Series of Reports Examine Nursing Workforce Solutions

Original Source

The Center to Champion Nursing in America — a joint initiative of AARP and the AARP and Robert Wood Johnson foundations — has announced a series of six reports that examine evidence-based nursing solutions to challenges in healthcare access, quality, and cost.

Published in the latest edition of Health Affairs, the reports address a range of issues, including nursing education, workforce development, and quality and efficiency. One of the reports, The Recent Surge in Nurse Employment: Causes and Implications, argues that the recession will contribute to an easing or temporary end to the current registered nurse shortage as older nurses delay retirement or return to work and part-time nurses seek full-time jobs. However, as the economy rebounds and the baby boom generation’s health needs increase over the next decade, the report argues, the nursing shortage will become acute.

“The crises facing nursing — and the nation’s health and healthcare systems — are inextricably connected,” said Robert Wood Johnson Foundation senior advisor for nursing Susan B. Hassmiller. The reports explore “various approaches to ensuring we have enough well-prepared nurses in the future and that insights and innovations from the nursing profession are applied as we work to make our healthcare system better for all. Americans will not receive the healthcare they need unless we make an investment in a well-prepared nursing workforce.”

“ New Studies Show Nursing Workforce Critical to Success of Health Reform.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Press Release 6/12/09.