Paper
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The Gloablization of the Nursing Workforce
Iain Graham, RN, RMN, PhD, MEd, MSc, BSc, Institute of Health and Community Studies, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, Dorset, England and Linda D. Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, Senior Associate Dean, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Nashville, TN, USA.
| Learning Objective #1: Identify strategies to enhance cultural competence among nurses specifically related to working with patients and nurses from other cultures |
| Learning Objective #2: Understand the leadership issues relative to the globalization of the nursing workforce |
Nursing finds itself today at a crossroads in terms of defining its future role and activity. The shortage of nurses is in the news in almost every country. The projections of the deficit of nurses in the next twenty years is staggering and seems to only increase as the media highlights the effect it will have on patient care. This presentation will highlight the implications that will arise from the shortage situation and suggest ways in which it can be addressed, particularly as nurses become mobile between countries. Nursing is a global workforce and as the impacts of epidemiology, health care science advance and demographics effect society, nursing must be able to change and response in such a way that it leads the activities and direction. This presentation will stimulate and clarify interventions. The authors believe that it is the responsibility of every government agency to work cooperatively to resolve the issues. Within this responsibility comes the need to review nursing education, care delivery systems, and nursing leadership issues. Shortage is not just about numbers but also about how the health system function to enable nurses to do their work. Because of the increased mobility of nurses, there are enormous implications for the healthcare workforce. The first part of the presentation will share the overall findings from a European Commission/US FIPSE grant, which looked at the development of cultural competence in the nursing workforce. The second part will focus on the implication of precptoring nurses working from another cultural background and will include discussion on the effect of such on faculty members. The third part will be a scholarly discussion centering on the issues of leadership that came to light as a result of the project.