Colleagues in Caring site: The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
Nursing Workforce Information

1. Recruitment Initiative:
"The Supply of Nurses: A National, State and Community Dilemma" - PowerPoint presentation

Timeframe/Target Population:
Ongoing/The presentation was designed to be used to describe the nursing shortage at the national, state and local level to various audiences and be used as a mechanism to foster discussion and collaboration on ways to address the shortage at a state and local level.

Partners/Funders:
T he Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania with input from hospital and health system human resource directors and nurse leaders

Messages:
The presentation provides critical data and information on the current state of the nursing shortage, the effects that nursing and other workforce shortages will have on a community's access to quality health care and nursing services, various strategies being pursued to alleviate the shortage, and the need to begin a discussion with that particular group to collaborating work toward addressing the shortage of nurses.

Evaluation of effectiveness:
Received positive feedback about developing a standard presentation with a script that could be used throughout the state. The Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders has also incorporated this presentation into a packet of materials for use by nurse leaders across the state to be used in its campaign to "Adopt-a-School" for use in talking to school counselors, teachers, and others about the nursing shortage.

Lessons learned:
Prepackaging a presentation is an effective way to get a consistent message out and saves those in key operational positions time in having to develop a presentation for use in their communities. The request for the development of the PowerPoint presentation came from those in operational positions. On an annual basis with the collection of new information, the presentation will need to be updated.

Resources Available:
Pennsylvania Nurses: Meeting the Demand for Nursing Care in the 21st Century provides much of the background information used to construct the PowerPoint presentation. A leave behind message triangle and talking points is also available to supplement the PowerPoint presentation.

2. Awareness/Promotional/Recruitment Initiative:
"Nursing: Opportunities Unlimited" brochure

Timeframe/Target Population:
Ongoing. The brochure was designed to provide some basic information to middle and high school students about the difference nurses make in the lives of others, quick facts about the demand for nurses, the variety of career opportunities in nursing, the types of nursing education programs and what to consider when making a decision about which program might be right for you, the personal characteristics and skills needed to succeed as a nurse, and a list of websites that may be of interest to persons interested in pursuing a career in nursing.

Partners/Funders:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania developed the brochure with input from nurse leaders and educators. The brochures are sold at cost to those organizations and persons interested in purchasing the brochures. The brochure also can be customized to include the name and other information about the organization on the back panel.

Message:
Nurses are in high demand and make an impact on person's lives everyday. There are a variety of professional registered nursing education programs to meet individual needs and circumstances and there are a variety of career opportunities that can be pursued after becoming a professional registered nurse.

Evaluation of Effectiveness:
Various organizations and nursing education programs have purchased over 50,000 brochures. HAP has made the brochure available to others for a minimal licensure fee, which allows for customization of the last page of the brochure to that particular state or organization.

Lessons Learned:
The brochure is a good leave behind when speaking to youth about careers in nursing. An individual can actually walk through the brochure when speaking to youth about careers in nursing. Should probably be converted into Spanish given the number of communities in Pennsylvania with a high Hispanic population. Was designed to be purchased by hospitals and health systems for their distribution to community groups and schools along with a letter that invites them to contact the facility to learn more about nursing and other health care careers, but not sure that this has actually happened. Middle schools and high schools do not typically purchase these kinds of brochures, but will take them and use them if supplied by another entity. Postcards for more information about a career in nursing or other health care career work well in school counselor offices. During last nursing shortage, HAP supplied schools with these postcards addressed to the association. HAP continues to get these postcards from student interest in nursing and other health care careers and replies to all postcards with a Pennsylvania Labor and Industry Career Guide, Nursing: Opportunities Unlimited Brochures, and postcard advertising the PAHealthCareers.org website. Nice visual to share with legislators to educate them to about nursing.

Resources Available:
Nursing: Opportunities Unlimited brochure and order sheet and a sample of ideas on some themes that could be used to talk about nursing depending upon what a class may be studying - history, technology, role of nurses, community, etc. (www.haponline.org under workforce, career outreach)

3. Awareness/Recruitment Initiative:
"You Can Be a Nurse Too!" activity and coloring book

Timeframe/Target Population:
Ongoing. The activity and coloring book was designed to begin to talk about nurses, what they do, and where they work with students in the elementary school. The activity book also contains information that elementary students should know to keep them healthy and reinforces some safety advice that is giving to elementary students, such as wearing seatbelts, helmets, not taking drugs, and not smoking.

