{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02664796633941094, 'fraction_numerical': 0.03506311360448808, 'mean_word_length': 5.072340425531915, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Home Healthcare Internship and Preceptor Programs: One Organization's Journey

Most efforts to address the nursing shortage treat the problem as a hospital or nursing school faculty issue. But the reality is that nursing is shifting to community-based practice. In fact, 43.8% of nurses work outside hospitals (Health Resources & Services [HRSA], 2005). The most recent statistics published by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis support these assertions. They indicate that the home health sector of the U.S. healthcare workforce will require more registered nurses (RNs) to meet the growing demand for services by 2020 than any other healthcare sector, including acute care hospitals. The Health Workforce Analysis also estimated that in 2005 there were 152,622 RNs employed in home health nationwide and that by 2020, the demand for home health services will require 248,848 RNs (HRSA, 2002). In October 2003, the organization received a grant award of $810,000 from HRSA to develop home health internship and preceptor programs for RNs. The organization was 1 of 14 organizations nationwide to receive such an award and 1 of only 2 home health organizations to receive this federal support. As part of the grant proposal, the organization promised to propose a national model for nursing internship and preceptorship. The programs described in this article are the culminations of these grant-funded efforts.