What is the Center for Nursing?

• Alabama’s Center for Nursing was developed as a result of the current nursing shortage.  By the 1990s, the shortage had become an issue for the State’s nursing leaders. 
• As the critical nature of the nursing workforce intensified, the Alabama Board of Nursing committed itself to providing leadership and facilitation in addressing the shortage.  The Alabama State Nurses’ Association Commission on Professional Issues met in March 2003.  The Commission recommended that the Board of Nursing develop and implement a Center for Nursing within the existing ABN organization. 
• Because of the Center’s valuable connection to Alabama’s Board of Nursing, the need for constant fundraising is eliminated, although sustaining the Center through grant writing is an important function of the Center’s Director, Dr. Allison Terry.
• The first state-level nursing workforce entity was created by statute in North Carolina in 1991. The Robert Wood Johnson Colleagues in Caring: Collaboratives for Nursing Workforce Development (1996-2002) created funding and direction for expanding state and regional entities for nurse workforce planning and development.  Today, there are over 30 such initiatives.