The Texas Team believes all Texans deserve better care, better health and lower healthcare costs. Nurses – as the largest group of health care providers in the state – are essential to achieving these three goals in Texas. Texas Team members are enthusiastically working to transform nursing and health care in Texas.
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EducationTo ensure high-quality patient care nurses need to be better prepared as care becomes more complex and moves into the community. Yet, about 50 percent of Texas nurses hold an associate degree (or diploma) in nursing as their highest degree. |
ProgressWith over 130 nursing programs statewide, we are fully engaging them in our plan to increase the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees in nursing.
We are developing a multi-focused statewide model (CABNET) to assist all RN to BSN programs in the state to increase the number of associate degree prepared nurses graduating each year from 1,826 in academic year 2010-2011 to 4,200 in academic year 2013-2014, a 130 percent increase. A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant award, will help us achieve this goal, as well as increase the percentage of minority graduates of RN to BSN programs from 45 to 50 percent of the graduates by 2014. Twenty nursing programs are being recruited to adopt the standardized general education courses and prerequisites established by CABNET and 40 programs to implement the concept based curriculum at the associate and baccalaureate degree levels as well as recommended standardized education courses.
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LeadershipTexas is expanding leadership ranks to ensure that nurses have voices on management teams, in boardrooms and during policy debates. |
ProgressWe are forming a team of diverse statewide leaders to address strategies to achieve this goal during fall 2014.
To date Texas has advocated for nursing inclusion in important statewide policy committees related to health care transformation and innovation. We have worked diligently to solicit and nominate nurses to leadership positions, including distinguished national leadership opportunities. We are proud to announce that a Texas nurse – Dr. Eileen Breslin – was recently elected as President of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. New Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows include Drs. Cole Edmonson and Linda Lawson – both actively engaged as leaders in the Texas Team. Texas is supporting a 14 Jonas Foundation Fellows via integration into the various Texas Team leadership teams. Dr. Susan Sportsman – a member of the Texas Team Executive Committee – was recently selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
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PracticeWe envision every Texan having access to high-quality, patient-centered care in a health care system where nurses contribute as essential partners in achieving success. In many settings, nurses are not able to work to the full extent of their education and training. |
ProgressWe worked with the Perryman Group to produce an economic impact study of the expanded use of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). The study found that “greater use of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) would generate a total current impact which includes $16.1 billion in total expenditures and $8.0 billion in output (gross product) each year as well as 97,205 permanent jobs in Texas. This economic activity also leads to additional tax receipts and cost savings for governmental entities. The Perryman Group estimates these effects include $483.9 million to the state and $233.2 million to local government entities each year.” Additionally, we have formed a coalition of APRN groups and developed a consensus approach to the upcoming 2013 legislative session. We plan to collaborate with physician colleagues to move legislation forward to advance the health of Texans. |
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 interprofessional collaboration in education and practice. |
DiversityTexas’ population is becoming increasingly diverse and many residents have unique health care needs. The nursing workforce must evolve to reflect these changing dynamics. |
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. |
DataEffective deployment of the health care workforce requires information – data to tell us what kind of health providers we will need and with what skills. Yet major gaps exist in the workforce data we now have. |
ProgressWe are exploring partnerships and examining models from other states to develop a plan for data collection in our state. Once developed, we will work to promote data-driven policy decisions that improve health care for patients and families in Texas. |