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The Center recognizes and thanks Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Florida Incorporated for its contribution matching FCN's dedicated funding level thus allowing more projects to be selected.

Workforce Central Florida
Project Title: Sparking Youth Interest in Healthcare Careers: SimMan® Exhibit and Outreach Program
Project Summary: This partnership between Workforce Central Florida and Orlando Science Center kicks off a long-term recruitment initiative in our workforce region by exciting youth about careers in healthcare, particularly nursing, through a demonstration of experiential learning. A portable patient simulation exhibit, SimMan®, will be located at the Science Center and provide a platform for presenting hands-on interactive healthcare scenarios to students. Dynamic, personally relevant, experiential learning scenarios will offer visitors observation opportunities with a simulated patient thus expanding knowledge of the essential nursing skills needed in high performance healthcare work environments.

Baptist Health South Florida
Project Title: Nursing Retention: It's a Leadership Thing!
Project Summary: Retention is a long standing problem in the nursing workforce. The Florida Center for Nursing's 2008 Statewide Status Report reports that statewide RN vacancy rates exceed 9% for hospitals and RN turnover rates are over 19% for hospitals. Project leaders will adapt the Love 'Em or Lose 'Em program, a system widely used in the corporate sector, for developing nurse leaders. The goal of this project is to create nursing leadership training and development that directly improves direct patient care and nursing retention rates.

Hospice by the Sea
Project Title: Caring for the Caregiver, A Holistic Approach to Healing Compassion Fatigue
Project Summary: The deleterious impact of stress faced by nurses who care for seriously ill patients and their families has been well documented. A Florida State University study found that 80% of hospice and palliative care nurses were at moderate to high risk for burnout and compassion fatigue, resulting in increased absenteeism, a significantly compromised sense of well-being and an exodus from the profession. This project will pilot a program that combines self-care education and complementary therapies to reduce the impact of stress and compassion fatigue among nurses in our inpatient Hospice CareCenter.

Shands at the University of Florida
Project Title: Enhancing Staff Nurse Satisfaction by Improving the Efficiency of Nursing Care
Project Summary: A wide range of research clearly demonstrates that nurses are spending increasing amounts of time on administrative tasks, leaving less time for direct patient care. Research also shows that involving nurses in decision-making positively impacts nurse satisfaction. This project aims to work with staff nurses to identify and target the most inefficient administrative tasks in an effort to improve nurse satisfaction, retention, and participation in decision-making. Project leaders will survey nurses within the pilot unit to identify inefficiencies, collaborate with nurses to create interventions, and then evaluate nurse satisfaction and perception of improved efficiency.

Florida Hospital Center for Nursing Research & Innovation
Project Title: Managers' Strategic Communication and Nurse Retention
Project Summary: This project seeks to increase retention among nurses and foster shared organizational values by piloting a communication training program for nurse managers. The project will train nurse managers on the practice of Motivational Language (ML), a set of specific strategic communication techniques. ML has been shown to predict worker performance, innovation, job satisfaction, absenteeism, and intent to stay within the organization. By adapting the ML program to a nursing environment, project leaders hope to improve overall nurse retention, satisfaction, and intent to stay.

University Community Hospital
Project Title: The Admission Nurse Program for the Older and Experienced Nurse
Project Summary: Data from the Florida Center for Nursing shows that the average age of RNs in Florida is 47.7 and that work in direct care decreases dramatically with age. Because increasing production of new graduate nurses is not enough to resolve the shortage, it is essential to identify innovative strategies for retaining older and experienced nurses. This project will pilot a new role for older nurses, enabling the older, experienced nurse to continue working at the bedside while maintaining flexible scheduling. Project leaders hope this position will impact patient satisfaction by providing continuity of care and increase staff satisfaction by removing the burden of the admission process from the staff nurse.