A community-wide academic-service partnership to expand faculty and student capacity.

This article describes a unique academic-service community collaborative aimed at increasing student and faculty capacity. The state hospital association held a series of community-wide meetings with health care organization and academic leaders to discuss the growing RN and faculty shortages. Collectively, schools of nursing experienced a 70% increase in qualified applicants and could not admit all qualified applicants due to faculty constraints. A unique Workforce Collaborative Pilot Project was formed to address student and faculty capacity issues with three primary objectives: expand the pool of educators involved in preparing the next generation of nurses, increase nursing school enrollments by 335 additional nursing students each year in the metropolitan area for the next 5 years, and implement an innovative educational model that could be sustained or replicated. As a result, area schools of nursing have expanded enrollment by 1,046, and overall quality measurements and evaluative feedback remain positive.

Barriers and challenges of implementing tobacco control policies in hospitals: applying the institutional analysis and development framework to the Catalan Network of Smoke-Free Hospitals.

This article analyzes tobacco control policies in hospitals based on the experience of the Catalan Network of Smoke-Free Hospitals, Spain. The objective is to understand through this case study how tobacco policies are designed and implemented in health care organizations. Because tobacco control is a public health issue, governmental, institutional, and professional involvement is necessary. This article identifies and examines the structure and relationships among the different actors involved in the tobacco control policies in health care organizations using Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development framework.This theory helps one understand the policy failures and rethink the future challenges. Critical issues should be reviewed to enhance implementation of smoke-free hospitals-such as assuring the compliance of nonsmoking areas and introducing compulsory tobacco cessation activities that are promoted and monitored by the public administration. The author suggests that relying primarily on an organization's interpretation of rules leads to irregular implementation.

Impacting the changing health care environment through collaboration and continuing education: the Nursing 2015 initiative example.

A collaborative initiative among three Ohio health care groups is focusing its efforts on change to enhance the practice of nursing. Continuing education enables currently practicing nurses to advocate for the advancement of nursing and participate in creating change in their practice environments. This collaborative model could be used by other states to enhance nursing practice.

Religious experience. Catholic Health Association's Sister Keehan lands top spot on our annual 100 Most Powerful ranking, underscoring her devotion to achieving a long-elusive goal: access to healthcare for everyone.

The hunger for reform and transparency in healthcare is palpable in this year's listing of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare. The first six are all people who have helped lead efforts to increase access or protect patient privacy, including No. 3, California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left. Find out who leads the pack.

Hospital federations and human resources for health: trends and proposals for improvement.

Health system performance depends on a performing health workforce. In many health care systems, hospital federations are key players as they represent actors, which are important in terms number of qualified health workers employed, and of the volume of services provided. In addressing the "crisis of human resources for health" (HRH) they are part of the problem as well as the solution.