An account of the Western New York Center for Nursing Workforce and Quality (WNY CNWQ), a community based collaborative

Purpose:
In response to the critical nursing workforce and quality of care issues in WNY, chief nurse officers of WNY hospitals created a Center to provide a mechanism to implement and evaluate nursing sensitive quality indicators, and to employ and retain a competent nursing workforce in WNY.

Significance:
Due to the aging nursing workforce WNY expects to face extreme shortfalls in the future, which are expected to have severe effects on health and quality of life in WNY. Thus, there is a critical need for collaboration among healthcare systems, schools of nursing, and other stakeholders.

Strategy and Implementation:
To accomplish objectives, the Steering Committee received funding from the John R. Oishei Foundation for two years (2010-2012). The first objective is to formally establish the Collaboration. The Committee consists of nursing leaders from four major hospital systems of the urban county in WNY and University at Buffalo School of Nursing. The Committee developed a sustainable governance and operations model/memorandum of understanding. The second objective is to develop the WNY CNWQ. The Committee identified components of the database, which consisted of selected nursing sensitive quality indicators from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI), nurse safety outcomes, and hospital/nursing unit characteristics. All of the participating healthcare systems have joined the NDNQI. A web-based portal to provide data collection and statistical analysis tools will be implemented July 2011. A pilot research study to test innovations will be implemented next year (2011-2012).

Evaluation:
The use of the database to improve quality will be evaluated after the web-based portal is implemented.

Implications for Practice:
The WNY CNWQ has provided a forum to evaluate the nursing workforce and quality of care at the local level. Additionally, we plan to reach out to additional rural hospitals and integrate schools of nursing into the project. Local nursing units can compare themselves to other similar local units.