The United States faces an escalating shortage of nurses, driven in part by an aging population and a shortage of available spaces in schools of nursing across the nation. Widespread concern over the nurse faculty shortage is evident in the reports of prominent nursing organizations, as well as in the activities of numerous state workforce centers. As part of its commitment to address issues related to the nurse faculty shortage, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the creation of Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN) to fund evaluations of nursing educational interventions.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the National Program Office (NPO) to direct EIN in 2008. The NPO, which is located in the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, provides overall research direction, management, technical assistance, and monitoring of the EIN grants. Dr. Michael Yedidia serves as director of the NPO and is assisted by Joanne Fuccello, Deputy Director. » Read More
Our Mission
We support evaluations of interventions that expand teaching capacity or promote faculty recruitment and retention in nursing schools. The program aims to increase the number of nursing school graduates by evaluating strategies that address the nurse faculty shortage. With its third cycle of funding, EIN will support projects that address aspects of teaching productivity and faculty preparation in nursing education for meeting the demands of a reformed health care and public health system. Learn More
As of May 1, 2015, Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education has closed. The interactive interface to the national survey of nurse faculty (NuFAQs) is active and can be accessed through this web-page or directly at this url.
About the Program
Grantee Research Findings
Click HERE to read selected findings from EIN grantees.
Grantee Publications
EIN Grantee at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Publishes with Researchers in Partnering Hospitals in The Journal of Nursing Administration
EIN grantee Dr. Joanne Mulready-Shick (UMB) and partners from two Boston academic research centers -- Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) -- co-authored an article entitled, “Partnering and Leadership Core Requirements for Developing a Dedicated Education Unit." The article describes the creation of two Dedicated Education Units (DEU) implemented through the academic-service partnership between UMB’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, MGH and BWH. The article outlines the factors critical for the success and sustainability of DEUs, focusing on skills required to negotiate complex collaborations and the leadership competencies demonstrated by nurses across three levels: 1) the dean and hospital chief nurse executives; 2) the academic nursing program and clinical directors, and 3) the hospital clinical instructors and university’s clinical faculty coordinators.
Read an abstract of the article HERE.
EIN Grantee JoAnn Mulready-Shick, EdD, RN, CNE presented at the Ohio League for Nursing’s Nursing Education Summit 2012 in Dublin Ohio (March 30, 2012).
Her presentation – “EVALUATING DEDICATED EDUCATION UNITS: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS” – can be reviewed HERE.
EIN Grantee Project Team at New York University College of Nursing Publishes in Journal of Nursing Education
Dr. Hila Richardson and Dr. Mattia Gilmartin co-authored with Dr. Terry Fulmer an article entitled, “Shifting the Clinical Teaching Paradigm in Undergraduate Nursing Education to Address the Nursing Faculty Shortage.” The authors at NYU College of Nursing, supported by a two-year EIN grant, describe their new clinical teaching model that substitutes high-fidelity human patient simulation for up to half of the students’ clinical education experience. The article looks at the model’s effects on nurse faculty capacity.
Read an abstract of the article HERE as it appeared in the April issue of the Journal of Nursing Education.
Grantee Spotlight
New York University
EIN awarded a two-year grant to researchers at New York University (NYU) and their evaluator team at National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) to conduct a controlled evaluation of their undergraduate clinical teaching intervention – the Clinical Simulation/Clinical Experience (CSCE) Model—adopted to address the shortage of clinical faculty and sites. The purpose of this project was to document how the NYU simulation substitution model \ has an impact on faculty capacity for clinical supervision. » Read more
Read past grantee spotlights about EIN projects: including the University of Portland, University of Massachusetts, Boston and University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.
Our Grantees
EIN is pleased to introduce its various cohorts of grantees, current and past. Twelve grants (of up to $300,000 each) have been awarded since 2009. EIN’s first grant cycle (2009-2011) funded four innovators in nursing education to support evaluations of different interventions, including Dedicated Education Units (DEUs); a technology-rich, accelerated BSN program relying on a mix of on-campus and offsite training, specially prepared clinical preceptors, and innovative course scheduling; and incorporation of a web-based virtual community into the curricula of several nursing programs across the country. For its second round of grants (2010-2012), EIN has funded evaluations of the implementation of a statewide education consortium curriculum; the substitution of clinical simulation for supervised hospital rotations; and an analysis of a myriad of state-based, support-for-service programs which offer funding support to nursing students who wish to become nurse faculty.
