Psychiatric-mental health nursing workforce in 2018: Implications for the future.

The workforce was examined using the 2018 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses to determine supply characteristics and perspectives of psychiatric-mental health nurses. The study looked at the success in achieving some of the workforce related recommendations of the Future of Nursing. A strong foundation exists for increasing the contributions of psychiatric-mental health nursing to overcoming shortages of mental health professionals and to improving access to mental health care. More work needs to be done to remove regulatory barriers to promote practicing to the extent of knowledge, education and training. Overall, the psychiatric-mental health nursing workforce is primed for the future.

Organizational impact of nurse supply and workload on nurses continuing professional development opportunities: an integrative review.

AIM: To identify the best evidence on the impact of healthcare organizations' supply of nurses and nursing workload on the continuing professional development opportunities of Registered Nurses in the acute care hospital. BACKGROUND: To maintain registration and professional competence nurses are expected to participate in continuing professional development. One challenge of recruitment and retention is the Registered Nurse's ability to participate in continuing professional development opportunities. DESIGN: The integrative review method was used to present Registered Nurses perspectives on this area of professional concern. DATA SOURCES: The review was conducted for the period of 2001-February 2015. Keywords were: nurs*, continuing professional development, continuing education, professional development, supply, shortage, staffing, workload, nurse: patient ratio, barrier and deterrent. REVIEW METHODS: The integrative review used a structured approach for literature search and data evaluation, analysis and presentation. Eleven international studies met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Nurses are reluctant or prevented from leaving clinical settings to attend continuing professional development due to lack of relief cover, obtaining paid or unpaid study leave, use of personal time to undertake mandatory training and organizational culture and leadership issues constraining the implementation of learning to benefit patients. CONCLUSION: Culture, leadership and workload issues impact nurses' ability to attend continuing professional development. The consequences affect competence to practice, the provision of safe, quality patient care, maintenance of professional registration, job satisfaction, recruitment and retention. Organizational leadership plays an important role in supporting attendance at continuing professional development as an investment for the future.

Wage Growth for the Health Care Workforce: Projecting the Affordable Care Act Impact.

OBJECTIVE: To predict changes in wage growth for health care workers based on projections of insurance enrollment from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). DATA SOURCES: Enrollment data came from three large employers and a sampling of premiums from ehealthinsurance.com. Information on state Medicaid eligibility rules and costs were from the Kaiser Family Foundation. National predictions were based on the MEPS and Medicare Current Beneficiary surveys. Bureau of Labor Statistics data were used to estimate employment. STUDY DESIGN: We projected health insurance enrollment by plan type using a health plan choice model. Using claims data, we measured the services demanded for each plan choice and year. Projections of labor demand were based on current output/input ratios. Changes in wages resulting from changes in labor demand from 2014 to 2021 were based on labor supply and demand elasticities. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Expenditures required to retain and grow the health care workforce will increase substantially. Wages will increase most for professions with the greatest training requirements (physicians and registered nurses). The largest impact will be felt in 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Projected wage increases for health care workers may drive substantial growth in insurance premiums and reduce the affordability of health insurance.