Healthcare is one of Massachusetts' largest employers, and 18% of those employees are nurses. For a host of reasons, healthcare needs more nurses, however, there is a shortage of qualified nurses. In hospitals, conditions are so stressful that nurses are quitting at unprecedented rates, but finding more nurses is a problem. Part of the problems is that colleges, whose nursing programs are full, cannot find new faculty to expand their capacity to train additional nurses.
Commonwealth Corporation, leading a partnership of industry, labor, education, and workforce development organizations, has created the Nursing Career Ladder Initiative (NUCLI) to respond to this crisis. Funded by $8.9 million from our partners and $2.9 million from the U.S. Department of Labor, NUCLI is a permanent, dynamic, and sustainable effort to increase the number of nurses working in the Commonwealth. The result will be 600 new students in nursing programs and 400 additional nursing licenses, which will come by:
- Adding capacity to the state's nursing programs, which otherwise have to turn away qualified candidates, and
- Reducing the number of students leaving nurse education programs due to academic and personal struggles.
- Career Coaching to help individuals prepare for nursing degree programs
These goals are straightforward and attainable. The challenge is to make them sustainable over time. By selecting the above links, you will find descriptions of the responses to this challenge, which rely on two things: increased flexibility and increased communication. All the projects ? whether regional, college based, specialty based or information resource development-oriented?commit to working creatively and cooperatively.
For more information about the Nursing Career Ladder Initiative (NUCLI), please contact us.
