North Dakota Nursing Needs Study Proposed Projects
Year 1 of the study included five projects in order to establish a baseline. Supply and demand projections were also calculated in Year 1 and will be recalculated in Year 6 and Year 10. Year 2 included four projects in order to further establish baseline data. Years 3 and 4 include three projects in order to begin tracking changes and establish baseline technology and high school student data. Years 5 - 10 will include two projects each year in order to continue tracking changes from established baseline data. A summary of each project can be found below.
Facility Survey
Plan to collect five years of demand data including statewide vacancy and turnover rates to establish trends from health care facilities throughout North Dakota. Data collection will also include tracking changes in nurse representation, clinical sites, salary and other issues. After five years, will collect demand data every other year (Year 8 and Year 10), similar to North Carolina's nursing workforce center.
Licensed Nurse Survey
Plan to collect five years of data including retirement plans, workforce issues, salary and work satisfaction to establish trends. Then data collection will occur every other year (Year 7 and Year 9), similar to North Carolina's nursing workforce center.
Licensed Nurse Focus Groups
A sample of LPNs and RNs throughout North Dakota participated in focus groups during Year 1 of the study to determine workplace issues and job satisfaction and to derive data for use on licensed nurse survey.
Faculty Survey
Survey data was collected from nursing faculty from all nursing programs in Year 1 of study to determine faculty and student issues in nursing education. This data will be collected in Year 6 in order to track any changes.
Faculty Focus Groups
Focus groups in a sample of nursing education programs were used in Year 2 of the study to examine issues arising from faculty survey and to determine issues and solutions to expanding nursing program capacity.
Education Technology Assessment
Will be administered in Year 3 of the study to determine what technology is currently in use by all education programs and facilities and to determine technology needs and possible linkages between programs. This assessment is a replication of Oregon's nursing technology assessment. This assessment will be repeated in Year 8 of the study to track changes.
Student Survey
Survey data from students from all nursing education programs was collected in Year 2 to determine career goals, reasons for choosing nursing and opinions about training received and working in North Dakota. This survey will be repeated in Year 7 to track changes.
Student Focus Groups
Focus groups were conducted with a sample of LPN and RN students throughout North Dakota in Year 1 in order to determine career goals, perceptions of the nursing field and working in North Dakota and rural areas. This information was used in formulating the student survey given in Year 2.
High School Student Survey
Survey will be administered to a sample of high school students throughout North Dakota in Year 4. Students will be asked about health profession education and career goals, their perception of the nursing field and working in North Dakota. This survey will be repeated in Year 9 to track changes.
