Building public health nursing capacity through partnerships with philanthropy

Partners Investing in Nursing's Future (PIN) is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative implemented in collaboration with the Northwest Health Foundation. The goal of PIN is to build local partnerships between nursing organizations, philanthropy and community partners in order to accelerate the investment of local resources in addressing the nursing shortage. To date, 31 PIN sites have been funded in 25 states and the Marshall Islands. Raising the Bar is a Wisconsin-based PIN project that is a partnership of community/public health agencies, nursing education and local philanthropic organizations working together to strengthen the public health nursing workforce. Raising the Bar has developed partnerships across multiple sectors to focus on three initiatives: to improve coordination between education and local employing agencies; to increase the number and diversity of nurses; and to increase retention of staff. The impetus for this project comes from the recognition that public health has an essential mission of improving the health of the public, decreasing health disparities and providing the ultimate safety net. These functions are not possible without a competent and diverse workforce. Recent workforce analysis has revealed that 47% of all public heath staff in Wisconsin will be eligible to retire before 2013. Action from a multi-sectored collaborative is necessary to address this threat to public health. Lessons learned from the multi-sector partnerships established in multiple PIN sites, and based on principles of partnership such as shared vision, clear communication