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SWIFT Education Partners

SWIFT Nurse Educators as a National Model: Why Wisconsin? A private/public partnership model is essential to meet nursing work force needs in Wisconsin and across the nation. The SWIFT Nurse Educators initiative is built on a multi-sector collaboration that we believe is unique in the nation. Wisconsin has established the strong public/private partnerships between the Workforce Development Boards, health care service industry, the UW System, the Technical College System, and policymakers necessary to implement and sustain innovative statewide approaches to health professionals’ education over time. These partnerships have been crafted and endorsed by two separate gubernational administrations and have resulted in system to system collaborations with a potential for significant measurable outcomes.

The Wisconsin multi sector partnerships, forged to focus on the health care worker shortage, have been immensely effective in 1) identifying the nature/scope of the problem; 2) isolating the demographic, financial, political, systemic, and logistical factors that have perpetuated its growth; 3) crafting comprehensive remedial recommendations intended to accommodate, eliminate, or overcome those elements. However, to date collaborative efforts have, for the most part, operated at the state level with regional representation. SWIFT will provide a transition from state level planning efforts to the local execution of recommended strategies.

SWIFT Education Partners

The SWIFT Nurse Educator initiative is supported by the Affiliation of Nurse Educators in Wisconsin (ANEW), which consists of the leadership in nursing education in Wisconsin, as represented by the Deans and Directors of all the university and technical college nursing programs in the state.

Selected representatives from the statewide nursing programs have agreed to serve on the SWIFT Educational Strategies Work Group. This committee includes representatives from the UW System nursing schools offering masters degrees, representatives from the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) nursing programs, and a nursing education consultant from a private university nursing program. The work of this committee focuses on developing strategies to accelerate the achievement of master's degrees for nurse educator candidates in the UW system schools. Accomplishments to date include:

• Established a sub-group of UW master's program advisors and directors who focus on streamlining the admissions process for prospectivecandidates and ways to provide guidance to the SWIFT students as they progress through their programs of study.

• Developed a tool that compares UW education course learning outcomes with educational core abilities required by the WTCS system in their educator certification process to potentially eliminate additional coursework for SWIFT Nurse Educator graduates employed in the technical college system.

• Established the educator role competencies that must be achieved by SWIFT candidates by the time they complete their master's degrees. These include the use of appropriate theory and research to facilitate educational practice by:

o       planning, managing , and evaluating teaching and learning strategies;

o       constructing curricular or program components;

o       designing, implementing, and evaluating learning assessment strategies;

o       demonstrating effectiveness in educational performance for selected populations.

SWIFT Employer Partners

Recruitment of employers who agree to sponsor SWIFT Nurse Educator candidates to achieve their master's degrees in nursing has been an ongoing activity since the program began in the summer of 2005. Through June, 2007 five employers have agreed to sponsor 32 employees for their master's degrees in nursing as SWIFT candidates. Twenty-six students are already enrolled in their programs of study, and six have been admitted to begin their programs in the Fall semester of 2007 (see table below).

Additional employers who have indicated a strong interest in sponsoring at least one SWIFT Nurse Educator candidates include Dove Healthcare (Eau Claire area), Franciscan-Skemp Health System (La Crosse area), Gundersen Lutheran Health System (La Crosse area), and St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center (Madison). Work is ongoing to recruit more employers who are willing to sponsor SWIFT Nurse Educator candidates. 

Current and potential sponsoring employers are invited to serve on the Employer Strategies Work Group which develops guidelines and strategies for employer-related issues. Accomplishments to date include:

The development of a candidate recruitment toolkit containing sample flyers, candidate applications, Q & A documents,  a candidate interview guide, and a template for an employer-employee letter of agreement regarding participation in the SWIFT program.

The development of budget worksheets for employers to use to plan for the costs of sponsoring one or more employees.

SWIFT Workforce Development Partners

Workforce Development Boards (WDBs) were established by the Wisconsin Workforce Investment Act of 1998. There are eleven of these boards located throughout the state, and they work locally on workforce issues, such as coordinating workforce investment activities with area economic development strategies, assisting employers to meet hiring needs, and overseeing programs to retrain employees whose jobs have been eliminated due to technology or global economics.

Representatives from several WDBs actively supported the SWIFT Nurse Educator Initiative during the grant funding process with the U.S. Department of Labor, and three representatives serve on the SWIFT Steering Committee. This committee is co-chaired by Dr. Sally Lundeen and Dick Best, the Executive Director of the West Central Wisconsin WDB. The WDBs are committed to partnering with healthcare employers and statewide nursing programs to alleviate the nursing faculty shortage by focusing on the following activities:

• monitoring workforce demand/supply trends;

• identifying and recruiting qualified SWIFT candidates;

• identifying potential additional sources of support for SWIFT candidates as they progress through school;

• facilitating recruitment of additional healthcare employers to sponsor SWIFT candidates; and

• providing follow-up services to facilitate candidate placement as a nurse educator with a local nursing program while remaining in a position with their original employer.

To learn where the Workforce Development Boards are located throughout Wisconsin, click on the WDB Table.