When Paula Spears, PhD, learned the grant application she authored was selected as the Nursing Institute of the Mid South (NIMS) Inc.’s first federal competitive grant to boost the nursing workforce across the region, she was understandably ecstatic.

 

Spears, executive director of NIMS, who will serve as principle investigator for the grant program, explained at a reception in Memphis earlier this year how the 3-year, $1 million grant would help develop clinical nurses across the Mid South. 

 

“It’s exciting to bring external federal funding to nursing workforce development for our community and it’s definitely a win-win for all involved,” said Spears, who has invited other Mid South healthcare organizations to join the collaborative, including those in Arkansas. “We’ve met with several regional healthcare organizations throughout the Mid South and have gotten very positive responses.”

 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) grant last July. NIMS is a member collaborative comprised of local healthcare systems and schools of nursing, funding through an Assisi Foundation grant and partner support. Nurse executives and deans of major universities serve on the Board of Directors and govern the policies and strategies of the institute. The non-profit organization has been tasked with facilitating a quality regional nursing workforce that drives care in a changing healthcare environment. 

 

NIMS associate director Allyson Murry, who joined the organization last November to facilitate the implementation of the new grant program, “Developing Clinical Nurses: Accountability and Responding to the Challenges for Today and Tomorrow,” said the new program is a consultative, collaborative, continuing education program designed to improve the knowledge, skills and competencies of registered nurses for leadership at the bedside. Nurses will learn new skills, participate in cross-community learning and create improvements in their unit’s culture and selected patient outcomes. The program is officially known as “EPIC,” which stands for clinical nurses leading “Excellence in Practice, Innovation and Care.”

 

Training began in February, with the first EPIC cohort of 20 clinical nurses from four Memphis hospitals. The program began with baseline assessments, including a 360 skills assessment of each nurse based on the Nurse of the Future competencies and an organizational culture inventory of their department. The participants and their respective managers identified two clinical quality indicators to focus on during the course of the program. These metrics will be used to identify areas for improvement, guide interventions, and to measure success of the program, which includes five curriculum courses taught by consultants from across the country. Topics include communication, accountability, change management, patient safety and team leadership, and cultural and generational diversity.

 

Murry provides coaching to help build nurses’ skills learned in the classroom and guides them in developing action steps to improve the quality indicators within their department. On site simulation for the participating departments is provided by the Medical and Education Research Institute, which allows the nurses to practice their leadership skills at the bedside through simulated experience.

 

The training includes clinical nurses from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, Veterans’ Administration Hospital at Memphis, St. Francis Hospital, and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. NIMS academic partners and faculty involved in curriculum leadership of the program represent University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of Memphis, Union University and Southwest Tennessee Community College.