Washington Center for Nursing to Co-Host National Nurse Workforce Annual Conference with Oregon.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Third Annual Meeting of National Nursing Centers from Forty States Comes to the West for the First Time Because of Oregon's Innovation in Dealing with Nurse Shortage

While some progress is being made, the country is still facing a serious shortage in the number of nurses we will need to care for an aging population in the decade ahead. When Oregon created the Oregon Center for Nursing (OCN) in 2001 to deal with the crisis, we were one of only a handful of states to adopt this focused effort. Washington's Center for Nursing was created in 2003 by the Washington Nursing Leadership Council. Today, forty states have nursing centers dealing with issues like recruitment and retention, educational capacity, and workplace issues that drive nurses from the profession.

April 28-30, 2005, leaders from all national nursing workforce centers, along with researchers, foundation leaders, and some attendees from the federal and state government ranks will be in Portland for the third annual conference of State Nursing Workforce Centers. The meeting will be held at the downtown Portland Marriott April 28 and 29, and will move to the World Trade Center on April 30 for a special workshop on research and data. The purpose of the annual meeting is to share what each Center is doing, to focus on innovative strategies and best practices, and to look at data measurements. Approximately 200 people are expected to attend, and the conference is being co-sponsored by the Washington Center for Nursing.

In Oregon, the conference will launch a series of events celebrating National Nurses Week, May 6-12. The OCN will unveil a new, comprehensive research report on the nurse workforce in Oregon later in May.

The conference will kick off with a greeting from James K. Sager, Education, Workforce & Revenue Policy Advisor, Oregon Office of the Governor, and Molly Moore, Healthcare Workforce Initiative Coordinator and Director, Oregon Simulation Alliance, Office of the Governor. Oregon Governor Kulongoski's health care workforce initiative has been instrumental in bringing simulation technology to train more health care workers in both the state's rural and urban regions, and is key to producing more well-educated nurses. This initiative fits the Governor's overall policy objective to stimulate economic growth by investing in workforce training and education.

Innovation in simulation technology is just one reason why the national centers chose Oregon for its annual conference. The OCN's national award-winning PR campaign to recruit males and ethnic minorities to nursing received a great deal of national attention, and has been copied by other states in their recruitment efforts. According to Kristine Campbell RN, PhD, Executive Director of the OCN, "This pioneering campaign was very creative and innovative and helped nursing break free from the old stereotypes of the profession. We realized that if we were going to solve Oregon's nursing shortage, we had to recruit students that more accurately reflected the state's demographic makeup, and moved away from people's perception of our industry. The positive reaction nationally to the campaign helped us bring this conference to Portland."

Campbell also credits the visionary leadership of the Oregon Nursing Leadership Council (ONLC), who had the insight to bring all of the state's nursing profession components to the table in 2000 to begin dealing with the crisis in nursing. "In many states," Campbell said, "nursing factions don't come together easily to deal with professional issues. But in Oregon, we put aside our differences, worked together to develop a plan, raised money to fund it, and just did it. That vision and leadership is also being rewarded by this national conference choosing to meet in Oregon." The ONLC is currently working on a number of nursing initiatives to improve the educational capacity of Oregon's nursing schools, to reform nursing education to prepare the nurse of the future, and to improve the practice environment to improve nurse retention.

Linda Tieman, RN MN CHE, Executive Director for WCN, began her work in July, 2004, creating the organization and building relationships across the state with organizations and individuals concerned about having enough nurses to care for the state's citizens. "We intend to meet that mission through collaboration and innovation, education of the public about the advantages of a nursing career, and support to current nurses and nursing faculty."

An agenda for the conference can be obtained by phoning 503-943-7150. For more information on the goals of the OCN and the WCN and how you can help support their efforts, please visit www.oregoncenterfornursing.org or www.wacenterfornursing.org.

The Oregon Center for Nursing is a non-profit organization established by the Oregon Nursing Leadership Council in 2001 as a strategy for dealing with Oregon's severe nursing shortage. The OCN is governed by a 5-member Board of Directors, and is currently housed in offices generously provided by the University of Portland. It is also funded in part by the Northwest Health Foundation.