NELP today announced strategic partnerships with the Verran Professional Governance Team and the Forum for Shared Governance, making the field's most trusted professional governance measurement instruments available digitally inside NELP's Professional Governance Platform.
NELP now delivers access to every valid and reliable professional governance measurement instrument (VPGS, SPGS-A, IPNG, IPG, and Council Health Survey) through a single platform, enabling health systems to connect professional governance practice decisions to clinical and financial outcomes, and to evidence ROI using the results of their chosen instrument.
Measurement, delivered digitally
Professional governance is resourced when it can be measured, improved, and held accountable, not merely affirmed in committee meetings. The instruments developed by the Verran Professional Governance Team and Dr. Robert Hess represent decades of psychometric research and remain the standard by which health systems evaluate whether nurses and clinicians truly control the decisions that shape their practice.
Through NELP, organizations administer these instruments, interpret results, and act on findings without ever leaving the platform where their governance work already lives.
Partnership with the Verran Professional Governance Team
NELP's partnership with the Verran Professional Governance Team delivers two complementary instruments digitally. The Verran team includes the foremost thought leaders on nursing professional governance: Dr. Tim Porter-O'Grady, Dr. Lindsey Teresanko, Dr. Paula Meek, Dr. Marla J. Weston, and Dr. Joanne T. Clavelle.
The Verran Professional Governance Scale© (VPGS) is a 22-item instrument published in the Journal of Nursing Administration that measures the nursing behaviors associated with professional governance: accountability, professional obligation, and control over practice. Its three subscales give nurse leaders the empirical data to strengthen the professional practice environment, aligned with the structural empowerment evidence required for Magnet® recognition.
The Structural Professional Governance Self-Assessment Survey (SPGS-A) evaluates the organizational structures that make professional governance possible. Designed as a companion to the VPGS and typically completed by the chief nursing officer, it confirms whether the structural foundations are in place, from bylaws and council charters to the accountability mechanisms that sustain nursing's professional practice environment.
Through NELP, health systems can:
- Deliver the VPGS and SPGS-A digitally across the organization
- Automate scoring, subscale analysis, and trend reporting as responses arrive
The result is a measurement program that runs at the speed of governance work itself, rather than as a research project conducted once every few years.
AI is the future of Nursing Professional Governance, and NELP is leading the way.
Dr. Tim Porter-O'Grady, DM, EdD, ScD(h), APRN, FAAN, FACCWS
Senior Partner, Tim Porter-O'Grady Associates, Inc.
Partnership with the Forum for Shared Governance
NELP's partnership with the Forum for Shared Governance delivers digital access to the Forum's three professional governance instruments.
Index of Professional Nursing Governance (IPNG). The IPNG is the most widely used validated instrument for measuring nursing governance. Developed by Dr. Robert Hess and used by hundreds of healthcare organizations worldwide, the IPNG measures governance across multiple dimensions, from nurses' perception of decision-making authority to satisfaction with governance processes. Organizations use it to establish baselines, track progress, and benchmark against peers. Available in more than ten languages, it serves as the foundation for the Forum's shared governance accreditation program.
Index of Professional Governance (IPG). The IPG extends measurement to every healthcare professional in the organization, making it essential for interprofessional models where physicians, therapists, pharmacists, and other clinicians share decision-making alongside nurses. Like the IPNG, it has been validated across decades of use nationally and internationally.
Council Health Survey. The Council Health Survey is published in the Journal of Nursing Administration and evaluates the functioning of the councils themselves, assessing whether structure, process, and leadership are healthy enough to produce meaningful practice change. It gives organizations a diagnostic for the governance infrastructure that the IPNG and IPG measure at scale.
Through NELP, organizations can deliver the IPNG, IPG, and Council Health Survey digitally, automate scoring, subscale analysis, and trend reporting, with instrument-specific scoring and interpretation built into the Professional Governance Platform.
This is the future of shared professional governance. NELP turns governance from meetings and paperwork into measurable action. Councils can finally document their impact, link decisions to quality data, and demonstrate the value they create. Organizations that adopt this will see their governance structure become a visible driver of nursing excellence. It is going to help organizations significantly.
Dr. Bob Hess, PhD, RN, FAAN
Founder & CEO, Forum for Shared Governance
From measurement to outcomes
These partnerships extend well beyond survey administration. NELP connects measurement results to the governance work that produces them:
- Practice decisions linked to instrument scores, so leaders can see whether council activity correlates with improvements in professional governance perceptions
- Clinical outcomes tied to governance initiatives, connecting council-led practice changes to nurse-sensitive quality indicators and patient outcomes
- Financial impact quantified per decision, giving chief nursing officers and executive leadership the ROI data to sustain and expand governance investment
- Designation evidence generated continuously, with governance measurement and council activity mapped to ANCC standards as work happens, not at submission time
The instrument establishes the baseline and tracks progress. NELP connects that progress to the decisions, changes, and results that shared governance councils drive every day, so nursing leaders can evidence what their governance investment returns in clinical and financial terms.
What this means for health systems
For chief nursing officers, professional governance leaders, and shared governance councils, these partnerships deliver:
- Complete instrument access: the VPGS, SPGS-A, IPNG, IPG, and Council Health Survey, all available digitally through one platform
- Automated scoring, subscale analysis, and trend reporting without manual data handling or external research support
- Outcome connection, with results linked to practice changes, clinical impact, and financial ROI in the same system
Organizations no longer administer instruments in one system, run councils in another, and build the ROI case in a third. NELP brings measurement, practice, and evidenced return together.
About the partners
Verran Professional Governance Team. The Verran Professional Governance Team develops and licenses the Verran Professional Governance Scale©, maintains the Structural Professional Governance Self-Assessment Survey (SPGS-A), and provides consulting expertise in professional governance design, implementation, and measurement, helping health systems translate professional governance from concept to measurable practice.
Forum for Shared Governance. Founded by Dr. Robert Hess, the Forum for Shared Governance is the world's leading resource for shared governance accreditation, research, education, and professional governance measurement. It maintains the IPNG, IPG, and Council Health Survey, among the only valid, reliable, contemporary instruments for quantifying professional governance across the continuum from traditional to shared to self-governance.
NELP. NELP, the Nursing Excellence Leadership Platform, is the unified system purpose-built for designation achievement, professional governance, digital clinical ladder, and clinical inquiry. NELP gives nursing leaders the tools to measure impact, streamline workflows, and make nursing excellence visible across the organization.
Looking ahead
Health systems interested in how NELP delivers professional governance measurement instruments digitally, and how those instruments connect to clinical and financial ROI, are invited to schedule a demo with the NELP team.
Media contact: contact@nelp.io
