Sustaining and Inspiring the Capacity of the Nursing Profession: The Case for Transformative Practice Education Models.

Abstract

Decades of commissioned reports have pointed to solutions for nurturing nursing practice environments as essential to sustaining a nursing workforce. Beyond salary compensation and other solutions, we discuss the critical need for collaborative leadership in practice and education as a priority policy agenda aimed at confronting the shortage of nurses. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the nursing shortage and shortage of capacity in practice education, and we explore some learning in this context. Our paper draws on two initiatives in the province of British Columbia: the development of a transformative practice education model and an expanded Collaborative Learning Unit initiative. We propose building the following learning cultures: formal collaborative governance processes, intentional supports for graduate transitions and implementation of advanced nursing practice leadership and educator roles across the system. While transformative solutions are a tough sell in crisis-oriented contexts, this paper is a call for nurse leaders in all sectors to advance deep policy solutions with lasting impact on sustainable nursing human resources.