January 26, 2007
Contact: Susan Brandt, Centra Health
Phone:  (434) 947-4730

Centra Health has been awarded a $75,000 grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to help test new ways to keep experienced nurses in our nation’s hospitals.

Centra Health is one of 13 across the country selected by RWJF to participate in its new program, Wisdom at Work: Retaining Experienced Nurses, which will begin to build an evidence base for what works to help hospitals hold on to qualified nurses.

Under the 18-month grant, Centra Health will document its plan and implementation of closed staffing in its nursing division. Centra Health has found that closed staffing allows nurses to practice in the best possible team environment to improve the hospital outcomes of patients. A closed staffing tool kit will be developed that can be shared with other hospitals. The tool kit will include planning strategies, barriers to implementation of closed staffing and ways to eliminate barriers as well as outcomes that have occurred related to closed staffing. Conference presentations will be developed and consultation will be offered to other hospitals across the country.

“Hospitals are looking for effective ways to keep experienced nurses because they help ensure safe and high quality patient care,” said Patty Bumgarner, Centra Health director of critical care and project director for Wisdom at Work. “We are pleased to be a part of this exciting and innovative program that the Foundation has just launched. Recruiting and retaining great nurses is a major priority at Centra Health.”

The average age for registered nurses in this country is nearly 47 years, according to the most recent national nursing workforce survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Forty-six percent of practicing nurses over age 50 work in hospitals. These demographics pose serious health care implications for our nation – especially in light of projections that more than 650,000 new jobs in nursing will be created over the next decade. Yet, according to Linda Aiken, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, an estimated 450,000 nurses will have retired during that time. By 2020, the nurse shortage is expected to increase from its current level of 150,000 to 800,000.

“Centra Health is very fortunate to have two strong Centra nursing programs plus nursing programs at Lynchburg College and Liberty University,” said Patti McCue, R.N., Centra Health senior vice president and chief nursing officer. “Centra Health consistently stays below national averages in our turnover and vacancy rates, and we know we owe much of that success to our closed staffing and the strength of the nursing programs in our region.”

“Nursing is at the heart of patient care,” said Nancy Fishman of RWJF. “This project is part of a national movement to expand our understanding of how we can hold on to good, experienced nurses by providing solid, outcomes-based evidence that will help hospitals across the country develop effective retention strategies.”

The Foundation has identified a number of promising retention interventions in a paper called Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace (www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/wisdomatwork.pdf.) For more information on the Wisdom at Work program, visit www.rwjf.org.

Centra Health is a comprehensive nonprofit health system serving a primary service area of 300,000 people with more than 4,500 skilled health care professionals. Centra Health provides comprehensive medical care in a broad range of settings, including Lynchburg General Hospital, Virginia Baptist Hospital and Southside Community Hospital in Farmville.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with diverse groups of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years, the Foundation has brought experience, commitment and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime.