Study to Track Career Changes of New Nurses

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Carol S. Brewer, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing at the University at Buffalo and a specialist in nursing labor issues, has received $440,000 to study the reasons behind the critical shortage of nurses across the U.S through research funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Her award is part of a $1.9 million grant to Christine T. Kovner of the New York University College of Nursing, on which Brewer is co-principal investigator.

Mecca Cranley, Ph.D., dean of the UB School of Nursing, said the school is grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for funding the continuing work of Brewer and Kovner.

"The results of this partnership will be of significance to the health-care community in helping to find solutions to a critical national shortage of nurses," said Cranley. "In the face of this continuing problem, exploring the conditions that influence new nurses to remain in, or leave, their positions will be particularly useful."

The five-year national study will survey 5,000 recent graduates of registered nurse (RN) programs periodically over the first four years of their careers to track the underlying reasons for their work decisions.

"This research will allow us to track changes over the first few years of a new RN's career, during which many seem to leave hospitals," said Brewer, who has published articles on nursing labor issues in professional journals since 1998.

"It is important for us to know whether new nurses are leaving particular settings, or leaving the profession altogether," she said. "The answers will point to very different solutions to a nursing shortage. New graduates of nursing programs who become registered nurses are essential to balancing the overall supply and demand for these professionals."

Brewer is a resident of Clarence.