Nursing Workforce Collaborative

What is the DFWHC Nursing Workforce Collaborative?

The DFWHC Nursing Workforce Collaborative is a forum for a coordinated, community-wide collaboration of nursing schools and hospitals to impact the nursing workforce in the North Texas area.

How did the DFWHC Nursing Workforce Collaborative get started?

The idea for the Collaborative came from a July 2003 Retreat held by the DFWHC bringing together area nursing schools and hospitals. At this retreat, best practices and strategies were shared and discussions began on how we could make meaningful and measurable changes in nursing workforce. Several focuses were established coming from the retreat: Increasing the capacity of nursing schools in North Texas, exploring online alternatives in nursing education, making North Texas a desirable place to live and work for nurses and nursing faculty, retention of nursing staff and students, and preparing nurse graduates to be "hospital ready" while transitioning to the acute care setting. For more details, check out Nursing Workforce Retreat.

Nursing Workforce Collaborative Outcomes to Date

Here is a list of the accomplishments of the Collaborative:

Hospital Based Distance Learning Program - THR/El Centro model for the El Centro ADN Program. Will be expanding to other hospitals, programs, and schools.

Nursing Loan Faculty Program - matching hospital staff to schools as faculty.

Standard Hospital Orientation - used for students doing clinical rotations at our participating hospitals.

Retention Workshops - share best practices for schools and hospitals.

Nurse Educator Courses - special courses for new faculty.

Website Pages - for nurses and nursing faculty wanting to come to the North Texas area that will be incorporated into new DFWHC website.

Community Background Screening Standards - guidelines used by schools and hospitals for students coming into their sites for clinical rotations.

Further Questions on the Collaborative:

This group is not meeting regularly at this time. We do send out communications about activities periodically. If you have questions about the activities, initiatives or outcomes, please feel free to contact Sally Williams at 972-719-4900 or sallyw@dfwhc.org.