|
The NJCCN team continues to work to advocate on behalf of nurses in NJ and disseminate information to our valued constituents. | | | |
|
New Jersey Nursing Data & Analysis Report - Available Now!
The New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing (NJCCN) has released the 2026 NJ Nursing Data & Analysis Report, offering the an updated look into New Jersey's nursing education and workforce trends.
Key findings include:
Faculty shortages are limiting nurse education capacity. New Jersey's RN programs report a 10.85% faculty vacancy rate, well above the national average, and 40% of prelicensure programs say they cannot expand enrollment.
Demand for nurses continues to outpace supply. Although New Jersey's nursing workforce grew and became more diverse, shortages persist due to rising healthcare needs and increased turnover across all nursing roles.
This report serves as a resource for policymakers, educators, and healthcare leaders working to strengthen New Jersey's nursing workforce.
| | |
New Jersey Certified Home Health Aide Report - COMING SOON!
The 2026 Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA) report is coming soon. This upcoming publication will continue to build on our work highlighting the role of CHHAs in New Jersey’s healthcare system and will provide additional insights to inform workforce
planning and policy discussions.
| |
|
Join us this summer by partnering with NJCCN's ACE Immersion Program to offer nursing students valuable exposure through shadowing in non-hospital settings. | | |
Alternate Care Environments (ACE) Immersion: Winter Institute
As part of the Long-Term Care Nurse Residency Program, NJCCN launched the ACE Immersion Program offering Rutgers junior and senior nursing students exposure to nursing roles in LTC, Assisted Living, Home Health, and other out-of-hospital settings.
This program included a workshop featuring panel of nurse leaders in these settings and a 2-day shadowing experience in facilities across New Jersey. We extend our sincere thank you to Rutgers SON and the facilities that partnered with us for the Winter Institute. Their collaboration and support were essential to the success of this program.
Follow us on LinkedIn, where students are sharing their experiences!
Partnering Facilities:
- Center for Hope Hospice & Palliative Care
- Chelsea Senior Living
- Children’s Specialized
-
Christian Health
- Complete Care
- Health Care Association of NJ
- Parker
- Virtua Home Health
This program is partially supported by a grant from the NJ Industry Partnerships - New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
| | | | |
NJCCN Mentoring Collaborative
This spring, NJCCN is launching a mentoring collaborative for the healthcare organizations in its acute care Nurse Residency Collaborative. Mentoring is critical to retention beyond the first year of employment/residency and enhances career growth, a sense of belonging and support, workplace well-being, job engagement, and job satisfaction. The goal of NJCCN’s mentoring collaborative is to support hospitals to provide early-career nurse mentorship to nurses who are at or near residency program completion where mentors are formally matched with one or more mentees for a time-limited mentorship program. The figure below demonstrates the flow of programming for new graduate nurses upon hire to Early-Career Nurse Mentorship.
| |
Hospitals in the collaborative who would like to participate can customize their program to meet their mission, strategic priorities, and needs. They can determine how to design and implement the program and whether they would like to extend it to other nurses, such as new nurse leaders or even all nurses in their organization who are interested in receiving mentorship. Pre and post evaluations and program evaluations will be collected to measure its success and promote continuous improvement
NJCCN is seeking retired New Jersey nurses to serve as mentors. Interested individuals can contact Dr. Daria Waszak at dlw210@sn.rutgers.edu or 973-353-3832
| |
|
| |
NJCCN Testifies in Support of Nursing Education Recognition
Dr. Daria Waszak testified on behalf of NJCCN alongside Dr. Kathleen Burke, Chair of the NJCCN Board and OCN-NJ, before the Senate Higher Education Committee regarding proposed resolution SCR 140, sponsored by Senator Cryan. The resolution urges the U.S. Department of Education to update its definition of professional degrees to include nursing and other currently excluded professions.
