NC Center for Nursing In Danger of Losing Legislative Funding - Please Help NOW!

Was it really a "legislative snafu," or is the funding being cut intentionally? I've been an RN in NC since long before the NCCN came into existence (I remember the fuss about starting it up), and I've never really seen it as anything more than a gimmick. I'm not aware of anything particularly worthwhile or substantive that it's accomplished over the years (although I may simply be uninformed and am happy to be corrected :)). Perhaps the legislature simply feels that, after funding the NCCN for over 15 years, that, if the public and NC nurses feel this foundation is worthwhile, the public and NC nurses should pay for it ...

SO1N-RN · May 4, 2008

It helps to understand the legislative mandate for NCCN. Many people believe that it was created to help nurses and that is not quite true. It was created to ensure that there are adequate nursing resources to meet the health care needs of the citizens of NC. It is the citizens who benefit from having a Center for Nursing and they do pay for the Center through allocation of tax dollars. It would not be just to have the Center for Nursing with its current mandate to be shouldered by nurses.

NCCN was given the task of providing information about the current supply and demand of nurses in NC. That information is updated every year and can be found on NCCN's website.

NCCN is also charged with providing recruitment and retention efforts. That is done through a multi-media campaign called Power to Make a Difference. Developed by NCCN this material is now used across the country. NCCN also conducts the Institute for Nursing Excellence (INE) this program is designed to reward excellent nurses in NC. Each year 30 RN (direct care nurses) are selected through a competitive process. The INE is held each year alternating from the mountains to the coast. It is a week long professional/ personal development program. NCCN also pulls together large stakeholder groups to work on key nursing issues.

Did you know that since NCCN was created that the state of NC has not experienced a nursing shortage? Other states in the past 5 years have had RN vacancy rates over 10%, NC's has held steady at around 8%.

You can find out a lot more information about NCCN by checking out the attached documents from VickieRN or the NCCN web-page

http://www.nccenterfornursing.org.

elkpark · May 4, 2008

Conditions in the state have changed quite a bit since 1991. The NCCN was created back when the state was in good financial shape and had big surpluses (before the Republicans took over the state legislature, but that's another conversation :rolleyes: ), and now the state is in significant financial distress (as so many states are these days) and looking at serious budget shortfalls. I imagine there are plenty of state programs that are nice to have but not vital to the operation of the state that are looking at losing their funding, and each one of them believes just as sincerely as the NCCN does that their program deserves to continue being funded. It would be great if that were possible, but the money just isn't there.

SO1N-RN · May 4, 2008

I might agree with you if there were equitable across the board look at all state agencies and each underwent a review similar to the one NCCN went through last year. The budget for NCCN is about $500,000 each year. Since 1991 NCCN has never had budget increase except for salary adjustments. There are over 100,000 licensed nurses in NC. A similar program for teachers (there are about 90,000 teacher in the state) is $6.3 million dollars each year. They have a retreat center in the Mountains and will soon have another on the Coast. Now I believe teachers are important but this seems a little outrageous to me. If the state believes that such agencies are not of value then I would expect that all such agencies would be at risk not just the agency that tracks nursing issues.

elkpark · May 4, 2008

I agree that is outrageous -- they should be facing the same (proportionally) budget cuts as NCCN.