Our Work

Improving Nursing Home Quality Through Practice, Policy, and Evaluation

The Moving Forward Coalition improves nursing home quality by bringing evidence, lived experience, and national recommendations into practical action. Our approach centers the voices of residents, workers, and providers, supports real‑world implementation, and ensures lessons from practice inform recommendations for broader system change.

Practice

Turning consensus into action in nursing homes

We partner with residents, workers, providers, Ombudsmen, educators, and national experts to design and test practical approaches that strengthen daily care and organizational culture. Our implementation initiatives focus on person‑centered care planning, amplifying resident voice, workforce stability, and leadership and quality improvement capacity.

By working directly with nursing homes and partners, we ensure tools and approaches are applicable to real‑world settings. Practice‑based experience helps nursing homes move beyond compliance toward meaningful, sustained improvement grounded in what matters to the people who live and work there.

Continuous Learning and Evaluation

Learning from implementation to strengthen what works

Learning across initiatives and implementation is continuous. We gather insights from implementing sites and partners to understand what supports success, where barriers persist, and how approaches can be refined.

Evaluation and continuous learning help us:

  • Improve tools, resources, and supports over time

  • Identify common challenges and effective strategies across settings

  • Strengthen scalability and sustainability

  • Build shared evidence base grounded in lived experience

This learning ensures our work remains responsive, relevant, and increasingly effective as it expands.

Policy and Advocacy

Weaving practice into system-level change

What we learn through implementation and evaluation informs policy and system‑level recommendations. We elevate insights from residents, workers, and nursing home leaders to help shape guidance, expectations, and accountability to best support quality and person‑centered care.

By connecting resident and worker experience to national policy conversations, the Coalition helps promote reforms that are grounded in reality and aligned with what residents and care teams need to succeed. Policy is strengthened by incorporating lessons learned from practice and the perspectives of the people who live, work, and depend on nursing homes.

How It All Fits Together

Across all initiatives, the Coalition follows a consistent approach:

  • Integrate lived experience from residents, workers, and care partners

  • Implement practical solutions in partnership with active current leaders

  • Learn and evaluate continuously to refine and strengthen approaches

  • Advance policy‑relevant insights that support scale and sustainability.

Together, this comprehensive model allows the Moving Forward Coalition to lead national efforts that improve nursing home quality today while shaping stronger systems for the future.