How to stop the nursing bleed on the frontlines

The ideal nurse-to-population ratio is 1:300 but the pandemic has caused a shortage of nurses which impacts severely on the quality of patient care. Yet the need to make quick, accurate, and reliable clinical decisions is more important than ever. What can be done to address this challenge?

Robert Nieves, Vice-President of Health Informatics at Elsevier, reveals the solutions being adopted by different countries, such as telehealth services. India, for example, with one of the highest nursing shortages, is ensuring digital readiness of healthcare institutions and access to evidence-based care plans through its National Digital Health Mission. With final-year nursing students and former nurse practitioners being encouraged to step up worldwide, healthcare institutions like St. Stephen’s Hospital in Australia are empowering them through tools such as Elsevier’s Clinical Skills.

Attracting new nurses and retaining talent is more vital than ever: measures, such as a South Korean medical centre’s programme for people interested in a career, and the Singapore government funding available to develop a culture of evidence-based nursing practice, are already proving highly successful.

More must be done to stop the nursing bleed rather than just stem it: but for nurses to have the tools required for quality patient-centred care and the opportunity to grow their careers, educational institutions, the government, and the private sector must work together...