Nursing Home Collaborative

Atlantic Philanthropies Planning Year Grant

The Atlantic Philanthropies approved a grant to the American Academy of Nursing of $500,000 over one year beginning July 1, 2007 (with a no cost extension to December 2008) to further refine and develop the Nursing Home Collaborative (NHC - see Background below). The goal of the NHC is to continually advance quality of care and quality of life for individuals in nursing homes who have complex functional and/or unstable health care needs through collaborative professional registered nursing practice. 

October 2007: Mayday Fund supports NHC Pain Initiatives

Core Principles

The Collaborative established four principles to guide improvements in nursing practice in nursing homes and to build their human capital:

1. registered nurses (RNs) must be competent to enact their leadership positions and to deliver evidence based geriatric nursing care;
2. staffing patterns must be adequate to meet the needs of the resident population;
3. a professional nursing governance structure and processes must be present to ensure individual and collective RN autonomy and accountability for their practice and the leadership of assisting nursing personnel
4. appropriate human and fiscal resources for professional development programs must be provided.

Plans for the Next Five Years

• develop a business plan with expert assistance
• develop a business case for the products and services
• develop and test products and services and
• deliver products and services.

Background

Since the early 1950's, when the federal government first required states to establish some form of licensing for nursing homes, the nursing home industry in the United States has grown to serve millions of people in tens of thousands of facilities. Initially conceptualized as providing long-term care, nursing homes have evolved over the past twenty years to include multiple levels of care for residents with high levels of acuity and or highly complex care needs. This change, along with complex funding and regulatory structures that have developed over time, have created challenges for those who care for residents in nursing homes, including nurses. The HCGNE Nursing Home Collaborative was formed in 2006 to address these challenges.