Current Projects
Surveys
The Research Unit develops, maintains, and analyzes the results of several recurring surveys, as well as some unique surveys.
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HELMS Demographic Data Survey
- The HELMS demographic data survey went live in 2024 for all Washington licensed nurses and applicants. This survey replaces the NURSYS e-Notify survey as the new demographic data survey required for Washington licensed nurses.
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Education Surveys and Annual Report
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Four surveys of Washington nursing education programs are sent out annually:
- NCSBN Prelicensure In-State Annual Education Survey
- Postlicensure In-State Annual Education Survey
- Out of State Programs Approved for Washington Clinical Placements Annual Education Survey
- Refresher Program Survey
The results from these surveys are used in the Education Data Dashboard and the Annual Education Report.
The Nursing Education Programs Annual Reports can be found at this link. The annual report includes analysis on:
- In-state and out-of-state nursing education programs
- Faculty and student race and ethnicity
- Faculty retention
- Faculty education
- Faculty salary
- Academic progression
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Nursing Assistant Survey and Nursing Assistant Annual Report
- The Washington State Nursing Assistant Program Survey for the 2022-2024 renewal period was distributed for the first time in 2024. This is planned to be a biennial survey for all nursing assistant programs in Washington state.
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Out of State Multistate Demographic Data Survey and Employer Compliance Form
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We have two SurveyMonkey surveys to capture data on Out of State Multistate Nurses practicing in Washington: The Out-of-State Multistate Demographic Data Survey, and the Employer Compliance Form. The demographic data survey is completed by out of state multistate licensed nurses practicing in Washington on their MSL, while the employer compliance form is completed by employers within 30 days of hiring new multistate nurses to practice in Washington.
In addition to the SurveyMonkey survey, employers who are reporting over 20 nurses have the option to submit a Bulk Compliance form, an Excel document where they report nurse data in bulk.
Student Engagement Program
The Student Engagement Program, run by the Director of Research and supporting staff, is a formal student internship program with the WA board of nursing (formerly the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission, NCQAC). The program runs from Fall to Spring of the academic year with a break for summer. Students can participate in the program for any length of time within the program’s start and end dates (September to July) including quarterly, by semester, or for the entire academic year, often aligned with their class schedule.
Typically, students bring projects they have in mind to be conducted, or they will assist with current or ongoing projects within the board of nursing. Students are then paired with a mentor and conduct their project(s) over the course of time they are in the program. Once completed, the students can present their work to the board of nursing’s staff, subcommittees, panels, or the full board at a scheduled business meeting.
Historical Data
Students were interning with the board of nursing as early as 2016. By 2022, the internship experience had been developed as the Student Engagement Program. Below is a synopsis of the information gathered since 2016.
Over the Years
Since 2016, the board of nursing has had several students participate in the program. The chart below describes student participation by academic year. The highest number so far being 2018-19.
Year |
2016 – 2017 | 2017 – 2018 | 2018 – 2019 | 2019 – 2020* | 2020 – 2021 | 2021 – 2022 | 2022 – 2023 | 2023 – 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of Students |
2 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 43 |
| *In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, the board of nursing paused participation in the program to reallocate staff resources to the emergency at hand. The program resumed in January 2020. | |||||||||
Academic Institutions
Of the many colleges and universities in Washington State, below are the academic institutions that the board of nursing has received students from to date. The majority come from Gonzaga and the University of Washington, Tacoma. As availability allows, the board of nursing looks forward to welcoming more institutions to participate in the program. Since 2016, the board of nursing has had 43 students participate in the program.
| School | Number of Students |
|---|---|
| Capella | 2 |
| Gonzaga | 7 |
| PLU | 1 |
| Seattle U | 3 |
| SPU | 3 |
| UW - B | 1 |
| UW – S | 4 |
| UW - T | 19 |
| WSU | 1 |
| Liberty U | 1 |
| Boise State U | 1 |
| Total | |
| 43 | |
Degree Types
Of the 43 students, 3 were pursuing Bachelor of Arts (BA), 15 were Doctorates of Nursing Practice (DNP), 21 were Masters of Nursing (MN), 2 were Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN), and 1 was Ph.D. in Nursing Education. One is unknown.
