The National Forum for State Nursing Workforce Centers is a group of nurse workforce entities that focus on addressing the nursing shortage within their states and contribute to the national effort to assure an adequate supply of qualified nurses to meet the health needs of the US population.  They support the advancement of new, as well as existing, nurse workforce initiatives and share best practice in nursing workforce research, planning, development, and formulation of workforce policy.  They share information in 3 major ways:  through publications, annual conferences, and a virtual network. The Center for Nursing at the Foundation of NYS Nurses has been a long-standing member of the National Forum and networks with other members and attends conferences annually.

Mission: to provide a sustainable network for collaboration and communication among statewide nursing workforce entities.

Vision: to create a unique forum that is a conduit for wisdom sharing and strategy development for promoting an optimal nursing workforce to meet the health care needs of the population.

Goals:

1. Assure standardized core nursing supply and demand data sets.
2. Achieve consensus on the key elements in forecasting nursing supply and demand.
3. Promote dynamic and strategically driven processes for nursing workforce long-range planning.
4. Disseminate successful practices related to contemporary nursing workforce issues.
5. Share resources related to creating and sustaining statewide nursing workforce entities.
6. Provide a collective force for developing and disseminating state nursing workforce policy initiatives.

Values:

• Objectivity
• Neutrality
• Collaboration
• Diversity
• Credibility