The Future of Nursing WV (FONWV) Action Coalition is pleased to announce the publication of the Proceedings of the WV Nursing Workforce Summit.
FONWV convened a full day WV Nursing Workforce Summit at the Hendrickson Conference Center at the Technology Park in South Charleston, WV. This Summit brought together 80 key leaders from 13 WV counties to address current and anticipated challenges in meeting the need for bedside nurses and nursing faculty in West Virginia.
The morning session included a review of the national and statewide data, keynote presentation by Joanne Spetz, PhD, Director of the University of California San Francisco Health Workforce Research Center entitled, Understanding Nursing Data for Strategic Problem Solving, presentations on Innovations in retention and recruitment of nursing staff, expanding the pipeline into nursing, facilitating pathways in nursing education and recruiting and retaining qualified faculty. The afternoon engaged participants in a World Café style brainstorming process to elicit the best ideas to begin the process of finding effective solutions.
Key themes emerging from the Summit targeted strategies for K-12 educators, workforce development, nurse employers, schools of nursing for students and faculty, legislators and recruiting RNs to WV. The themes emerging from the Summit are being evaluated by four Action Teams to determine, develop and promote actionable strategies and interventions that will have the most significant measurable results. Those Action Teams are: Expanding the Pipeline into Nursing, Facilitating the Pathways in Nursing Education, Retaining and Recruiting Nurses at the Bedside, Recruiting and Utilizing Nursing Faculty.
The Retention Team is convening a day long RN Retention Collaborative meeting on April 27th to determine best practices for retention and to develop ongoing support for implementing nurse retention strategies in WV. Interested participants are encouraged to register online at: http://www.futureofnursingwv.org/collaborative-registration.
The Pipeline Team is focusing on promoting and exposing students to the art and science of nursing, while nurturing and preparing students to enter nursing school.
The Pathways Team is evaluating and proposing strategies to facilitate the pathways from admission through graduation from various levels of nursing education while preserving the importance of public safety and quality care. The Faculty Team is developing innovative strategies for recruiting and efficiently using nursing faculty.
This team is beginning with compiling a white paper outlining the issues and strategies to address the nursing faculty shortage.
A copy of the Proceedings of the WV Nursing Workforce Summit is available for reading or download on the website at http://www.futureofnursingwv.org/nursing-workforce-summit
