News Archive
September 4, 2008
For Immediate Release:
Media Contact:
Caroline Broder or Janet Firshein, Burness Communications, 301-652-1558
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Awards $2.3 Million To Identify Ways To Keep Patients Safe, Improve Quality
Eight Interdisciplinary Research Teams To Expose Link Between Nurses and Advances in Patient Care
Princeton, N.J., September 4, 2008 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced it will provide $2.3 million over the next two years to fund research projects designed to improve nursing care and help keep patients safer. The eight projects represent the third round of grants awarded through RWJF's Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) program, a $19 million initiative that will generate and disseminate research showing a link between what nurses do and the contributions they make to advancing better and safer care for patients.
Nurses account for more than half of all health care providers in the United States. But little research exists to demonstrate the link between what nurses do and the effect of those interventions on patient care and safety. INQRI is trying to fill the gap by applying rigorous science to expose that link. This is the first project of its kind to involve teams of researchers from many disciplines in projects related to the work of nurses.
"It takes a nurse to make a difference in the quality of care we get in hospitals, but if that nurse is overworked, under-motivated or lacks adequate support to keep patients healthy and safe, we all suffer," said INQRI director Mary Naylor, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. "Without evidence linking nurses to better patient care, their contributions often go unrecognized. This project aims to supply that evidence."
Teams of scholars from institutions around the U.S. each received up to $300,000 for this round of projects, which will examine how nurses contribute to high quality patient care among multiple providers and across many care settings. The projects will evaluate how nurses' contributions to health care, nurses' work environments and nurses' staffing affect health outcomes and costs. For example, some of these projects will examine the impact of nurses on the costs and quality of long-term care, nurses' role in catching medication errors before they happen, and ways to improve nursing care in hospitals during off-peak hours.
"As well as highlighting improved methods of nursing, we are trying through rigorous research to transform the way health care is delivered," said Mark Pauly, Ph.D, the Bendheim Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and co-director of the INQRI program.
Here is a list of the third round of grantees and their topics:
Dr. Patricia Stone and Dr. Ciaran Phibbs, Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education, CA - The Impacts of Nurse Staffing, Skill Mix, and Experience on Quality and Costs in Long-Term Care
Dr. Patti Hamilton and Dr. Gretchen Gemeinhardt, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX The Effect of Off-peak Hospital Environments on Nurses' Work: an Institutional Ethnography
Dr. Nancy Donaldson and Dr. Carolyn Aydin, University of California, San Francisco Impact of Medical Surgical Acute Care Microsystem Nurse Characteristics and Practices on Patient Outcomes
Dr. Barbara Resnick and Dr. Sheryl Zimmerman, University of Maryland, Baltimore The Res-Care-AL Intervention Study
Dr. Joanne Disch and Dr. Douglas Wholey, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Multidisciplinary Organization and Outcomes for Chronic Heart Failure Patients in the VA
Dr. Susan Letvak and Dr. Christopher Ruhm, University of North Carolina, Greensboro The Effects of Nurse Presenteeism on Quality of Care and Patient Safety
Dr. Kathleen Stevens and Dr. Robert Ferrer, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio Small Troubles, Adaptive Responses [STAR]: Fostering a Quality Culture in Nursing
Dr. Cynthia Corbett and Dr. Stephen Setter, Washington State University, Spokane Empowering Home Care Nurses to Efficiently Resolve Medication Discrepancies
The fourth Call for Proposals issued from the INQRI program will be released on October 15, 2008. For more information about the latest grantee project awards or the new Call for Proposals, please visit: http://www.inqri.org
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About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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 a diverse group 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. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.