Nursing workforce planning: the key to success

With the nursing shortage looming and planned growth, not only at the Ottawa Hospital (TOH) but within our region, TOH recognized the need to have a workforce plan that would accurately predict the number of nurses TOH would have to hire annually for three and five years. A review of the literature identified the key steps to take in workforce planning, but there were no models in existence to address the unique characteristics of nursing. A program logic model was used to develop the model and the evaluation framework for the accuracy of its predictions. This evidence-based workforce planning model has had a variance of lt; 5% for each of the past four years; the projected growth was accurately forecasted and has allowed TOH to be proactive in its recruitment initiatives.