HJBR Mar/Apr 2024

38 MAR / APR 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE NURSING COLUMN NURSING PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE: LSBN’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan ONDec. 11, 2023, the Louisiana State Board of Nursing (LSBN) directors gathered with the executive staff to engage in planning for the strategic imperatives for the next triennium. Led by SSA Consultants part- ner Rudy Gomez, the board began their strategic planning with background inter- views that included board members, staff, and external partners — sixteen individu- al interviews in all that focused on SWOT analysis and future vision. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats/ challenges were then summarized, which served as the starting point for planning for the future. Strengths • Karen Lyon, PhD, CEO. • Staff leadership: strong executive team and departmental leaders. • Mission focus: protection of the pub- lic. • Excellent board leadership: President Tavell Kindall, PhD; Vice President Tracey Moffatt, Ochsner Health Sys- tem; Alternate Officer Jennifer Man- ning, DNS, LSUHSC. • Organization stays true to its statuto- ry mission. • Service excellence and performance improvement: COVID reaction and response; ease of licensure function and credentialing; use of technology; Recovering Nurse Program; flexible work schedules, including remote work. • Financial strength: independent state agency, self-funded, operates with sufficient reserves. Weaknesses • Licensee perception as heavy-hand- ed regulator. • Lack of flexibility with the implemen- tation of statutory regulations and rules. • Government relations: LSBN cannot engage in lobbying or propose its own legislation; LSBN needs to con- tract with a governmental relations expert to guide our interactions and relationships with legislators. • Nursing practice issues do not get enough focus from staff and board. • Board agenda time unbalanced in favor of education/schools of nurs- ing; need more focus on mission and strategy, practice issues, and public safety. • Broaden engagement with key com- munity stakeholders. • Lack of board development. • Decision-making is not always driven by fact-based analysis. Opportunities • Involvement with other key stake- holder organizations such as the Lou- isiana Hospital Association, the state medical board and state medical as- sociations. • Position ourselves as the go-to ex- perts on nursing licensure standards and nursing practice issues. • Provide factual data on workforce issues, including supply and demand for nurses, workplace environment challenges, nursing faculty shortages, and nursing student admissions and graduation. • Telehealth opportunities, especially in advanced practice. • Right touch regulation. • Develop operating benchmarks for all departments. • Educational outreach related to pub- lic understanding of the Nurse Prac- tice Act, the Nurse Licensure Com- pact, and the rules and regulations that underpin both. Threats/challenges • Leadership succession. • Loss of general counsel; development of executive council position. • Perceived LSBN staffing shortages. • New Governor and legislature; push for deregulation. • Minimum staffing standards related to nurse/patient ratios. • Nursing burnout. • Workplace violence; workplace safe- ty. • APRN full practice authority: rural coverage issues; medical opposition.