Earlier this year, the American Nurses Association (ANA), American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) collaborated to launch The Nurse Staffing Think Tank. The purpose of this think tank was to dissect contributing factors to the current nurse staffing crisis. The six priority areas identified include:

• Healthy work environment
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Work schedule flexibility
• Stress injury continuum
• Innovative care delivery models
• Total compensation (Partners for Nurse Staffing Think Tank, 2022).

The Think Tank developed actionable strategies for acute and critical care practice settings to mitigate the nurse staffing crisis and created a toolkit for healthcare leaders to leverage (ANA, 2022). Nursing professional development (NPD) practitioners are essential stakeholders in actualizing these recommendations—serving as change agents, leaders, and collaborative partners to support the necessary cultural shift to impact nurse retention, healthy work environments, and optimal patient outcomes (Partners for Nurse Staffing Think Tank, 2022).

References

American Nurses Association. (2022, May 5). National nurse staffing think tank launched by leading health care organizations develops solutions tool kit to address staffing crisis. https://www.nursingworld.org/news/news-releases/2022-news-releases/national-nurse-staffing-think-tank-launched-by-leading-health-care-organizations-develops-solutions-tool-kit-to-address-staffing-crisis/

Partners for Nurse Staffing Think Tank. (2022). Nurse staffing think tank: Priority topics and recommendations. 
https://www.nursingworld.org/~49940b/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/nurse-staffing/nurse-staffing-think-tank-recommendation.pdf