The Massachusetts Action Coalition is committed to leading the local campaign for action to support health care reform through a well educated and skilled nursing workforce.
The state commission that oversees health plans covering 400,000 public employees, retirees and their dependents voted Wedne …Read More | 1 comment
EducationIn Massachusetts, we need to better align our education and practice environments to enable a more diverse community of nursing candidates and practicing nurses to attain higher levels of education, consistent with the needs of our evolving healthcare system. |
ProgressMassachusetts has made great strides in aligning our nursing education programs with the needs of healthcare providers through a longstanding collaboration of academic, practice and industry partners. We are working to redesign our nursing education system to allow for increased access and seamless progression through all levels of nursing degrees. To achieve this, the Massachusetts Action Coalition is building from the nationally-recognized Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies© as a framework for a competency-based curricula spanning all academic and practice settings. Work is now underway to define and implement models of seamless academic progression from Practical Nurse through Registered Nurse to Advanced Practice Nurse. |
LeadershipNurses offer a valuable perspective to the challenges of inter-professional healthcare delivery and must be prepared to contribute to discussions about healthcare policy as well as to lead direct care-delivery teams. |
ProgressWe understand that communicating the value of nursing leadership and building allies are critical to providing opportunities for nurses to take on leadership roles. At the same time nurses must develop leadership competencies and identify opportunities to contribute their value. We will engage Massachusetts’s nurses at all levels to train and provide them with opportunities to lead. |
PracticeAdvanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN), especially nurse practitioners, are limited in their ability to practice to the full extent of their education and training.
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ProgressCollaborative partnerships are being developed to engage inter-disciplinary leaders within the medical community in an effort to advance a dialog on this topic. Our team is developing a white paper to share with partners that defines “ideal practice” for each APRN specialty area. These efforts will lay the foundation to remove barriers, and ensure the delivery of high quality health care to patients and families in our state. |
Interprofessional CollaborationTo ensure high quality, patient-centered care, nurses, physicians and other health professionals must collaborate in education and practice, and across all health care settings. |
ProgressWe are building partnerships with diverse stakeholders, including physicians and other health providers, to support, spread and implement models of inter-professional collaboration in education and practice. |
DiversityMassachusetts’s population is becoming increasingly diverse. As patient-centered care is a tenet of high-quality care, our nursing workforce must increasingly reflect the communities our nurses serve. |
ProgressWe will work with our colleagues throughout the state to communicate the value of diversifying the nursing workforce to reflect the state’s population, while also looking to other successful programs as models for implementation. In addition, we are actively reaching out to various minority organizations to develop the partnerships needed to implement diversity in the nursing workforce. |
DataUntil recently, we have had limited ability to conduct comprehensive demographic data collection and analysis to inform workforce strategies. Obtaining a clear picture of “who are the nurses working in Massachussetts” will greatly help to inform workforce planning efforts. |
ProgressImprovements in survey designs and response rates conducted at the time of license renewal are improving our baseline data on the nursing workforce. Starting in 2010, the Board of Registration in Nursing began collecting a Minimum Data Set of key demographics describing the nursing workforce through an online survey at license renewal. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, an Action Coalition co-lead, is conducting a preliminary analysis of this data to inform education and workforce development strategies consistent with the demands of our changing health care system. |