About the New Jersey Nursing Initiative
The New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) is a five-year, $22 million project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation, working to transform nursing education in the state. Its goal is to ensure that New Jersey has the well prepared, diverse nurse faculty it needs to educate nurses to meet the demand for health and health care in the 21st century.
NJNI is addressing the state’s nurse faculty shortage by: developing, implementing and evaluating a statewide model for recruiting and retaining nurse faculty; developing models for nursing curricula to educate new faculty; increasing the number of nurse faculty; and building partnerships among diverse stakeholders to support efforts to increase the number of nurse faculty and, ultimately, the registered nursing workforce in the state, so a nurse will be there for you.
NJNI’s work to transform nursing education and reduce the nurse faculty shortage consists of two main components. They are:
Strategic Working Groups
A diverse group of experts in business, government, academia and health sectors from across the state are developing innovative strategies to expand the number of nurse faculty as well as strengthen its diversity in the state. Divided among six groups, they are working to:
- Create innovative approaches to increase faculty capacity;
- Make New Jersey nurse faculty a preferred career;
- Lead focused policy initiatives;
- Increase sustainable funding;
- Build local, regional and statewide collaborations; and
- Develop creative strategies to increase nurse education capacity.
Faculty Preparation Program
The New Jersey Nursing Initiative’s Faculty Preparation Program is helping to increase the number of available seats at New Jersey schools of nursing to ensure that the state has the well prepared, diverse nursing faculty it needs to educate nurses to meet the demand for health care in the 21st century. The Program is providing support to New Jersey based nursing programs and/or nursing education collaboratives to develop, implement and evaluate new curriculum models to enhance master’s and doctoral programs, and creating a comprehensive scholarship program to support the development of future nurse faculty.