A Nursing Shortage

In 2005 the health division of the OECD - a best practices research group for the world's wealthy countries - published a working paper entitled Tackling Nurse Shortages in OECD Countries. The authors - Steven Simoens, Mike Villeneuve and Jeremy Hurst - take a diagnostic look at nursing shortages in multiple nations and take a stab at identifying best practices employed by nations to either increase the number of nurses entering the workforce or reduce the number of nurses exiting the workforce.

It's an illuminating read. From a macro-economic policy perspective, it will open your eyes to how little we know about the factors that affect nursing recruitment and retention. And this is despite the fact that nurses represent the single largest employee group in the hospital environment. I am always fascinated by the things we learn from our peers and this paper highlights several putative best practices employed in socialized healthcare systems.

Among the highlights. In Ireland, the government set up the Nursing Careers Center in 1998 to promote and market nursing as a career. In Canada, the national health system has introduced various flexible scheduling and family care initiatives to improve job satisfaction among nurses and aid in retention. Yet, it is surprising how little hard data we have on these measures. What initiatives are most effective at recruiting and retaining nurses? What initiative are most cost effective?