Scholars, Leaders & IOM Recommendations Shine at NJNI’s Annual Meeting

“There’s a lot on New Jersey’s shoulders,” Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) senior adviser for nursing, said at the New Jersey Nursing Initiative’s (NJNI’s) third annual meeting. “But I can feel it here in this room: we can do it… When the history books come out I want this generation to be known for solutions, and for New Jersey to have taken the lead.”

Only months after the first class of New Jersey Nursing Scholars graduated from the program, ten new PhD students were officially welcomed into the NJNI family. The new cohort got an introduction to the program at the NJNI third annual meeting, held October 20-21 in Princeton, New Jersey.

They joined current scholars, representatives from NJNI’s first graduating class, mentors and nurse faculty for two days of networking and information sessions to acclimate them to the program and their futures as nurse faculty.

“The opportunities that have come with [being a New Jersey Nursing Scholar], the networking opportunities – especially this conference every year – the people that you meet, has been extraordinary,” said Scholar Kristi Stinson, MSN, RN, APN-C, who is attending Seton Hall University.

The Future of Nursing Education
The meeting focused on education progression, which has garnered increasing attention since the release of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The report calls for more nurses to earn bachelor’s degrees and more advanced degrees, with a goal to double the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020. NJNI is helping to advance that work.

There are emerging models in nursing education that show great promise in meeting these recommendations, said keynote speaker Vickie Niederhauser, PhD, RN, dean of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville School of Nursing and an alumna of the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program. But one plan doesn’t work for everybody, she cautioned, and each state should tailor a plan to its needs. “There’s more than one way to get where we’re going.”

When she was the associate dean of the University of Hawaii’s School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Niederhauser helped to change Hawaii’s education system to make it easier for nurses to pursue higher degrees. At the time, the only way for some nurses to get a baccalaureate degree was the move to another island, which wasn’t feasible for many families. Niederhauser and her colleagues adapted a consortium model used in Oregon to create a partnership among Hawaii schools of nursing to offer a state-wide unified baccalaureate curriculum and distance learning opportunities.

“Changes in the health care system are both uprooting and uplifting,” she said. “The key to success is being inspired.”

New Jersey’s Role
“We have called the Future of Nursing report a blueprint, a game changer, a call to action,” said NJNI Program Director Susan Bakewell-Sachs, PhD, RN, PNP-BC. “It’s all of those things. It gives us the weight to carry forward.”

Forty-seven percent of New Jersey nurses are at least baccalaureate prepared, but only 9 percent have master’s degrees and less than one percent have doctorate degrees. In a state with 111,000 registered nurses, we’re “not achieving adequate education progression,” Bakewell-Sachs said. New Jersey schools of nursing struggle with the same capacity issues as institutions in other states, turning away qualified applicants because there is a shortage of doctoral-prepared faculty. As record numbers of nurses and nurse faculty near retirement, the impending nursing shortage threatens to leave the state unprepared to meet the health care needs of its citizens.

But the NJNI Faculty Preparation Program has already made progress in changing the state’s prognosis. Last spring, the first cohort of 18 New Jersey Nursing Scholars graduated with master’s degrees, and many began careers as nurse faculty in the state this fall. The Faculty Preparation Program will produce at least 61 new nurse faculty committed to working in the state.

“We have to seize the moment,” Bakewell-Sachs said. “In my career I’ve never seen a greater moment in time, a greater spotlight on us.”

The Scholars’ Role
“People try to sell us change when we’re hungry for transformation,” Heather Andersen, RN, MN, EdD, told the Scholars. Andersen is the founder of Human Source, a management consulting company that works with leaders in business, government and higher education to facilitate transformation within their organizations. “One of the best parts of the [Future of Nursing] report is that it makes business sense.”

Andersen’s motivational remarks included suggestions for ways the Scholars can help advance the recommendations in the IOM report. She also helped facilitate small group discussions in which the Scholars discussed how New Jersey could meet its nursing education needs and how they could help.

“I’m going to leave you with one message,” Hassmiller told the Scholars in closing. “Hang around with people who are solution-makers… Put New Jersey on the map. Take the lead.”