Vision
Our Mission
Our Values
Seven Area of Impact
- K-12 Pipeline and Pre-nursing Pathways
- Nursing Education at the LPN, RN and APRN Levels
- Health and Well-being of the Nursing Workforce
- Upskilling the Workforce through Academic and/or Mentoring Programs
- Innovative Care Delivery Models
- Workforce Data
- Local, State and Federal Policy
Who We Are
We are a group of nurse workforce entities that focuses on addressing the nursing shortage within their states and contributes to the national effort to assure an adequate supply of qualified nurses to meet the health needs of the US population. We support the advancement of new as well as existing nurse workforce initiatives and share best practices in nursing workforce research, workforce planning, workforce development, and formulation of workforce policy. We share information in three major ways: through publications, via annual conferences, and by way of this virtual network.
What exactly is a state nurse workforce entity? These state initiatives are made up of people who work to increase the supply of nurses and resolve the critical nursing shortage. Activities include data collection and analysis, publication of reports and information, as well as recommendations of changes necessary to resolve the nursing shortage. While organizational structures, funding sources, and entity names vary, these state nurse workforce entities are commonly referred to as “Centers.” The concept of “Taking the Long View” reflects the focus of workforce efforts being transformed from ‘quick fixes’ to long-range strategic planning. This involves the collection of data that allows the identification of imbalances between supply and demand and allows for forecasting efforts that drive nursing workforce development and policy recommendations. The majority of states have a nurse workforce initiative.
Overview of 2025-2028 Strategic Plan
The Impact of Nursing Workforce Centers on State Nursing Workforce Strategy
Visit our Location Maps to find states participating in the National Forum.
The National Forum’s Board of Directors represent leaders from 7 states.
The National Nursing Workforce Center Act would establish a grant program to support public-private partnerships of entities seeking to stabilize, support, analyze, develop, and invest in growing the nursing workforce. Through this program, existing nursing workforce centers will be able to expand their data collection and solution-based problem solving for their individual states. States without nursing workforce centers will be able to establish one to respond to both nursing workforce and community needs.
Since 2009, the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers has offered a recommended minimum set of data to survey about the nursing workforce to standardize information collected by each state.
Click for more information and to download the minimum data sets.
Online Journal of Nursing Workforce (OJNW), the official journal of the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers (NFSNWC), is a scholarly, biennial, and peer-reviewed journal. The journal publishes original research articles that advance the area of nursing workforce along with innovation research/policy reports and program/project studies that inform nursing workforce policies, programming, and planning on the local, state, federal, and international levels
Topics
- K-12 Pipeline and pre-nursing pathways
- Nursing education at the LPN, RN and APRN levels
- Health and well-being of the nursing workforce
- Upskilling the nursing workforce
- Innovative care delivery models
- Workforce data and research
- Local, state and federal Policy
Click here for more information about the Journal.
Our Career Center provides the opportunities for nursing workforce entities to post jobs.
Every two years, the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers partners with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) to conduct the only national-level survey specifically focused on the U.S. nursing workforce. Click for more information.
The National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers is a proud member of the Interorganizational Collaborative on Nursing Statistics (ICONS). The organization is in the process of re-starting. More information will be shared as it is available.
The National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers is a proud member of the Nursing Community Coalition. Click for more information.
For questions or more information about the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers
Patricia Moulton Burwell, PhD
Director,
National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers
info@nursingworkforcecenters.org