ICN’s new guidance on integrating nurse leaders into heart of health workforce planning
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has published a practical guide to including nurses in workforce planning decisions.
Involving Nurse Leaders in Strategic Health Workforce Planning, provides guidance on how to engage nurses in the process and access the knowledge, insight and expertise of the nursing profession to better shape and drive health workforce plans for the entire health workforce.
Accurate workforce planning has always been crucial to the provision of excellent health care services. Many countries face mounting pressures that make it difficult to allocate sufficient budgets for delivery of health services. The decision by the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as freeze or eliminate foreign aid add new burdens that may threaten the ability of governments to make the investments needed for primary health care, universal health coverage, and the health workforce needed to deliver care. Planning for an efficient and effective workforce that can meet health goals is fundamental to providing human resources for health.
The guide presents a structured process for identifying and integrating nurse leaders into the heart of strategic health workforce planning and policy, and is fully aligned with current global nurse workforce initiatives, including WHO’s State of the World’s Nursing report and Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery.
It emphasizes that global health systems will only be rebuilt with co-ordinated policy responses that are informed by the knowledge and perspective of nurses. It also calls on every country to support the work of ICN and strengthen strategic leadership capacity across the nursing profession to facilitate nurses’ participation in strategic health workforce planning.
ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano said the US decisions will force governments to review their health care budgets so that their workforce plans are as effective as possible.
Dr Cipriano said: “As governments rethink their budgets, effective workforce planning, which depends on engaging the right stakeholders, becomes more important than ever. As the largest health workforce, nurses hold vital data, knowledge and insights about health care delivery and the nursing workforce. As such, workforce planners must fully engage nurse leaders in the design of health workforce planning to properly meet future population health care needs. By ensuring early and ongoing nursing input, planners and policymakers can also eradicate gender and power imbalances that limit nurses’ influence in workforce planning.”
Dr Natasha North, ICN Policy Consultant and lead author of the report added, “Health workforce plans that are developed without the involvement of nursing leaders aren't fit for purpose. We need to challenge outdated ideas about what nursing leadership looks like and where it can be found, so that what nurses know and need informs the rebuilding of our health systems.”