The nation's first bi-state nursing workforce center is opening up in Kansas City. The more than half a million dollar project is mainly being funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and the Reach Healthcare Foundation.
Susan Lacey is a nursing analyst at Children's Mercy Hospital and will be directing the new project. She says in general, a lot of nurses become dissatisfied with their working environment and end up leaving the field. But she says they oftentimes don't have the resources on their own to study the problems and make changes.
Lacey: So many times in the day to day work of delivering health care, you don't have time to sit back and really analyze ways in which you could improve things.
Lacy says the new center located at UMKC will provide area nurses and hospitals with technical and monetary support, so they can identify workforce concerns and come up with solutions. She also says the center will conduct workforce surveys in local hospitals and clinics.
Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
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