Human resource development in nursing: views of nurse managers and nursing staff

This study describes the views of nurse managers and staff members on human resource development (HRD) in health care. Our interest here is whether there are any differences between these two groups.

The need for HRD in order to cope with an ageing workforce and a diminishing number of younger nurses.

A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of nursing staff (n = 653) and all nurse managers (n = 302) in six Finnish hospital districts in spring 2005. The data were analysed by statistical methods.

The nurse managers placed more emphasis on human resource development than did staff members. In general, both the nurse managers and nursing staff held positive views on human resource development, but they reported that HRD practices were quite under-developed. Some differences emerged between the groups.

These findings underline the importance of human resource development and its practices in health care. Nurse managers need to implement strategically steered HRD in order to maintain high quality of care in the future.