collaborating council to oversee three state coordinating councils responsible for implementing the major model components. Model components include the establishment of nursing faculty scholarship programs, implementation of centralized clinical placement systems and the evaluation and redesign of nursing education curriculum.

Project Goals and Objectives:

The goals of this project are to:

• increase the numbers and diversity of nursing faculty through scholarship support for individuals who will commit to teaching.
• increase nursing school capacity through the utilization of a centralized database for the coordination of clinical placements designed to increase the availability of clinical placements sites.
• design nursing education curriculum models throughout the New England region that are more aligned with the needs of the current health care environment and insure a more standardized approach to the competencies needed for all future nurses.