Click on image to listen - for Marcia's segment, start at the 38 minute mark.

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), and Congresswoman Young Kim (R-Calif.), along with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) introduced the National Nursing Workforce Center Act. The bipartisan and bicameral National Nursing Workforce Center Act would establish a 3-year pilot program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support state-based nursing workforce centers. The legislation would also broaden HRSA’s authority to establish Health Workforce Research Centers on any program under the Public Health Service Act and give HRSA clear authority to establish a nursing focused research and technical assistance center under the Health Workforce Research Center Program.
 
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a nation-wide shortage of healthcare workers including registered nurses. As an integral part of our healthcare system, we must do all we can to support the recruiting and retention of nurses across the country – the quality of care depends on it,” said Rep. Blunt Rochester. “That’s why I am proud to introduce the National Nursing Workforce Center Act, a bipartisan & bicameral piece of legislation that will create a pilot program to establish state-based nursing workforce centers to focus on the education and training of nurses. This legislation provides a tangible solution to the ongoing nurse shortage while supporting our current nursing workforce and I’m hopeful Congress will work to pass this legislation as quickly as possible.” 
 
“Our nurses went above and beyond to care for Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now suffering from burnout, exhaustion and unsustainable schedules due to the nursing workforce shortage. Nurses play a vital role in protecting public health and deserve our full support,” said Rep. Kim. “The National Nursing Workforce Center Act will take important, targeted steps to help stabilize and strengthen our nursing workforce. I am proud to work with Rep. Blunt Rochester and Senators Tillis and Merkley on this bipartisan, bicameral effort and will always stand with our heroes in nursing and the patients they support.”  
 
“As the husband of a nurse, I know just how important nurses are to patients, and how their support and advocacy can make a world of difference at some of the most difficult and joyous moments of people's lives,” said Senator Merkley. “This bill will help establish and support local nursing initiatives and workforce centers across the country—like the one we already have here in Oregon—to apply a local approach to the current nursing workforce crisis. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this bipartisan bill passed.”
 
“Nurses play a crucial role in providing accessible, high-quality care to Americans. Resolving existing nursing workforce challenges, which have been compounded by the pandemic, the increased demand for health care services, and the aging workforce, requires innovative approaches that support and strengthen every aspect of the nursing workforce pipeline,” said Senator Tillis. “I’m proud to co-introduce the bipartisan National Nursing Workforce Center Act that will enhance collaboration and coordination, enabling state and local experts to identify and address unique challenges to increase the resiliency of the nursing workforce.”
 
 
“The National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers is excited about the introduction of the National Nursing Workforce Center Act. This will provide critical funding to support and solidify the foundation of existing nursing workforce centers while providing funding for states without a center to create one. This act would provide technical assistance to smaller and new nursing workforce centers and build a strong network of experts on state-level nursing workforce issues and solutions.  Nursing workforce centers serve as hubs to advance nursing education, practice, leadership, and workforce development at state and local levels using data-driven approaches.” – Lanelle Weems, President, National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers
 
“The Delaware Nurses Association applauds the development and introduction of the National Nursing Workforce Center Act of 2022. Our nation has experienced cyclical nursing workforce challenges for decades, none as pronounced and impactful as today’s challenges. Our nation’s nurses, and those served by us, need enhanced leadership and support to understand and transform our workforce challenges. Nurses remain the largest sector of the nation’s licensed health care workforce and the most trusted, as rated by Americans for over 20 years. The National Nursing Workforce Center Act of 2022 is a novel and innovative approach to creating new and better support for existing state nursing workforce centers that generate impact. With the structure and support provided by this legislation, state nursing workforce centers in the pilot program will be the collaborating, coordinating, leading and impactful entities in their states to stabilize, diversify and grow the nursing workforce.” – Christopher E. Otto, MSN, RN, CHFN, PCCN, CCRN, Executive Director, Delaware Nurses Association
 
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a national shortage of registered nurses, making it critical that policymakers invest in all segments of the nursing workforce: from education and training to retention and leadership development. An important component of this is also having complete, national, standardized data to understand where public policy can help alleviate these shortages. An estimated 500,000 nurses plan to leave the bedside by the end of 2022—creating a shortage of 1.1 million nurses—just as the population of older people, who may require more medical services for complex medical conditions, begins to increase dramatically.
 
The National Nursing Workforce Center Act would help address the shortage by:
 

• Establishing a fully-offset, sustainable pilot grant program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support state-based nursing workforce centers; 
• Broadening HRSA’s authority to establish Health Workforce Research Centers on any program under the Public Health Service Act, rather than just Title VII programs authorized under current statute; 
• Giving HRSA clear authority and a mandate to focus on nursing issues by requiring the agency to establish a nursing focused research and technical assistance center under the Health Workforce Research Center Program. 
• Requiring reports assessing this public-private partnership and if and how it should be expanded nationwide.

 
A one-pager of the bill can be found here. 

The Nursing and Health Professions Department at Southern New Hampshire University invites you to join our upcoming virtual global summit on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 8:00 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. ET.

