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 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.
2026 Student Engagement Report
The Student Engagement Program, run by the research team, is a formal student internship program with WABON (formerly the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission, NCQAC). The program usually runs from Fall to Spring of the academic year with a break for summer, but students may participate in the program for any length of time quarterly, by semester, or for the entire academic year, often aligned with their class schedule.
Onboarding is done through the Department of Health and facilitated by Research team staff. Students are then introduced to what WABON is, what we do, and why it matters. Typically, students bring projects they have in mind to be conducted, or they will assist with current or ongoing projects within WABON. 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 WABON staff, subcommittees, panels or the full board at a scheduled business meeting.
During their time in the program, students’ hours, projects, and experiences are cataloged by WABON and included in this annual report.
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 2025-2026.
Total Student Participation by Academic Year
| Year | Number of Students |
|---|---|
| 2016-2017 | 2 |
| 2017-2018 | 5 |
| 2018-2019 | 5 |
| 2019-2020* | 10 |
| 2020-2021 | 6 |
| 2021-2022 | 6 |
| 2022-2023 | 6 |
| 2023-2024 | 4 |
| 2024-2025 | 8 |
| 2025-2026 | 11 |
| Total | 63 |
*In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) public health emergency, WABON paused participation to reallocate staff resources to the emergency at hand. The program resumed in January 2020.
Student Projects
In the 2025-2026 academic year, students have developed projects based on their areas of interest in collaboration with their mentor within WABON.
Students’ projects were primarily in:
- Academic Progression Education Data
- CARES Employer Survey
- Data Analysis
- Impact of an Education
- License Accessibility
- MACE Employer Survey
For more information on the student engagement program and the full report on our most recent academic year, you can view it here:
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 Board Reports.
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.