Academic Practice Workforce Diversity Model

Abstract:

The purpose of this project is develop a best Academic Practice Workforce Diversity Model that supports and encourages diverse nurses in the incumbent workforce to advance their education from Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) to Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston. The need for this program is grounded in a national and statewide BSN prepared nursing shortage and the pressing health needs of minority and underserved populations, with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of BSN prepared nurses in the healthcare industry, capable of providing high quality nursing, cost-effective safe care, especially addressing the healthcare needs of minority and underserved populations. The model will address increasing diversity in the workforce – the social, economic, cultural, ethnic/racial, gender, and disability of incumbent nurses. University of Massachusetts Boston and Good Samaritan Medical Center of Brockton are well-positioned to establish and implement the developed Academic Practice Workforce Diversity Model to prepare BSN prepared diverse nurses for the healthcare industry to meet the demand for nurses who can meet the cultural and ethnic healthcare needs of a changing national population.

Co-investigators Anahid Kulwicki, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Diane Shea, PhD, RN will develop and implement the Best Academic Practice Workforce Diversity Model that will outline successful strategies addressing barriers and facilitators in supporting diverse nurses to advance their degree by enrolling at the University of Massachusetts Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences RN to BS Program and to successfully complete of their Bachelors of Science Degrees.

This project will contribute to achieving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ goal of increasing BS prepared diverse nurses to 66% by 2020. In addition, this grant will address the need to increase the percentage of minority nurses (currently at 16%) in Massachusetts. The overall percentage of diverse nurses in U.S. is 23.6%, far lower than the population we serve in Boston (51%).

The evaluation plan will document quality improvement processes used to assure the quality of the program, the efficacy of the model, including data collection methodology and feedback intervals for this program. Specific attention to carefully monitor evidence-based nursing practice based on the proposed model will be evaluated. Summative data will be analyzed and reported throughout this project.

Contact Person: Diane M. Shea PhD, RN Director of the RN-BS Program UMass Boston [email protected] 617-287-7607