Why is a strategy needed?

There is a critical need for effective and coordinated action and a shared vision for the nursing workforce. As well as the direct impact on health and wellbeing, reduced access and delays to health care can result in lost productivity for people and more broadly, increased cost of care and reduced health outcomes for the population. Targeted investment in health systems, including in the health workforce, promotes economic growth along other pathways: economic output, social protection and cohesion, innovation and health security.¹⁹Investing in nursing ensures people receive cost effective and quality health care. This contributes to better health outcomes for the community and enables people to live full and productive lives. Investment in nursing is essential for optimising health outcomes and to generate broader societal and economic benefits. 

Legislation, funding and policy settings show misalignment across the nation, which presents challenges that impede nurses working to their optimum scope of practice and in turn has negative consumer impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic placed additional stress on the nursing workforce, highlighting and exacerbating the issues the profession faces – including impacts on mental and physical health and wellbeing.²⁰ The pandemic increased the immediate need for nurses, and without targeted action the existing workforce gap is likely to grow further.²¹ In contrast, the pandemic also created opportunities for the nursing workforce to diversify and innovate.

Nursing is a highly gendered workforce globally. Approximately 90% of the global nursing workforce is female, yet few leadership positions are held by nurses or women.²² Similarly, as a female dominated profession²³ traditional views of care have perpetuated biases that limit workforce diversity, impact recruitment and retention and extend structural patriarchal issues such as pay inequity and power imbalance, undervaluing the profession.²⁴ Perceptions of nursing need to shift to acknowledge the high level of scientific knowledge, education and skill demanded in and demonstrated by contemporary nursing practice. Removal of these barriers will establish a more inclusive and equitable workforce.^{25, 26}