A review of nursing manpower issues

This paper, presented by the E.C. Hospital Committee's Sub-Committee on Economics and Planning, reviews what is regarded by many as a crisis in hospital nurse manpower in the 1990's. Indeed, there are signs that the problem of recruiting sufficient qualified staff had already arrived in some places in the latter part of the 1980's. So what is the nature and extent of the problem? Information has been gathered about population, as it affects demands on health care and as a source of potential health service employees. The current position of nurse staffing has been investigated and is discussed together with indications from member states of ways of tackling the problem to safeguard the quality of patient care to which the member states are committed.