Laramie, Wyoming– The Wyoming Community Foundation has recently been chosen as one of 18 foundations nationwide to receive funding in the third year of Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future (PIN), a unique national initiative to help close the gap in the nursing workforce across the country.

Led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation, PIN energizes local foundations to act as catalysts in their communities to develop strategies for creating and sustaining a viable nursing workforce. The 10 grants awarded this year represent the involvement of 18 local foundations and other diverse funding sources.  These foundations, some for the first time, have forged partnerships in their own communities to apply for this grant, giving increased attention to the local impact of the nursing shortage. To help develop solutions and lead efforts within the region, The Wyoming Community Foundation has been awarded a two-year grant of $221,510.

“The Wyoming Community Foundation is honored to be chosen by the Northwest Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of the Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future,” said George Gault, president of the Wyoming Community Foundation.  “We are very proud that every major nursing organization in the state is participating as a partner in this endeavor.”

Gault explained that according to the Wyoming Department of Employment publication Nurses in Demand, the state will need a total of 3,307 more nurses in 2014 than were working in the state in 2006. “In other words, we have to more than double our nursing workforce in the space of eight years.”

Several factors have combined for Wyoming’s nursing issues to reach a critical point, Gault said. “First, the state is aging even faster than the rest of the nation, which means that the need for new approaches to nursing in long term care facilities must be addressed creatively. Second, because Wyoming is a frontier state, it simply costs more to deliver medical care, and Wyoming continues to lose medical staff and dollars to neighboring states with larger populations and more health care capacity. Third, while the state’s overall economy is robust due to the energy boom, we lack the underlying healthcare infrastructure that would allow for an adequate and cost effective delivery system.”

The Community Foundation and their local partners will use the PIN funding to create a Wyoming nursing workforce center to act as a central clearing place and coordinator for statewide efforts. One of the nursing center’s first activities will be to select, support and evaluate five pilot programs that will address identified nursing workforce issues. At least one of the pilot programs chosen will take place in a long term care setting.

The PIN program is designed to be flexible and adapted to each state, and the participation of the Wyoming Community Foundation allows it to fulfill its mission of being a catalyst in addressing emerging issues.

 “As the severity of the nursing shortage continues to grow, the stability and quality of our nation’s health care stands at risk,” said Susan B. Hassmiller, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “It’s not only a national problem, but a local issue that demands community-based interventions and innovative solutions. This unique partnership of the philanthropic community helps foster approaches that will drive nursing workforce solutions beyond what any one foundation could do alone.”

This marks the third year of a five-year, $10 million commitment by PIN, which funds partnerships of up to $250,000 each. During the program’s first two years, 21 foundation partners in 19 states established more than 215 local partnerships among nursing organizations, funders and workforce development boards to address the nursing shortage. To date, the Wyoming Community Foundation is the only organization that has been funded by PIN grants in Wyoming.

Dr. Carol Macnee, R.N., Ph.D.,  Director of Research and Visiting Clinical Professor, Nightingale Center for Nursing Scholarship at the University of Wyoming’s Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, cited multiple and complex factors behind the decline in the nursing workforce including rapid population growth in several states, a decrease in nurses’ earnings, an aging nursing workforce, low job satisfaction, poor working conditions, and an increasingly diverse patient population requiring intensive health services. 

“This significant grant will kick start Wyoming to address our nursing shortage,” said Dr. Macnee. “It’s a formidable road ahead, but community collaboration is key to providing local solutions to this national problem. At stake are nothing less patient care and safety, health care costs, and patient health.”