This free educational event will feature nurses and health care professionals from five countries who will speak about Current Healthcare Issues, Future Trends, and Our Next Steps Forward.

Please click on the button below for more details and to register.

Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Participants will be eligible to receive four contact hours after attending. We look forward to your participation. If you have any questions, please contact: continuingeducation@snhu.edu

Over the past 15 years, the Connecticut League for Nursing (CLN) and The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, Inc. (CCNW) have been the primary organizations in Connecticut spearheading the “day to day” engagement of Connecticut’s healthcare workforce stakeholders; securing funding for various healthcare workforce initiatives; negotiating the first license agreement for access to the Sentinel Network; and raising the sponsorship dollars to host statewide Nursing and Healthcare Workforce Summits held in 2007, 2019 and 2020 with an event being planned for Spring 2023.  Marcia Proto, Executive Director of both the CLN & CCNW, has been the catalyst by engaging her knowledge, relationships, and statewide and nationwide professional networks to do this work.
 
In Connecticut, the CCNW & CLN have been the sole source to actively engaged in “real time” data collection to better understand the healthcare workforce.  After identifying the education pipelines for various nursing roles, the current supply of nurses within the state and determining the demand for these various roles, the CLN held its first statewide summit in 2007 to understand, identify and address the challenges to expanding the number of nursing graduates at all levels within the state to meet employer demand. 
 
In 2013, the CCNW was created and has built relationships, networks, strategic partnership and aligned work initiatives to create a multi-sector collaboration with stakeholders to assess nursing and non-nursing healthcare roles.  Relationships were cultivated with key agencies within the State of Connecticut including: Department of Labor, Department of Public Health, Department of Workforce Competitiveness, Connecticut Apprenticeship Program, the State Board of Nursing Examiners and the Office of Health Strategy.  In addition, strategic partnerships were established with the five Regional Workforce Development Boards, and the (5) state healthcare trade associations including:  The Connecticut Association for Health Care at Home, LeadingAgeCT, The Connecticut Association of Healthcare Facilities, The Connecticut Hospital Association, and The Connecticut Assisted Living Association.
 
A critical element of CCNW’s success to actively engage the above stakeholders was the decision to license a Healthcare Demand Model called the Sentinel Network. The Sentinel Network began as an initiative of Washington State’s Health Workforce Council, conducted collaboratively by Washington’s Workforce Board and the University of Washington’s Center for Health Workforce Studies.  Connecticut was the first state to license this model which assesses the demand for over (45) key employee roles needed in all healthcare settings, sectors and organizations within Connecticut. Data captured from (97) providers in May 2019 and then (67) providers in November 2019 comprise the content of our Connecticut Data Portal which can be accessed via www.ct.sentinelnetwork.org. 
These data can be sorted by “healthcare setting”, specific role that is in demand or by geographic regions.  The richness, accessibility and user-friendly nature of this data portal is “open source” and can be accessed and utilized by anyone needing “real-time” demand data in Connecticut. This is a first-of-its-kind statewide healthcare workforce demand initiative that informs healthcare employers, educators, state agencies, policymakers, citizens and others about the status and current workforce needs.
 
As a result of this focused work to engage these stakeholders, our work culminated in the CCNW hosting its first Statewide Nursing and Healthcare Workforce Summit on July 9, 2019 bringing national experts, senior workforce researchers to share significant trends and possible solutions to stabilize and address Connecticut healthcare workforce. In this Summit, we identified that the keys to sustainability lie in:

• establishing a healthy workplace culture,
• engaging in professional development for supervisors and managers,
• undertaking transparent and critical conversations regarding appropriate and novel staffing models to meet current and future staffing needs in all healthcare roles, and
• the need to endorse effective hiring, selection and onboarding models to foster retention of top talent.

 
Highlights from the July 9, 2019 Summit can be found by visiting:  https://www.ctcenterfornursingworkforce.com/healthcare-workforce-summit.html.
 
Moreover, CCNW will host is 2nd Statewide Healthcare Workforce Summit in April 2023 to share updated healthcare education and workforce data and highlight promising practices in the areas of Workforce Planning, Recruitment, Retention and Cross-Sector Collaboration.
 
Contact Information:
 
Marcia B. Proto, M.Ed, CAS
Executive Director
CT League for Nursing & The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, Inc.
110 Washington Avenue, lower level
North Haven, CT 06473
203-494-1121
Marcia@CTCenterforNursingWorkforce.com
www.CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com
www.CTNursingGuide.com

​We have some exciting news to share! 
 
As of June 30, 2022, The Connecticut League for Nursing, Inc. (CLN) has officially merged with The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, Inc. (CCNW) and we began our new fiscal year – July 1, 2022- with ONE entity moving forward!   
The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, Inc. (CCNW) is the surviving entity!
 
We will continue to operate from our current offices located at:
110 Washington Avenue, lower level, North Haven, CT 06473 & phone remains: 203-691-5013.
All of our contact information will remain the same, except our email addresses will change. The convention for those address is [firstname]@CTCenterforNursingWorkforce.com. We ask that you update your records accordingly.

