In January, 2010, 77,553 registered nurses completed a mandatory survey in order to renew their RN licenses in Wisconsin. We commend the nurses of Wisconsin for their cooperation in responding to the survey.
The Wisconsin Center for Nursing (WCN) under a mandate from the Wisconsin State Legislature (WI Statute 106.30), has analyzed this data in detail, resulting in this report and its accompanying documents.
WCN is deeply appreciative of the work of the volunteer researchers and the contributions of their institutions:
Susan Dean-Baar, PhD, RN, FAAN UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing, Mary Ellen Murray, PhD, RN UW-Madison School of Nursing; and, Lea Acord, PhD, RN Marquette University College of Nursing.
In addition, we want to thank Jeffery B. Henriques, PhD, UW-Madison School of Nursing, who was the statistician for the significant and historic work.
Additionally, many partner organizations provided services to design, develop and deliver the survey. In particular, the work being done by the Wisconsin Healthcare Workforce Collaborative was critical to the creation of the survey design. Funding for the work of the Collaborative was provided in part by the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
WCN is also grateful to the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) for making the survey accessible to the thousands of nurses in our state, and our partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), without whose assistance our work would not be possible.