Preparing the Nursing Workforce for a Changing Health System:
The Role of Graduate Nursing Education

The nursing profession, with nearly 3 million licensed and practicing nurses in the United States, comprises the largest segment of the nation’s health care workforce. There is consensus among experts that nursing education should be modernized to train a greater percentage of nurses at the graduate level and provide the skills nurses need as today’s health care delivery system continues to evolve towards more team-based, data-driven, and coordinated care.

The Alliance for Health Reform, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored a briefing on Graduate Nursing Education on Wednesday, January 21.

The panelists addressed the following questions:

• What does the nursing workforce look like now and how does it need to change to meet current and future health needs in the U.S.?
• How are nursing education and training currently financed?
• What is the role of federal policy in training a 21st century nursing workforce?
• How does the nursing workforce fit into today’s primary care workforce and the evolving health care delivery system?

Watch the Briefing:

Materials handed out at the briefing can be found here.

Panelists:

Linda H. Aiken, (@LindaAiken_Penn) Claire M. Fagin leadership professor in nursing, professor of sociology, and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania, will describe a new graduate nursing education demonstration being conducted through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

Brittnee MacIntyre, @BrittneeNP a nurse practitioner who recently completed graduate level training, will describe the challenges and opportunities for nurses training today, and applicability of new models of training to chronic care and the Medicare population.

Ed Salsberg,@EdwardSalsberg George Washington University School of Nursing, and founding director, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis at the Health Resources and Services Administration, will describe current and projected needs for the primary care workforce.

Deborah Trautman, (@AACNursing) chief executive officer, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, will discuss existing mechanisms for supporting the training of nursing professionals, with a focus on the role of graduate nursing education.

Moderators: 

Ed Howard (@allhealthreform), vice president of the Alliance for Health Reform

Susan Reinhard (@Susanpolicy) of AARP