The Center for Nursing Research & Innovation

Current Grants Overview

1. Moore Foundation Nursing Initiative—CalNOC Baseline Outcomes Measurement Project

The Moore Foundation Nursing Initiative- CalNOC Baseline Outcomes Measurement Project builds on the infrastructure of the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition (CalNOC) Database Project, a joint venture of ANA\California & the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL). UCSF received this one-year, $1.42 million grant to measure current nursing-related patient outcomes in acute hospitals in the Bay Area. UCSF and the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition (CalNOC) will work with 50 target hospitals within the five Bay Area counties (Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara). CalNOC is collaborating with 142 California hospitals in an ongoing nursing-quality benchmarking project. The Bay Area study is designed to a establish baseline measurement of nursing care and to provide ongoing measurement and evaluation of the Foundation's Nursing initiative.

Study Aims -

The University of California San Francisco School of Nursing Center for Research and Innovation in Patient Care is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Late 2003, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced their intention to invest in the profession of nursing and safe patient care practices. The Foundation has committed $110M over 10 years to address the shortage of nurses and improvement in nursing–related patient care quality in 5 Bay Area Counties, including Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The UCSF Center for Research and Innovation, has been conducting research and demonstration projects examine and improving nursing practice safety, quality and outcomes since 1999. Leveraging the existing resources and expertise of the Center, the new partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will expedite expansion of a key project, the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition Project (CalNOC). CalNOC methods, measures and infrastructure will be tapped and expanded to provide the acute care clinical evaluation of GBMF initiatives planned for the 50 acute care hospitals in the target five Bay Area counties.

The Betty Moore CalNOC Nurse-Related Outcomes Project Year One goals, supported by $1.4 Million in grant funds, focus on expansion of CalNOC infrastructure and data capture methods; integrating its advisory and governance stakeholder involvement in the development of new indicators; engaging national experts in the development and pilot testing of new nursing quality/safety indicators and conducting baseline evaluation analyses. It is expected that the outcomes of the Year One Project will be serve as the basis for ongoing evaluation of the impacts of emerging GBMF Nursing Initiative activities and interventions. Mary Foley RN, MS, FAAN will serve as Project Director for the new project.

3. Robert Wood Johnson Rapid Response Team Initiative Evaluation Project

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has launched an ambitious initiative that provides support to nine health care systems/associations to establish learning networks to assist and accelerate the efforts of their member hospitals to implement and evaluate the impact of rapid response team (RRTs) interventions with the aim of improving patient outcomes and the work environment of nurses. The literature suggests that RRTs mobilize clinical expert responders to manage emergent changes in patient condition which are potentially life threatening and may be related to clinician or system errors and omissions.

Study Aims -

The principal objectives of this two year, descriptive evaluation project are to, in collaboration with RWJ Project Staff and Grantees:

1. Establish standardized metrics that build on IHI and Grantee proposed measures to establish a matrix of baseline, formative and summative measures that are feasible to collect and aggregate across sites and provide insight into the impacts of RRT implementation overtime in the diverse RWJ RRT grantee hospital settings.
2. .Identify, explore, validate and describe contextual factors, including variation in nurse staffing, that are associated with comparatively “best” implementation of RRTs, and factors that emerge as barriers to effective RRT implementation.
3. Develop and deploy educational and consultative assistance to grantees to build their capacity for evaluation data capture and optimize the integrity of the evaluation data they submit.
4. Conduct baseline, formative and summative point-in-time aggregation and analysis of “core” quantitative variables.