This regional partnership of foundations, educational institutions, and health care organizations will guide the project’s activities to:
Objective 1. Create a partnership initiative involving the Practice-Scholar Role to address the current, identified, regional nursing workforce issue of faculty shortage.
Outcome: Over the grant period of two years, 16 registered nurses will become Practice-Scholars, a role involving varying proportions of the three areas of practice, education, and learning in the appropriate level of advanced education, for example, 60% practice, 20% educator, and 20% learner.
Tasks/Activities: 1. Establish criteria and process for selection, including mutual agreement between the healthcare organization and educational institution partners regarding the Practice-Scholar candidates for the FUND Project–first 3 months of the project. 2. Identify and engage registered nurses employed by the partner healthcare organizations to become qualified applicants/participants for the Practice-Scholar role–four months before the start of the semester. 3. Engage master nursing faculty from the educational institutions to serve as mentors for the FUND Project–two months before the start of the semester.
Objective 2. Build the infrastructure of synergistic relationships between and among the project partners that foster and support ongoing innovation in resolving nursing workforce issues in the interest of best practice.
Outcome: Over the grant period of two years, partner organizations/institutions will have policies and procedures in place related to such issues as employment contracts and identification of major/primary employer, salary and benefits, commitment to professional development expectations, and focus on clinical education.
Activities: 1. Explicate and fulfill the partner commitments and expectations for the planned initiative leading to formal network and decision making process to identify and address future nursing workforce issues–first three months and review quarterly thereafter. 2. Examine and develop strategies to address the issues unique to the respective cultures of the healthcare organizations and educational institutions relative to the Practice-Scholar role–first three months and review quarterly thereafter. 3. Design and implement an educational plan, including a curricular model that will facilitate registered nurses educated at the ADN, BSN and MSN levels to advance their academic preparation appropriate to function in the role of Practice-Scholar–Fall semester 2006–review yearly thereafter.
Objective 3. Maintain foundation capacity, using FUND Project outcomes, dedicated to a sustained effort of convening and leveraging and allocating resources to address ongoing nursing workforce issues.
Outcome: The FUND Project will have been developed and implemented so as to be able to be revised/modified as appropriate and then replicated with ongoing nursing workforce issues via the representative, collaborative model.
Activities: 1. Design a fund development plan for the three community foundations that will be efficient and effective, while maintaining a unified, but separate identity among them–year one. 2. Prepare the case statement for the FUND Project and develop the appropriate audio-visual presentation for communication with supporters and potential funders–year one. 3. Expand the base of foundation, education and healthcare partners beyond the central core of current partners to include the adjacent counties of east central and northeast Michigan for a total of approximately 22 counties–year one and year two. |
