Nursing Shortage DesignShop® Aids in Promotion of WorkLife Community

In order to become a premier health care organization, Ascension Health has adopted five Distinguishing Characteristics to serve as special areas of focus:
·Clinical Excellence;
·Innovation;
· Voice for the Voiceless;
· Well-Run Organization; and
· WorkLife Community.

The Ascension Health Nursing Future DesignShop® described in the following article was one way of advancing our WorkLife Community.
Ascension Health has four principal goals for WorkLife Community:

·Our Health Ministries are recognized as among the best places to work.
·We develop innovative approaches to employment that meet changing associate needs and expectations.
· We create personal and career learning opportunities.
· People within our Ministries understand our focus, can identify their contribution towards our desired outcomes and feel recognized / rewarded for their efforts.

Ascension Health Takes Initiative in Dealing With Challenges of Growing Nursing Shortage

At a DesignShop® held at the Borgess Navigation Center™ on March 20 - 22, 2001, 52 representatives of health systems from throughout Ascension Health gathered to gain understanding and work toward solutions for the growing national nursing shortage. The shortage has not yet reached crisis proportions but threatens to do so in the not-too-distant future.

Nursing School Enrollments Fall as Population Ages
Enrollments in baccalaureate nursing programs have fallen in each of the past six years, and nursing master's degree program enrollments have fallen for three consecutive years. The average age of U.S. nurses is currently 45. At the same time, the US population is aging, rapidly creating additional demand for nursing services. A study published in Health Care Strategic Management indicated that by 2005, 1.2 million nurses will be needed, but only 650,000 will be available-and that date is still before the baby boomer generation begins to reach retirement age. To develop approaches for dealing with this growing crisis, staff nurses, nursing and other hospital executives, human resources and finance personnel and others who can play key roles in developing tactics and strategies for dealing with the growing crisis gathered at the Ascension Health Nursing Future DesignShop®.

Both Intermediate and Long-term Solutions Sought
"The overall goal was to utilize the expertise of those gathered in the room, combined with information that could be obtained elsewhere, to develop intermediate and long-term solutions," said Laura Lentenbrink, VP, Human Resources, one of four Borgess representatives who attended the event. "Some of the solutions will apply at the national level, while others will be more local in nature. We wanted to explore ideas that could help in any way, at any level." The processes used during the three- day session were numerous and varied. As is the case with many Navigation Center™ events, participants first 'scanned' for new ideas. After reading and hearing about future trends, they designed their desired future-'looking back' from the perspective of 2006 at ways in which the session inspired creative solutions for making a positive difference for the nursing community.

Participants Developed Business Plans Based on Visions of Future
With those visions in mind, participants worked as innovation teams to develop business plans which included:
· partnerships with educational institutions and other organizations;
·recruitment and retention strategies;
· re-entry programs for nurses who left the profession;
· knowledge-sharing through an online communications network; and
· care delivery models that 'take care of the care givers as well as the patients.'

By the end of the session, reports were issued by groups of participants. Each report offered multiple recommendations, the resources needed to fulfill them, measures of success/outcomes, steps to be taken and projected timing. Becky Baldwin, RN, PACU, was part of a group that recommended a Mentor Model. "A mentor is someone who can give respect and friendship without condition," Baldwin said. "At a fairly low cost, a mentor can be extremely helpful with both recruitment and retention." The advocates of the Mentor Model recommended that mentors be available for nurses at all levels, on an ongoing basis, with support provided throughout a nurse's career. A Career Continuum was among the business plans Lentenbrink and Lois Stotter, RN, Clinical Nurse Educator, helped to develop.

Nursing Approached as a Career, Not Just a Job
"We need to work on redefining nursing as more of a career than a job," Stotter said. "A nurse should be able to manage a career path of particular interest to her or him. The health care organizations that take this need for career advancement to heart will be the more successful ones in the coming years." Innovative new recruitment strategies, which another group focused on, would not only emphasize contacts with new nursing graduates, but also those who may have left the system in frustration. "Borgess intends to hire a Nursing & Clinical Recruiter, and one of her or his responsibilities would be to contact former Borgess nurses and let them know about the opportunities we have available," said Angie Janik, Borgess Chief Nurse Executive and a member of the event's recruitment group. "There is a tremendous pool of talent out there that could be tapped if we can develop the right incentives and means for reaching these people."