This is part of the March 2013 issue of Sharing Nursing's Knowledge.

Study: APRN-Staffed Clinic Produces Shorter Wait for Diagnoses at Lower Cost for Women with Benign Breast Conditions

A nurse-based approach to diagnosing women with breast conditions is saving money and producing shorter wait times for diagnoses, according to an article in the January issue of Health Affairs.

In 2008, the Virginia Mason Medical Center, a Seattle-based multidisciplinary health care network that logs 800,000 outpatient and 17,000 hospital visits per year, opened a new breast care clinic, with the goal of streamlining the diagnosis and care for women with breast conditions. These include such benign conditions as cysts and fibrocystic breast disease, as well as breast cancer. As part of the clinic’s model, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) take the lead role in diagnosing patients, working with on-site equipment to perform mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. Patients whose conditions cannot promptly be confirmed as benign meet with breast surgeons for diagnosis and care, if appropriate.

By 2020, nearly one in nine jobs in the United States will be in the health care sector, according to new research from the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. The industry is expected to add 4.2 million jobs during that time, growing at twice the rate of the overall economy.

The United States will need nearly 7.5 million health care workers to fill new and existing jobs, the report says, including 1.2 million registered nurses (RNs). The largest job growth is expected among RNs, home health aides, and personal care aides.

“With an aging health care professional workforce, we will not only see new job growth but also openings in existing positions as workers retire or leave for other job opportunities," Robert Martiniano, principal author of the report, said in a news release.

The report also found that the majority of jobs (63 percent) are expected to be concentrated in ambulatory care (non-institutional settings).

The analysis is based on data from the biennial U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 10-year (2010-2020) occupational and industry projections for employment.

Read more about the job outlook for physicians, nurses and frontline workers.

Read the study from the Center for Health Workforce Studies.

Read a news release about the study.

Are you signed up to receive Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge? The monthly Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) e-newsletter will keep you up to date on the latest nursing news, research and trends. Here’s a review of what’s in the January issue:

Nurse Educator Helps Lift Native Hawaiians Out of Poverty

Read about the remarkable journey of RWJF Community Health Leader Jamie Kamailani Boyd, who made a long and arduous climb out of poverty and is now helping others do the same. She has created an academic program called Pathway Out of Poverty, which helps disadvantaged Hawaiians become nurse’s aides and registered nurses.

RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows are Using Their Leadership Skills to Improve Health and Health Care

Several alumni of the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program are using the leadership and risk-taking skills they gained in the program to support Partners Investing in Nursing's Future projects in their home states.

Four Decades of Championing Nursing

This piece examines some of the early work that laid the foundation for even more innovative and ambitious RWJF programs to build nursing leadership, improve nurse education, strengthen the nursing workforce and, ultimately, improve health and health care. Read about former RWJF staff member Terrance Keenan, who influenced the Foundation’s early investments in nursing programs and initiatives.

Nurses Reach Out to Help Those Who Are Hungry

As the economic downturn made hunger and food insecurity more common last year, RWJF Scholars and alumni stepped up to help in their communities. Read about their work, individually and through their nursing schools.

See the entire January issue here. Sign up to receive Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge here.

The health care industry added 22,600 jobs in December, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is consistent with the upward trend the industry demonstrated throughout the year; health care gained about 315,000 jobs in 2011.

Ambulatory health services were responsible for 11,300 of the new jobs, and hospitals accounted for approximately 10,000 jobs.

Perhaps due to the increase in health care jobs filled, a new report from The Conference Board finds that online advertised vacancies for health care practitioners decreased in December. A decrease in advertised vacancies for Registered Nurses (RNs) was largely responsible for the drop, but demand for other health care practitioners remains high. “The number of advertised vacancies in this occupational category continues to be quite favorable and outnumber job-seekers by 2.9 to 1,” the report says.

As we head into 2012, the Human Capital Blog asked Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) staff, program directors, scholars and grantees to share their New Year’s resolutions for our health care system, and what they think should be the priorities for action in the New Year. This post is by Dennis Sherrod, EdD, RN, RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow, Cohort 2003 and Professor and Director of Graduate Programs, Forsyth Medical Center Endowed Chair of Recruitment & Retention, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Increasing access and quality of health care services and promoting individual health continue to be national priorities. As Affordable Care Act provisions increase access to care and prevention services, demand for primary care providers, registered nurses, and other health professionals are expected to increase. A high priority for health care systems will be to develop innovative health care delivery models that fully utilize health promotion, chronic care management, and health care delivery skills of advanced practice nurses and registered nurses. Health systems will need to collaborate effectively with university systems to measure outcomes of these models and rapidly integrate findings into nursing curricula and educational programs, therefore informing the preparation of future nurse professionals.

The nursing profession will need to attract and retain a diverse nurse workforce educated to focus on health promotion and primary prevention. And health systems will need to encourage advanced practice nurses and registered nurses to practice within the full range of their educational preparation.

My New Year’s resolution for United States health care systems is to establish, activate, and/or reactivate health system and health professions educational program advisory groups to clearly communicate rapidly changing and evolving competencies and skills required to promote health and address evolving health care needs of our citizens. Advisory groups can assist stakeholders from service and education to collaboratively prepare and introduce nurse professionals better equipped and prepared to address health and health care needs in rapidly changing health care systems.

By Susan Hassmiller, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.

Director of the Initiative on the Future of Nursing and RWJF Senior Adviser for Nursing

Last summer, I fulfilled a lifelong dream in journeying to London and Turkey to follow in Florence Nightingale’s footsteps. I wanted to learn how her groundbreaking efforts to create modern nursing and make systematic changes in sanitation laws, military hospital design, the field of statistics, and of course, nursing, impacted nursing today.

What I discovered is that Florence’s work is relevant to all of us, particularly as our generation works to remake our health care system to ensure that all Americans receive integrated, equitable and cost-effective services through the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. This multi-year initiative seeks to advance comprehensive change for patients and the country by fully utilizing the expertise and experience of all nurses.

Among other things, this Campaign is working to improve nursing education and training, promote nursing leadership, enable all nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training and improve data collection – all areas that Florence impacted in her day.

As we celebrate Florence Nightingale’s birthday May 12 and National Nurses Week, let’s continue her legacy.