[A Taiwan nursing perspective on current imbalances in educating, licensing and hiring new nurses]

Level of development in the nursing profession affects healthcare quality and safety. The nursing profession in Taiwan today faces myriad external pressures such as the global financial crisis and rapidly changing national health insurance policies and social issues. For example, cutbacks in nursing manpower at medical institutions and increasingly difficult healthcare working conditions are increasing nurse workloads and turnover, conflict in the workplace, and difficulties in recruiting new nursing staff. Such negative developments directly and negatively impact professional development, healthcare quality, healthcare safety, and workplace morale. In terms of maintaining and enhancing the quality of new nurses entering the profession, rapid growth in numbers of technology schools and nursing students have severely strained insufficient resources and resulted in teaching quality and education outcomes below expectations. Poor passing rates on the national nursing license examination and increasingly high new nurse turnover are now significant negative factors influencing clinical manpower availability. Imbalances among education, licensing, and hiring clearly and negatively impact nursing professional development and social needs and cause the inefficient allocation of limited education resources. This article discusses and analyzes the causes underlying current imbalances in nurse hiring, licensing, and education. We provide the following suggestions: (1) Integrate education and licensing activities based on professional recruitment considerations to promote nursing competent and manpower stability; (2) revise the focus and content of the national license examination to resolve the current disconnect between license examination and hiring needs; (3) redesign curricula, update teaching material, and adjust teaching methods based on professional competencies in order to resolve key education and recruitment problems. All nursing schools should prepare their students well to pass the license examination in order to resolve the current state of inconsistent educational standards, and (4) train international nursing talent to address and reflect international medical care trends and policies in Taiwan. This paper is intended to serve as reference for both policymakers and professionals in the nursing and healthcare fields.