VUMC Lands Moore Foundation Grant

Vanderbilt University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies was awarded $2.2 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to address nursing workforce issues that may impede future health care.

Certain regions in the U.S., particularly rural areas, continue to report a shortage of nurses, especially in specialties such as operating room and labor and delivery. And with health care reform, the expected increased demand for health care services, including those provided primarily by nurses, is likely to create a significant strain on the nursing workforce.

Further, there are new models of care delivery and a greater emphasis on prevention that will require comprehensive care, greater care coordination and adherence to protocols and improved management of chronic disease—roles that are inherently aligned with the nursing model of care.  Unfortunately, experiential data to better understand the impact of these issues is fragmented and not very robust.

“The importance of registered nurses is expected to increase in the coming decades to address significant challenges within our health care system, but empirical workforce research is necessary to help us understand how to better address the issues,” said Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, Valere Potter Professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at Vanderbilt University.