Partners/Funders:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania developed the brochure with input from nurse leaders and educators. The brochures are sold at cost to those organizations and persons interested in purchasing the brochures. The brochure also can be customized to include the name and other information about the organization on the back panel.

Message:
Contains simple information about what nurses do and where they work as well as some activities to reinforce health and safety information shared with young children.

Evaluation of Effectiveness:
Various organizations and nursing education programs have purchased over 20,000 activity and coloring books. HAP has made the brochure available to others for a minimal licensure fee, which allows for customization of the last page of the brochure to that particular state or organization. Individual pages from the coloring and activity book can also be downloaded from the HAP website for use with elementary school students.

Lessons Learned:
There was a real need for some materials to use with this very young age group. Should probably be converted into Spanish given the number of communities in Pennsylvania with a high Hispanic population. Making individual pages available for use as coloring pages or individual word searches or puzzles seems to work well and organizations avoid having to purchase the entire activity and coloring book. In next revision, will probably develop more of a story about a nurse to use with this age group. Again, nice visual to share with legislators.

Resources Available:
"You Can Be A Nurse Too!" activity and coloring book and order sheet. Individual pages from the book can also be downloaded from the HAP website. (www.haponline.org under workforce, career outreach)

4. Awareness/Recruitment Initiative:
www.PAHealthCareers.org website

Timeframe/Target Population:
Ongoing. The site was designed to have information about nursing and other health care careers, financial assistance information, a school directory, and a way to ask questions about that career to persons working in those careers through a bulletin board.

Partners/Funders:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, but constantly looking for others to assist in the develop and help finance development of the website

Message:
Make a difference - Choose your destiny - Change your world- It all begins with a career in health care

Evaluation of Effectiveness:
Have not done a formal evaluation of how frequently the website has been visited. Have had traffic to the bulletin boards with many questions about financial assistance, asking about which programs offer alternative hours for those who are working full-time but want to go back to school to be prepared as a registered nurse, and how to make decisions about what types of nursing education programs to attend.

Lessons Learned:
It takes time to develop and maintain a website, and it would have been beneficial to have had dedicated resources to fully develop some basic content before the launching of the website. Although it was originally envisioned that high school students might visit the website, it appears that it has attracted many adults who are presently working in other jobs and looking to change to nursing or advance in nursing. Development of the website did provide an opportunity for HAP to conduct focus groups with students to find out what high school students thought about health care, where they would go to get information about health care careers, and what they thought about those careers. HAP also used the focus groups as a way to get feedback about the website and to understand when and how they used the Internet. In turn, HAP was able to share the results of those focus groups with school guidance counselors and placed an article in the school counselor quarterly newsletter.

Resources available:
Postcards that advertise the website - PAHealthCareers.org and findings from the focus groups, Coming of Age Focus Groups Report
Purchased the North Carolina PSA Nursing: The Power to Make a Difference and changed tag line to refer to the PaHealthCareers.org website which was distributed to television stations across Pennsylvania (www.PaHealthCareers.org and www.haponline.org under workforce, career outreach)

5. Awareness/Promotional/Recruitment Initiative:
"If I had to do it over again, I'd still be a nurse today, because" essay contest

Timeframe/Target Population:
Spring through Autumn 2001. Targeted population was nurses working in a variety of settings in Pennsylvania. Borrowed idea from Florida Hospital Association.

Partners/Funders:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders, The Nightingale Awards Foundation of Pennsylvania, and The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association. Nurses whose essays were selected each received a nominal cash award, certificate signed by the chief executive officer of each sponsoring organization, and were invited to attend the annual Pennsylvania Nightingale Awards Gala for Excellence in Nursing

Message:
Identify the positive aspects of nursing through the words of actual practitioners.

Evaluation of Effectiveness:
The selected essays are posted on the PAHealthCareers.org website and the HAP website as a means of promoting nursing. The essay winners have been named in several nursing newsletters and magazines. Advance for Nursing has periodically published the selected essays in its publication in their entirety. A second piece of the contest has been added to solicit essays from students in the various nursing education programs across the state.

Lessons Learned:
It is a positive way to work with other organizations interested in promoting nursing as a career and focus on those nurses who feel good about what they do and want to share that sense of accomplishment and pride with others. Presents opportunities to use those selected to serve as positive spokespersons about nursing in your state.

Resources Available:
Essays on www.PAHealthCareers.org website and The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania website at www.haponline.org. HAP is considering publishing the essays in a book that could be shared with others who may be interested in pursuing a career in nursing.