Commentary: The Nursing Workforce: Who Will Be Left to Answer the Call?

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Workforce Development
• Health Policy

Background:

• Health human resource challenges significantly impact healthcare delivery.
• Recruitment alone is insufficient to address nursing workforce shortages.
• Existing models often feature siloed scopes of practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline innovative approaches for retaining and supporting the nursing workforce.
• To emphasize the leadership role of nurses in addressing human resource challenges.
• To advocate for a paradigm shift in health team composition and practice models.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of current nursing workforce challenges and retention strategies.
• Review of leadership's role in implementing innovative solutions.
• Examination of the relationship between health human resource planning and population health.

Main Results:

• Retention requires robust onboarding, professional development, and creative scheduling.
• Transformational leadership is essential for redefining the health team and practice scopes.
• Integrated planning of health human resources and population health is necessary.

Conclusions:

• Nursing leaders must champion innovative retention strategies and transformational changes.
• A widened definition of the health team and flexible scope of practice are critical.
• Alignment of workforce planning with population health goals is imperative for sustainable healthcare.