Leader’s Column – Identifying Critical Resources

 

The overall goal of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) is to ensure that New Jersey has the well prepared, diverse nurse faculty needed to educate nurses to meet the demand for health and health care in the 21st century. A key part of developing solutions to the projected nursing workforce shortage is identifying the resources we have available and where the need is greatest. This past summer, NJNI laid the groundwork with a statewide asset mapping project that is helping to detect the strengths and challenges facing the state’s nursing workforce.

 

Asset mapping is designed to identify people, places and other items in the state that can serve as resources as we work to eliminate the nursing shortage. To help us identify these resources, we hosted a series of regional meetings in July, with more than 100 experts from the nursing, education, business, health care and government fields providing key insights. The meetings took place at Cumberland Community College, co-hosted by the South Jersey Medical Center, at Fairleigh Dickinson University—Florham Park, and at the New Jersey Hospital Association.

 

The information we’ve been able to gather from our colleagues is impressive, and will soon be available on our website, www.NJNI.org. We have learned not only what resources we have, and how to best leverage them, but also what resources we lack and where. This information will be vital as we move forward.

 

Additionally, through social network mapping, we have been able to identify the nature of existing relationships, for example how well the nursing education community is connected to the business community and others. This will help us strengthen existing relationships and foster new ones where they are lacking—all with the goal of promoting nurse faculty capacity among traditional allies and new interested partners.

 

The asset mapping project has also brought to our attention innovative partnerships within the state that are already working together to address the nursing workforce and can help us replicate these successful models.

 

In all, we are off to a wonderful start to 2010, and are looking forward to working with you as we continue advancing our work! We are excited to share the asset mapping results, and to invite you to get involved and share your expertise as we make New Jersey a model for nursing and nursing education.