The Northeast Ohio Nursing Initiative (NEONI) report titled �Measuring Student Capacity and Facult
Resources in Northeast Ohio Schools of Nursing� was released in November of 2004. The report detailed comprehensive survey results regarding student capacity, program issues and faculty resources in 22
pre-licensure programs. The executive summary included four critical findings.
- Northeast Ohio nursing education programs have expanded at a tremendous rate. Schools responded swiftly and maximized existing resources to meet student demands, which had increased by 41 percent over the past three academic years.
- There is a growing demand for northeast Ohio nursing education programs to expand
- The lack of nursing faculty and classroom space/clinical training sites are the most significant barriers affecting program expansion
- Northeast Ohio nursing programs produce high quality nurses who work in Ohio
Summer 2005
Based on these critical findings Cleveland Clinic nursing leadership initiated a dialogue between
nursing education and service by conducting focused interviews with nine northeast Ohio schools of nursing.
Questions were selected to determine differences as well as similarities to find �common ground� for
potential resolutions. The focus questions centered on:
- Improving and increasing clinical rotations
- Increasing the number of faculty
- Increasing capacity in both the schools of nursing and clinical sites
- Increasing nursing quality by focusing on enhanced degrees and professionalism for nurses in northeast Ohio
The focus groups concluded with pursuing the opportunity to enhance collaboration between the schools of
nursing and the Cleveland Clinic Health System. The goals being:
- Increase nursing school capacity by minimizing barriers to clinical faculty appointments
- Enhance professionalism
- Heighten interest in pursuit of advanced degrees in nursing
- Decrease competition for clinical placement
- Recognize and reward staff nurses who make a commitment to become adjunct faculty for the schools.
Fall 2005
Building on their shared commitment to enhance the regional supply of nurses, Cleveland Clinic and
its educational partners established the Deans� Roundtable, a pilot initiative designed to address the nursing faculty shortage. Cleveland Clinic and nine regional colleges and universities joined forces to:
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Discuss capacity limits in nursing programs throughout the greater Cleveland area.
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Identify potential solutions for expanding regional enrollment in local schools of nursing
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Articulate how the nursing faculty shortage limits the ability to accept qualified applicants into nursing education programs.
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Examine how the nursing faculty shortage was leading to a regional shortage of trained and qualified nurses.
Spring 2006
Cleveland Clinic further demonstrated its commitment to the initiative by presenting 28 information
sessions to more than 200 nurses at its main campus and health system hospitals. The sessions were an
opportunity to:
- Introduce nurses to the history and concept of the initiative
- Evaluate the level of interest in the initiative
- Recruit nurses who might have an interest in serving as clinical faculty
Although the long term goal of the Deans� Roundtable was to develop a comprehensive database application
to match potential faculty with available teaching opportunities, the application was in the conceptual phase
when the information sessions were presented. Realizing the importance of communicating progress of the initiative
to those nurses who took part in the information sessions an interim tool was needed to collect basic contact
information. To meet this need a web based form was developed and made available through an Internet site.
This Internet site was also used to promote the initiative through a hyperlink from the Division of Nursing�s
Intranet site. This effort:
- Informed nurses who were not able to attend a session about the initiative
- Allowed them to complete a web form so they would be included in communications about the progress of the initiative.
Summer & Fall 2006
Developing the application
The enthusiastic response to the initial information sessions supported the idea that a more comprehensive
database application would need to be developed. In order to support development Cleveland Clinic agreed to:
- Fund development of the database application by an outside vendor
- Hire a full time programmer to:
- Oversee development of the database application
- Manage the comprehensive database of faculty and courses
- Function as a liaison between potential faculty and the schools of nursing
The Discovery & Analysis Phase
This process proved to be integral in developing the functionality of the application that identifies
potential faculty who match the needs of the school.
The programmer analyst, education administrator, a dean from one of the participating schools and a
representative from marketing participated in several discovery and analysis meetings with the vendor.
The discovery and analysis phase was used to:
- Identify data needed to be collected in the professional profile of potential faculty
- Define the data to include in the course descriptions entered by the schools