Degree Type |
BA | DNP | MN | MSN | Ph.D. | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of Students |
3 | 15 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 42 |
Degree Type
2023 – 2024 Academic Year
In past years, the Research Subcommittee has worked to improve the Student Engagement Program by developing a onboarding and offboarding process, providing more opportunities for students to present their projects within the board of nursing, highlighting and creating a space for student’s completed projects on the board of nursing website, including students’ projects and experiences in the Research Subcommittee’s annual report, and collecting feedback from students through an exit survey in order to continue to improve the program. This information is included with the running total data below.
Academic Institutions
Since January of 2024, the board of nursing has 4 students currently participating in the program. As availability allows, the board of nursing looks forward to welcoming more institutions and their students to participate in the program.
School |
Boise State U | UW–T | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Number of Students |
1 | 3 | 4 |
Degree Types
Of the 4 students, 1 is pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP), and 3 are pursuing a Masters of Nursing (MN).
Degree Type |
BA | DNP | MN | MSN | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of Students |
0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
Student Projects
As a part of student program requirements, students complete practicum hours in conjunction with a project. Projects throughout the years are based on Board requests and areas of interest within the board of nursing. Students are asked to share presentations, research, and other findings with the board of nursing.
Students’ projects were primarily in:
- Policy development
- Education reform
- Assistance with ongoing special projects
Students specifically worked on:
- Washington ARNP Scope of Practice
- LPN Program Standardized Competencies
- Investigation of Florida School Graduates
- ARNP National Certification Investigation
- LPN Program Standardized Competencies
- Diversity Teaching in Nursing
- Diversity in the RN Workforce
- LPN Practice Inquiry Data
- Recommendations for Increasing Minorities in Nursing
- Analysis of Incident Reports
- Development of Nurse Program satisfaction measurement tool for WHPS
- Continuing Competency Survey
Completed Projects
Discrimination Research
In 2023, we looked at Washington State Board of Nursing (WABON) disciplinary cases from Case Management Team (CMT) meetings to explore better ways of addressing complaints of discrimination. We collected 59 closed nursing complaint cases across six months and characterized types of discrimination. As a result, we improved our disciplinary processes, including an updated complaint intake form, updated criteria for opening cases, and a new policy statement on discrimination.
In collaboration with the Discipline Unit, we developed three new questions on discrimination that were added to the Discipline Unit’s complaint intake form. These questions will help provide more specific information on the discrimination that occurred in complaints, as well as allow us to collect better data on this topic in the future. We also added discrimination as a criteria for opening cases or for early remediation in the procedure A06.10 Review of Commission Reports. The new policy statement on discrimination is available here.
Responding to a Critical and Urgent Need: Informing Evidence-Based Regulation of Simulation in Pre-licensure Registered Nursing Education
To inform evidence-based regulatory decisions about what is the most appropriate ratio to “count” hours spent in simulation towards required clinical hours for pre-licensure registered nursing education programs, this study aims to:
- Compare learning and patient care performance outcomes between students who participate in 4 hours of traditional clinical activities, 2 hours of mannequin-based simulation activities, or 2 hours of virtual simulation activities.
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Examine how each type of experiential learning (traditional clinical, mannequin-based simulation, and virtual simulation) meets pre-licensure registered nursing students' learning needs by answering the following questions:
- How do students make clinical judgments during patient care, how do they know (or not know) the correct action to take during patient care, and how will each experiential learning activity inform their nursing care when they encounter similar patient care situations in the future?
- How do pre-licensure registered nursing students perceive each experiential learning activity meets their learning needs?
- Conduct a cost-utility analysis comparing traditional clinical, mannequin-based simulation, and virtual simulation.
This project has been completed. The project's principal investigator was Katie Haerling. Katie Haerling's presentation of this information can be found by following the links below:
- Presentation: 2024scisymp_khaerling.pdf
- Presentation Recording: Simulation: Responding to a Critical and Urgent Need: Informing Evidence-based Regulation of Simulation in Prelicensure Registered Nursing Education | NCSBN
- Transcript of presentation: transcript_2024scisymp_khaerling.pdf
- Paper in Journal of Nursing Regulation: Contributing to Evidence-Based Regulatory Decisions: A Comparison of Traditional Clinical Experience, Mannequin-Based Simulation, and Screen-Based Virtual Simulation - Journal of Nursing Regulation
WABON staff is supporting follow up of this project. If you have any questions for WABON, please direct them to research email inbox at WABONResearch@doh.wa.gov.