Better Data, Better Decisions: a Profile of the Nursing Workforce

This data creates a profile of the nursing workforce, which is useful for projecting trends and estimating future requirements. At the corporate level, longitudinal examination over a series of years would demonstrate the relationship between the characteristics of the nursing workforce and the overall requirements for patient care. At the unit level, the data is helpful to examine human resource needs and fluctuations in the workforce characteristics. A human resource profile has many data elements and results from the input of a variety of sources and requires high standards of data entry and management. It is an important element of workforce planning, especially when it is supported by an information system with accurate statistical and research information. [from executive summary]