The University of California, San Francisco has announced a $6.5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand its Integrated Nurse Leadership Program.

Established in 2004 with a $5.7 million grant from the foundation, INLP focuses on clinical research initiatives, career development and training, and the development of a professional regional network for nurses. The new grant will allow INLP to expand its medication error reduction program from existing test units to all units at participating institutions and extend its nurse-led change management program to other clinical indicators, such as reducing the incidence of sepsis in the inpatient setting.

The initial eighteen-month phase of the programs, which train frontline clinicians to identify areas for improvement in medication administration and take a leadership role in devising solutions, saw reductions of 56.8 percent in medication administration errors and 78.5 percent in procedural errors at seven Bay Area hospitals. The gains were achieved through adherence to a set of six best practice procedures for medication administration identified by the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition.

"The Integrated Nurse Leadership Program has demonstrated the impact that frontline nurses can have by implementing evidence-based care at the bedside," said George Bo-Linn, chief program officer for the Moore Foundation's San Francisco Bay Area program. "INLP is a critical model for supporting nurses and hospitals in developing the skills, systems, and cultures needed to transform care for patients."