The Joint Commission held two roundtables on this subject—the first in November 2001 and a follow-up roundtable in March 2002. A symposium on the nurse staffing issue was held in May 2002. The white paper, "Health Care at the Crossroads: Strategies for Addressing the Evolving Nursing Crisis," published in August 2002, and is available on the Joint Commission website. JCAHO will work with its Nursing Advisory Council, a coalition of nursing advocates and associations, to pursue implementation of the desired actions identified in the paper. A second national symposium on nurse staffing issues has been scheduled for September 2004, in Washington, D.C. |