In mid July 2012, EIN’s third cycle of grantees began evaluation projects whose findings will directly inform strategies to prepare faculty to educate nurses for roles in the reformed health care system as envisioned in the IOM report on the future of nursing. These two-year projects (2012-2014) will focus on a range of issues, e.g., identifying barriers and opportunities for doctoral students regarding nurse faculty careers (American Association of Colleges of Nursing); assessing the various stages of career decision-making related to becoming a nurse faculty member (Indiana University); the hiring practices and intentions of directors of nursing programs related to DNP and PhD-prepared faculty (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill); the relationship between the demands of teaching doctoral students and research productivity among doctorally-prepared nurse faculty (Villanova University) and a case study to study and generate insights into the prospects for early-entry doctoral programs (admitting pre-baccalaureate students and recent graduates) to increase the number and productivity of future nurse faculty (University of Wisconsin-Madison). As with earlier funding cycles, EIN3 research projects are designed to generate findings to inform strategies for addressing the nurse faculty shortage, while expanding the nurse workforce and maintaining or improving student outcomes.
- Cycle 3 Grantees (closed) (2012 - 2014)
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
Indiana University School of Nursing
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
Villanova University College of Nursing
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing
- Cycle 2 Grantees (closed) (2010 – 2012)
- University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene
- The New York University College of Nursing
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing
- Cycle 1 Grantees (closed) (2009 – 2011)
- University of Massachusetts, Boston, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, College of Nursing
- University of Portland (Oregon), School of Nursing
- University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, College of Nursing
National Survey of Nurse Faculty
How do nurse faculty members spend their time? How do they assess key aspects of their work-life?
Click here to create customized findings from the 2011 national survey of full-time nurse faculty members by using NuFAQs, our Nurse Faculty Query web-based tool.
Choose from over 60 characteristics of workload and attitudes toward work-life and explore how they differ among faculty subgroups of interest to you. Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of full-time faculty members teaching in nursing schools that offer at least one degree program that prepares graduates to sit for the licensure exam. The study was conducted by staff at the EIN National Program Office and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
What's New
RWJF Funds Planning Grant for Nursing Education Research Network
March 2015
Based on experience with Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN), the Nursing Education Research Network (Network) aims to increase the volume and relevance of research in nursing education. Schools joining the Network will collect individual-level survey data from faculty and students annually on a core set of measures to generate a powerful longitudinal data base for research on issues critical to academic nursing. To realize the benefit, schools will be the owners and stewards of these data. Membership must be extensive enough to assure reasonable representation of various types and locales of schools, including community colleges and research intensive university programs. Data will be made available to schools for their own analyses, and Network staff will produce distributions, trends, and benchmarks for use of members as well. Network-sponsored workshops for faculty and graduate students will augment methodological expertise in making optimal use of these data. The 18-month planning grant will focus on developing a staffing plan and governance structure, gathering input from schools about compelling research questions and associated data, and building a technological infrastructure for the Network. For more information, contact Pamela Ironside, Ph.D. (Indiana University School of Nursing, pamirons@iu.edu), who is directing the planning effort.
New Issue of the Journal of Nursing Education Features Article Based on Findings from the National Survey of Nurse Faculty; Authors Examine Aspects of Faculty Work-Life and Impact on Intent to Leave Academic Nursing
October 2014
In “Association of Faculty Perceptions of Work–Life With Emotional Exhaustion and Intent to Leave Academic Nursing: Report on a National Survey of Nurse Faculty,” Dr. Michael Yedidia, Ms. Jolene Chou, Dr. Susan Brownlee, Dr. Linda Flynn, and Dr. Christine A. Tanner discuss findings from the National Survey of Nurse Faculty (supported by a grant from RWJF). The authors found that intent to leave faculty roles was explained by several factors, including modifiable aspects of work: dissatisfaction with workload, salary and availability of teaching support. Click HERE to read an abstract of the article.
EIN Grantee Manuscripts featured in the current edition of Nursing Education Perspectives
September 2014
The current issue (Sept-Oct 2014) of the National League for Nursing’s (NLN) journal – Nursing Education Perspectives – features findings from five EIN-funded evaluation projects. The educational interventions that were the focus of the evaluations published in this issue include: innovations in clinical education; technology and instructional expertise (e.g., simulation); new curricula to facilitate academic progression for students and support efficient use of faculty resources; and, state-based policies and programs offering incentives for nurses to pursue careers as nurse faculty. Click HERE to read the current issue of the journal.