For a list of bills NJCCN is following, visit our website.
| | | | | |
Executive Order No. 415 Ends Practice Flexibilities for NJ Advanced Practice Nurses
Former Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 415, ending several public health emergency orders. This includes the termination of Executive Orders No.103/112, which allowed temporary practice flexibilities for New Jersey Advanced Practice Nurses during COVID-19. These flexibilities end February 16, 2026.
Patients who are losing access to APN care are encouraged to notify their state legislator.
Read Executive Order 415
| | |
The 2026 NJLN Convention and Pre-Convention
March 25-26,2026
Atlantic City, NJ
Dr. Waszak, Dr. de Cordova, and Jennifer Polakowski will be presenting on nursing Performance, Retention, and Personal Stress.
| |
The 38th Annual ENRS Scientific Session
March 25-27, 2026
Boston, MA
Dr. Pamela B. de Cordova, Jennifer Polakowski, and Dr. Irina Grafova will be presenting on well-being programs in New Jersey.
| |
2026 Annual Research Meeting
May 30 - June 2, 2026
Seattle, Washington
Dr. de Cordova , Jennifer Polakowski and Dr. Susan Salmond will be presenting on the effects of workplace emotional-wellness programs on nurses’ external support utilization.
| |
2026 Leading Age New Jersey & Delaware Annual Conference + Expo
June 16-18, 2026, Atlantic City, NJ
Tyla Minniear and Dr. Daria Waszak will be presenting Data to Action: Strengthening New Jersey's Direct Care Workforce Through CNA Survey Insights.
| | New Jersey Nursing Insights Podcast | |
Nursing Insights is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and other major streaming sites. | |
Latest Podcast Episodes:
32 | Making Night Shift Safer: How One Hospital Successfully Implemented Napping for Nurses w/ Dr. Pamela Hinds and crisis nurse Brett Bagshaw from Children’s National Hospital.
33 | Digital Communication Competencies for Nurse Leaders in a Changing Healthcare Landscape with Dr. Alysia Adams, Director of Education Partnerships at the American Organization of Nursing Leadership.
Coming Soon:
34 |A Nurse's Journey When Disaster Strikes Home with Dr. Donna Gaffney, psychotherapist and clinical nurse specialist in advanced psychiatric mental health.
| | | |
Congratulations NJCCN!
NJCCN received notice of award of its 7th Growing Apprenticeship in Nontraditional Sectors (GAINS) grant from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) to continue the statewide Acute Care RN Residency Collaborative.
(Pending final state budget approval)
| |
Long-Term Care/Assisted Living Nurse Residency Program
We are currently in the second cohort of the Long-Term Care Nurse Residency (LTC NR) Program. The LTC NR Program is an online transition-to-practice program designed for new RN and LPN graduates. Its primary goal is to improve nurse retention and enhance patient safety in long-term care settings.
Christian Health participated in and successfully completed the first cohort. The second cohort includes the following participating facilities:
- Complete Care at Green Acres
- Peace Care St. Ann’s
- Peace Care St. Joseph’s
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Northern NJ Industry Partnerships – New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
| |
New Jersey Acute Care Nurse Residency Collaborative
The acute care collaborative aims to increase the use of standardized, high-quality nurse residency programs across the state through the implementation of the Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program.
There are now 22 hospitals (14 in the GAINS Grant) participating in the Nurse Residency Collaborative. The turnover rate for our NJ Collaborative is 10-12% (Waszak, Cadmus, Roberts, 2025). This demonstrates a return on investment (ROI) for organizations.
Last month, Dr. Waszak was the keynote speaker at Capital Health's Nurse Residency Program Graduation Ceremony.
| | |
School Nurse Residency Program
Twenty "emergency"-certified school nurses were enrolled in the 2nd cohort of the Rutgers School Nurse Certificate program. This program is partially funded through the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and coordinated by Rutgers Faculty, Dr. Cathy Grano.
There is a 13% deficit of certified school nurses in the state, so this program will help mitigate this gap.
| |  |
Advanced Practice Provider (APP) – Transition To Practice
In 2025, an APP transition to practice program was established with 3 New Jersey healthcare organizations, AtlantiCare, Virtua Medical Group, and Holy Name Medical Center.
