1. AACN – 2005 STRATEGIC RESEARCH STUDY Prepared for: AACN Prepared by: Research Dimensions International Date: September 2005

2. 2 Research Purpose On a bi-annual basis, AACN conducts a Strategic Market Research Study to stay abreast of the changing needs of acute and critical care nurses and to understand their perceptions of and satisfaction with AACN and its activities. The following slides contain a summary of results related to questions AACN asked nurse about the health of their work environments and relationships among colleagues.

3. 3 Research Method Design:National random telephone study Total Interviews1,700 Current AACN Customers781 Lapsed AACN Customers272 Non AACN customers647 Respondent Qualifications: Nurses who:currently care for acute or critically ill patients (retirees excluded) and,are aware of AACN

4. 4 Research Method (cont’d) Quotas:Core critical care staff nursesCardiovascular nursesProgressive Care/Telemetry/Step-down nursesCNSNurse EducatorsNurse PractitionersNurse Managers Directors to ensure large enough samples for analysis Weighting:Current and Lapsed Customer data is weighted to AACN’s actual proportionsNon-Customer data is not weighted Interviewing dates: Spring-Summer 2005

5. Importance of Following Workplace Issues Base: Total sample Percent saying “Extremely Important” (rating of 10 on a 10-point scale where 10 = “Extremely Important” and 1 = “Extremely Unimportant”). Circles denote difference between Current/Lapsed/Non-customers 5 Current Customers (n=781) Lapsed Customers (n=272) Non-Customers (n=647) These three workplace issues are all equally and very important to nurses. Almost all nurses rate them as important and 6 to 7-in-10 nurses rate them as extremely important. Top 3 Box scores range from 85% to 94%

6. Current Health of Work Environment Overall Rating – 2005 Base: Total sample Based on 10-point scale where 10 = “Extremely healthy” and 1 = “Not healthy at all” Circles denote differences among Current/Lapsed/Non-customers Nurses are not overly positive about the health of their work environments, especially Lapsed Customers. Only 1-in-2 Current and Non-Customers rate their work environments as being healthy. 6 Current Customers (n=781) Lapsed Customers (n=272) Non-Customers (n=647) CurrentNonCustomer% Core4551 Cardio4443 Prog. Care2943 CNS3951 Educator3057 NP5655 Manager5952 Director4572 % Healthy

7. Drivers of Healthy Work Environment (Derived Importance Correlations 1 ) Base: Total Sample 1 Calculated by correlating the mean rating level for each attribute with the mean rating of the overall current health of their work environment (Q21). 2 Percent giving ratings of 8, 9, 10 on a 10-point scale where 10 = “Excellent” and 1 = “Poor” 7 CurrentLapsedNon (781)(272)(647) %% 484655 534757 453950 403542 473847 443745 All Equally Important Rating of Environment 2 All components listed are equally important in maintaining a healthy work environment. None of the nurses rate any of the components very favorably, especially Lapsed Customers.

8. Rating of Relationships on Unit CurrentLapsedNon- CustomersCustomersCustomers (781)(272)(647) %% Relationship between… Nurses themselves in general605257 Nurses and physicians494747 Nurses and their direct managers504549 Nurses and administration231730 Base: Total sample Percent giving ratings of 8, 9, 10 on a 10-point scale where 10 = “Extremely Healthy” and 1 = “Not Healthy At All” 8 Overall, nurses are not overly positive about the health of the relationships in their units. In most cases, only 1-in-2 nurses rate each relationship as healthy. The relationship between nurses and administration are the least positive.