Kaiser Permanente Prepares Its Nurses for the Future.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--May 1, 1998--As the largest non-profit health care provider in the nation, Kaiser Permanente is taking the lead in guaranteeing its nurses can meet the challenges sweeping the managed care industry.

In the field of nursing -- traditionally a supportive role in health care -- a major transformation is underway as nurses move from the background into the forefront of managed care to assume greater responsibility for the patient's welfare.

Aware of the demands these changes will make on nurses, Kaiser Permanente is offering these men and women opportunities to further their education and obtain the necessary skills to meet the challenge of a changing environment while they work.

Kaiser Permanente has a long-standing history of leadership in training its nurses to respond to the changing needs of a growing profession. This dates back to 1947 when Permanente physicians oversaw the training of nearly two thousand nurses at the Permanente Hospital School of Nursing, originally created to address the continuing nurse shortage.

During 29 years of operation, the school helped establish a greater sympathy and respect for the nursing profession as an essential component of group practice medicine. In 1976, when the school was no longer needed due to a growing number of university-based nursing schools, it was closed and Kaiser Permanente began to support the continued training of its nurses through area schools.

Now, once again, nursing is changing and Kaiser Permanente has responded by adapting the teleconferencing technology to meet the current professional needs of its nurses.

"Nursing is different today than it was 30 years ago," said Linda Jensen, RN, Kaiser Permanente's director of distance learning. "The complexity of health care is requiring nurses to have their baccalaureates and master's in order to be more successful in meeting the needs of members and communities."

The bulk of Kaiser Permanente's Northern California nurses have only a two-year associate degree. These nurses are skilled at providing care, but need additional skills preparing them to manage patients' care. This is the direction that nursing is headed as the industry seeks to maximize the health care dollar.

"Much of the care that was provided by a physician can safely be done by nurses," Jensen said. "This is the future role of nursing. Patients will fare better with the nurse functioning as the coordinators of care."

Yet if these nurses -- who work full time and care for families -- are to further their education, they need programs uniquely designed to fit their needs.

Three years ago, Kaiser Permanente teamed up with Holy Names College in Oakland to offer an interactive "long distance learning" program that uses teleconferencing technology. This cutting-edge medium allows a professor to simultaneously teach, see and communicate with students at several Kaiser Permanente worksites located around the greater Bay Area.

"The opportunity we've had to collaborate with Kaiser Permanente is a good example of what needs to be done between the service sector and the educator," said Arlene Sargent, R.N., Ed.D., chairperson of nursing at Holy Names College.

To entice its nurses to enroll, Kaiser Permanente offered easy accessibility, affordability and consistency in the program.

Every Wednesday and Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the past two years, 90 nurses gathered in "virtual" classrooms located on Kaiser Permanente medical center campuses in Oakland, Hayward, South San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Martinez, Santa Rosa and South Sacramento. The cost is half the regular tuition of more traditional programs.

"Offering education on site and in the evening has made it possible for these nurses to go to school when they otherwise couldn't," noted Linda Jensen, R.N., director of distance learning.

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) program has proved so successful -- 90 out of the 104 of the original nurses will graduate in May 1998 -- that Holy Names College/Kaiser Permanente will launch the BSN program throughout the state in the fall of 1998. A $10,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to Holy Names College Nursing Department will be used to purchase learning resources and library multimedia programs to enhance the curriculum of a new MSN program which began in the fall of 1997. Kaiser Permanente is also working with Sonoma State University in offering a statewide Master's of Science in Nursing Leadership or Case Management through teleconferencing.

Kaiser Permanente, California, is a prepaid, group practice health maintenance organization (HMO) serving more than 5.5 million members throughout the state. More than 7,000 Permanente Medical Group physicians in both The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) in Northern California and the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG), as well as 55,300 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals employees, provide care to Health Plan members. There are 26 major medical centers organized into 12 service areas throughout California.

CONTACT: Kaiser Permanente News Bureau

Tom Debley, Lila Petersen or Laura Rohde, 510/987-3900