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September 17, 2009

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:

Janet Firshein or Caroline Broder

Burness Communications, 301-652-1558

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Awards $1.5 Million

To Identify Ways to Keep Patients Safe and Improve Quality

Interdisciplinary Research Teams Examine Nurses' Contributions to Patient Care in Hospital and Community-based Settings

Princeton, N.J., September 17, 2009 – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced it will provide close to $1.5 million over the next two years to fund research projects designed to improve nursing care and help keep patients safer across a variety of clinical settings. The projects represent the latest round of grants awarded through RWJF's Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) program, an 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.

Five teams of scholars from institutions throughout the United States each received up to $300,000 for this round of projects, which will examine the role of nurses and better care in settings outside the hospital and in specific areas of health. For example, one project will examine a community-based diabetes prevention program where nurses visit patients in subsidized housing units; another will focus on reducing pressure ulcers in long-term care facilities; and another will focus on how to help back surgery patients better manage pain on their own.

"This round of research will expand the scope of our understanding about the value that nurses contribute to patient care, no matter where the patient is," said INQRI Co-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. "Through rigorous research, we aim to show the return on investment on health care -- in terms of increased quality and decreased costs -- that nurses deliver."

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. Over the past three years, INQRI has awarded grants to 29 interdisciplinary teams engaged in research intended to improve the quality of health care in the United States.

Since it began in 2005, INQRI teams have identified ways to reduce infections in the hospital intensive care unit, improved how patient care is coordinated from admission to discharge and examined how the practice environment and the level of nurse staffing affect medication errors. Grantees continue to examine the processes of nursing care that affect the quality of patient outcomes, explore nurses' contributions to pay for performance initiatives, and assess nurses' contributions to quality and efficiency.

"The results of this research will supply the much-needed evidence about nurses' contributions to improving health care quality and transforming the way we deliver care," 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 fourth round of grantees selected and their topics:

· Mary Beth Happ, Ph.D., R.N., and Amber Barnato, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh - SPEACS 2: Improving Patient Communication and Quality Outcomes in the ICU

· Deborah Ward, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. and Richard Wanlass, Ph.D., University of California, Davis - Nursing Intervention to Facilitate Patient Activation for Improved Pain Self Management

· Robin Whittemore, Ph.D. and Alana Rosenberg, M.P.H., Yale University - A Diabetes Prevention Program in the Community

· Tracey Yap, Ph.D., and Jay Kim, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati - Interdisciplinary Mobility Team Approach to Reduction of Facility-Acquired Pressure Ulcers

· Lissi Hansen, Ph.D., R.N. and Richard Mularski, M.D. Oregon Health & Science University - Nursing's Specific Contributions to Quality Palliative Care within the Context of Interdisciplinary Intensive Care Practice

For more information about the latest grantee project awards, 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 35 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.