Using innovation to assess nursing workforce in Arizona: a collaborative approach.
The process of using nurse license renewal data to generate the information needed to measure and project the supply of RNs, LPNs, and APNs in a state is described. The use of licensing applications as the foundation to which time-varying survey questions can be added offers a continuing record of the behavior of the nursing workforce for all nurses in a state workforce. A significant added benefit is this can occur at a fraction of the cost of a one-point-in-time survey of even a small sample of nurses. Other states could benefit from adopting a similar approach of collaboration between health care systems (e.g., hospital associations), boards of nursing, and academia. Such collaboration would allow nursing administrators and academia alike the ability to accurately predict nursing workforce needs, thus facilitating operational decision making and strategic planning.
Wilson
Barbara L
BL
College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, Arizona State University, USA.
Johnson
William G
WG
D001130:Arizona; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009726:Nurses / Q000600:supply & distribution*