NJCCN serves as the facilitator for this program with Vizient and ThriveAP to ensure a smooth transition into practice with more than 14 different advanced practice specialties. So far, more than 40 APNs have been enrolled with little attrition and very positive feedback from APNs.
We congratulate Virtua Health, AtlantiCare, and Holy Name Medical Center on the completion of their first onsite Advanced Practice Provider Transition to Practice Program.
| | | New Jersey Acute Care Nurse Residency Collaborative Members | |
Please contact Dr. Daria Waszak at dlw210@sn.rutgers.edu or 973-353-3832 if you are interested in joining the Collaborative.
| | 222st NJ Legislative Session (2026-2027) | | Stay informed about the latest NJ nursing legislative developments! | |
Nursing Workforce
Establish certain requirements and initiatives related to nurses; appropriate funds.
| |
Access To Care
Eliminates certain practice restrictions for advanced practice nurses.
| | |
Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act
| | |
Requires Division of Consumer Affairs to hire staff to alleviate professional license application backlog; appropriates $10,000,000 in fiscal years 2026, 2027, and 2028.
| | Several nursing bills from the previous legislative session remain highly relevant as they await reintroduction. Visit our website for a list of bills NJCCN is following. | | |
New Jersey NOBC State Report
Biannual Report
December 2025
| | | |
New Jersey NOBC Database Registrations:
450 Total Board Service
173 Nurses Interested in Serving on an
Additional Board
362 Nurses Want to Serve
268 Counting Board Service
| | | |
NOBC Database Registrations:
30,470 Individuals Registered
4,595 Nurses Interested in Serving on an
Additional Board
16,856 Nurses Want to Serve
11,735 Counting Boards
| | |
Waszak, D., de Cordova, P., & Polakowski, J. (2025, In Press). Part-time new graduate nurses in acute care: Evaluation of nurse residency outcomes, Nurse Leader, 102547
Mann, S., Weaver, S., Balmaceda, W., Bobek, M., Cardona, M., Harvey, J., Jones, S., McNicholas, M., Paliwal, M., Prinzo, D., & Steinheiser, M.M. (2026). Peripheral Vasopressor Administration in Adults with Sepsis: A Retrospective Study of Guideline Adherence and Complications. Journal of Infusion Nursing, 49(1), 13-21.
Weaver, S., Meadow, M.T., Amante, D., Paliwal, M., & Puterman, E. (2025). Empowering Administrative (House) Supervisors through Functional Competencies. Journal of Nursing Administration, 55(11), 646-651. Doi:10.1097/NNA.0000000000001656
Weinstein, S. M., Buchholz, S., Burdi, M., Weaver, S. H., Baldwin, C. M., Dunbar-Jacob, J.,Reynaga-Ornelas, L., Trinkoff, A. M., Tucker, S. J., & Imes, C. C. (2025). Addressing the nurses’ well-being crisis: Three common challenges with solutions. Nurse Leader, 102579
Waszak, D. “NJCCN’s Nurse Residency Collaborative Continues to Support Retention Across the State,” American Nurse, Dec. 3, 2025
|
| | |
Explore Our Latest Nursing Infographics!
Stay informed with NJCCN's newest data-driven resources available now on our website.
| | | | |
NURSING WELL-BEING & RESILIENCE
Your Well-Being Matters!
Take some time to explore the various resources in our Wellness Hub
| | | Resources and Tips to Achieve Better Health | | Sign Up & Share Your Stories | | |
Sign Up for NJCCN Text Alerts
| | |
Share Your Career Story for Our Next Social Media Spotlight
| | Stay informed about the latest nursing legislative developments, new episodes of the Nursing Insights Podcast, and updates that impact the nursing workforce in New Jersey. | | We’d love to feature your journey and how you’ve advanced in your nursing career on our NJCCN social media. Click below to share your story and inspire others! | | | | |
