Overview

In outpatient and inpatient settings, nurses are central to the quality of care delivered to patients. To capitalize on this profound impact, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and others have sponsored initiatives to engage nurses to become active leaders and participants in improving health care. RWJF created such a program in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston and the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), called Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB). The program worked intensively with 10 hospitals to pioneer nurse-led innovations in hospital medical surgical units, and is now sharing lessons learned and results with other hospitals across the country. The Foundation will continue to emphasize the importance of engaging nurses to lead quality improvement initiatives in all of our Quality/Equality investments.

History

RWJF has invested more than $150 million in nursing programs over the past 30 years. RWJF's Human Capital portfolio supports programs that address critical issues, such as the shortage of nurses both in health care settings and at the senior leadership levels in education and policy.

Key objectives of our programs include:

• Engaging nursing staff to improve the quality of patient care.
• Improving the organization of work and use of information technology to increase quality and efficiency.
• Examining the physical design of hospitals to improve patient satisfaction and quality of care.
• Building leadership among nurses to create more champions of quality improvement on the frontlines and executive level of health and health care.

Application

The Foundation has compiled samples of the many nurse-led innovations put into practice by hospitals across the country through the TCAB program. These easily accessible tools, which are available for other hospitals to use, can be found in the TCAB toolkit and the Promising Practices section of this Web site.