CCNW Staff:

• Anne DePalma, Operations Manager    Anne@CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com
• Peggy Mallick, Program Manager        Peggy@CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com
• Marcia Proto, Executive Director     ​ Marcia@CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com

As for the other activities of the CCNW, the work of the CLN will be continued including:

• Council of Deans & Directors,
• Approved Provider Unit to award nursing CEs – CCNW Program Committee,
• Faculty-led Online Education Programs/Courses,
• Annual RN Student Day,
• Background Checks and Drug Screening,
• The Guide to Nursing Education- www.CTNursingGuide.com,
• Online Student Clinical Placement System,
• Nursing Education & Supply Data- Collection, Reporting and Publications, and
• Continuing our Voice of Nursing Workforce & Education at the monthly CT State Board of Examiners for Nursing meetings

I am strongly optimistic that internally and externally; CCNW will be stronger, bolder, and nimbler to proactively address the nursing workforce and education opportunities that present themselves to us in Connecticut and beyond!
 
Thank you all for your trust, support, and engagement over these many years!  If you have any questions about this exciting news, please contact me at 203-494-1121 or via email at Marcia@CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com.

An exclusive interview in Nurse Deck magazine

​A deep dive into nurse staffing issues - and the desperately needed solutions“So, graduating with a master's in organizational development, I ended up in higher education in the nonprofit world. My first adventure into healthcare was actually as manager of education services at the Connecticut Hospital Association in the early 90s. If you remember the early 90s, healthcare was booming and reimbursements were high. My role provided education programs to 35 different groups that met at the hospital association - everything from CEOs to directors of social work, directors of emergency services, and also nurse educators and nurse execs.”

Marcia Proto, M.Ed., CAS, has decades of experience in not only healthcare, but nursing leadership and education, and her career shows an exceptional dedication to the nursing profession. She started in healthcare in the early 90s, as manager of education services at the Connecticut Hospital Association, jumped into capital campaigns, and has served as the executive director of the Connecticut League for Nursing from 2004 to today, with a two-year leave to work in regional sales management at the National League for Nursing. Marcia is also an entrepreneur, and has offered healthcare consulting expertise as part of her business, Marcia Proto Consulting, LLC, since 1996.

The Board of Trustees of The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) is pleased to announce Ann Kurth, PhD, MPH, MSN, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, as its next President, effective January 1, 2023.  

As NYAM celebrates its 175th anniversary in 2022 and reflects on its contributions to improving health since 1847, Dr. Kurth’s appointment becomes yet another significant milestone in NYAM’s history as she becomes the first non-physician, and first nurse, selected to lead the organization. Dr. Kurth is a leader in higher education and health who shares NYAM’s commitment to advancing health equity. She joins NYAM from Yale University, where she is currently Dean and Linda Koch Lorimer Professor at Yale School of Nursing and Professor, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale School of Public Health. 

As President, Dr. Kurth will leverage and expand upon NYAM’s accomplishments and legacy as a leading institution for medicine and public health, with a focus on addressing the barriers that prevent every individual from living a healthy life. This appointment marks Dr. Kurth’s return to New York, where she previously held several professorships and leadership roles at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, Grossman School of Medicine, and School of Global Public Health from 2008 until she joined Yale in 2016.

NYAM’s current President, Dr. Judith A. Salerno, will complete her five-year tenure on September 30, 2022, at which time she will become NYAM President Emerita and Senior Scholar. The Board and staff of NYAM express their deepest gratitude to Dr. Salerno for her leadership over the last five years and her dedication to furthering NYAM’s vision that everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy life.
​
To learn more about Dr. Kurth’s background and the deep experience she brings to this position, read the full announcement below. 

An organized approach to onboard and retain new graduate nurses is essential not only to meet the demand for nurses within our healthcare facilities in the short term, but significant if Connecticut is to make long-lasting improvements and stabilize the RN workforce statewide.

Reports

• Promoting and Empowering Bedside Nursing, CHA Hospital Association Report
• The Nursing Workforce Report - January 2022

#nursesarethesolution #nationalforum #nursingworkforce #ctleaguenursing #ONL #AONL #FutureofNursing #CentertoChampionNusrsinginAmerica

nursesarethesolution #nationalforum #nursingworkforce #ctleaguenursing #AAPR #AANP #CTData #JournalofNursingRegulation

Engage the leadership of Connecticut’s Schools and Programs of Nursing to assess existing student capacity at all education levels, determine nursing faculty needs to educate the current student populations, and partner with healthcare providers to ensure that clinical placement opportunities exist to maintain student retention and graduation rates. Utilize the statewide workforce findings to strategically expand education pipelines for nurses that are aligned with occupations and roles that are identified as in “high” demand in Connecticut. 

Reports

• Who Educates Nurses in CT?
• ​​​2018 Nursing Education Data
• NACNEP Report – Preparing Nurse Faculty, and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors
• Digital education for building health workforce capacity​

Resources

• www.CTCenterForNursingWorkforce.com
• Nursing Data Portal (ctdata.org)
• https://www.nursingworkforcecenters.org/

#nursesarethesolution #nationalforum #nursingworkforce #ctleaguenursing #OADN #NLN #CTData