The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida Receives Grant to Address National/Regional Nursing...(fit from improved nurse staffing. ...),Health

"Nurses are the nation's most direct link to patient safety and quality of care. We are committed to helping find the most innovative solutions to the nursing shortage so we can protect patients now and over the long term," said Susan B. Hassmiller, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "This unique partnership of the philanthropic community helps identify new approaches that go well beyond what any one foundation could do alone."

The 2009 grant cycle marks the fourth year of funding, totaling more than $10 million of investment by the program in local partnerships. In addition, Partners Investing in Nursing's Future has leveraged more than $8 million in local and regional funding, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the projects. For more information about Partners Investing in Nursing's Future, go to www.PartnersinNursing.org.

During the program's first three years, 69 foundation partners in 24 states and the territories of the Western Pacific established more than 300 local partnerships among nursing organizations, funders and workforce development boards to address the nursing shortage

Mary Lou Brunell, R.N., M.S.N., executive director, The Florida Center for Nursing, and lead for the research, explained that a continuing, aggregate decline in the nursing workforce is expected due to a complex combination of factors including an aging population needing more and intensive health care services, an aging nursing workforce unable to sustain its numbers, and a nursing education system with too few educators to train the next generation of nurses.

"This grant will help us expand our efforts to maximize the use of simulation technology in
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