Grant targets critical care nurses
ursing Practice at the Medical Center has received a five-year grant for nearly $1.4 million to develop an educational program designed to recruit and retain expert nurses in critical care and significantly increase the number of minority nurses working in the ICU.
Gail Ingersoll, director of the Clinical Nursing Research Center and professor of nursing, and Judith Baggs, associate dean for educational programs and professor of nursing, will codirect the project, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
"While nursing on the whole is facing a national shortage, critical care is in crisis," says Ingersoll. "This project will quite innovatively address aspects that contribute to why a nurse chooses to leave critical care and will offer effective approaches to recruit new nurses."
One of the main components of the recruitment effort is a year-long internship program for new graduates. Master clinicians, educators, and researchers from the School of Nursing will support and guide novice nurses during what, Ingersoll says, can be a challenging professional experience.
"Critical care nurses are required to have a tremendous range of knowledge about rapidly changing technologies, medications, and patient-care processes and to work in an environment that can be emotionally and physically demanding. By offering a full year of guidance and support to new nurses, we hope to create a network of resources that will help them cope with the pace and demands of critical care. In doing so, we'll be one of the few practice settings in the country to offer nurses such ongoing support. "
In addition to recruitment efforts, the program will emphasize professional development and team building as ways to retain experienced nurses. The project goal, Ingersoll says, is to develop evidence-based approaches that create a work environment that places a high value on diversity, standards of care, safe delivery of services, effective teamwork, and individualized attention to educational and career goals.
Program activities will include competency-based staff training and incorporation of progressive skills development programs that support advancement through an existing career ladder. The process also will include performance assessment and feedback to measure and improve care delivery outcomes.
Ingersoll says in addition to overall retention/recruitment efforts, the funding also will be used to increase minority representation in critical care nursing.
"The number of minority critical care nurses currently working in staff and leadership positions is not reflective of our patient population. We hope to address this problem by increasing recruitment efforts directed at ethnically diverse institutions and feeder organizations in the community. It's also important that we help minority health care providers advance into critical care."
The project is a joint effort between Nursing Practice and the School of Nursing. Faculty from the School of Nursing will assist with educational programming, mentoring, team building activities, and other project-related programs. Critical care nurse managers and staff will be involved in development and evaluation activities and will work to implement each of the program components.
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