and Services for the Aging; Tim Flaherty, M.D., of the American Medical Association and National Patient Safety Foundation; Steven Edelstein, J.D., of the Paraprofessional Institute; Donna Lenhoff, Esq., Executive Director, National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform; Dennis O’Leary, President, and Margaret van Amringe, Vice President for External Relations, Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; Cathy Rick, Chief Nursing Officer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Sean Clarke, R.N., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research; Caryl Lee, R.N., Program Manager, National Center for Patient Safety, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Joyce Berger, Senior Advisor, Health Technology Center; Daved van Stralen, M.D., Medical Director, Totally Kids© Specialty Healthcare, The American Association of Critical Care Nurses; Philip Greiner, Past Chair, and Sonda Oppewal, Chair, Public Health Nursing Section, American Public Health Association; Laurence Wellikson, Executive Director, and Janet Nagamine, National Association of Inpatient Physicians; John Hoff, Deputy Assistant Secretary, and Jennie Harvel, Policy Analyst, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D., President, Center for Studying Health System Change.

The committee also commissioned nine papers to provide background information for its deliberations and to synthesize the evidence on particular issues. The authors and their papers were as follows: Julie Sochalski, Ph.D., “The Nursing Workforce: Profile, Trends, Projections”; Barbara Mark, Ph.D., “The Work of Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Nurses Aides in Acute Care Hospitals”; Barbara Bowers, Ph.D., “The Work of Nurses and Nurse Aides in Long Term Care Facilities”; Karen Martin, “The Work of Nurses and Nursing Assistants in Home Care, Public Health, and Other Community Settings”; Ann Rogers Ph.D., “Work Hour Regulation in Safety-Sensitive Industries”; Gail Ingersoll, EdD, and Madeline Schmitt, Ph.D., “Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Team Functioning, and Patient Safety”; Ann Hendrich, “Evidence-based Design of Nursing Workspace in Hospitals”; Pascale Carayon, Ph.D., Carla Alvarado, Ph.D., and Ann Hundt, Ph.D., “Reducing Workload and Increasing Patient Safety Through Work and Workspace Design”; and Murat Bayiz, “Work and Workload Measurements in Nurse Staffing Models.”

In undertaking its work, the committee focused predominantly on nursing care delivered in acute care hospitals and inpatient nursing facilities, because these are the settings in which the greatest amount of evidence exists about the nature of threats to patient safety and possible remedies in the work environment of nurses. The committee noted a number of issues related to, but not part of, its charge, including the nursing shortage, nurse safety in the work environment, and problems with nurse retention. It also noted issues with respect to the varying educational paths to licensure as a